Image Manipulation...

vgeric · Post by **vgeric** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:07 pm

Hey guys, I'm completely new to Anime Studio, though it seems that I can get what I want out of it.

My question here is how do I make a mouth of a person in a real photo move? I know how to import a picture, but other than that I have no clue. I have tried looking up tutorials on the net, but they are as useful as mud...

Any help would be great!

Thanks,

VGE

gleeful · Post by **gleeful** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:53 pm

You can cut the mouth out and make it into a separate photo shape using Photoshop or another image editor. Then do a simple Jib-Jab style animation - the mouth moving like a ventriloquist's dummy.

I have had some luck adding bones to a cutout mouth and animating it directly. This way it is possible to get very subtle mouth shapes and believable phonemes. It requires the use of a lot of small bones with small angle constraints. I have even created a tongue shape in Photoshop for use with some phonemes... also in its own bone layer.

To avoid distortions I often cut the mouth up into "upper lip" and "lower lip" regions.

Layer translation is useful for simple up and down motion.

Depending on how much the mouth image parts actually move and the nature of the face photo you are using, you may need to create suitable background content to appear behind those parts when they move to a new location.

All of the above will depend on the photos you are using as to which is the best method to try.

I am relatively new to Anime Studio myself and am having great fun with it. Learning new techniques and tricks every day. Some of the pros on this forum might have some better suggestions for you.

Good luck.

vgeric · Post by **vgeric** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:15 pm

Thank you gleeful! I thought that using the cut-out style would be easiest... thanks!!!

vgeric · Post by **vgeric** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:03 pm

I'm having troubles making the mouth move the way I want it to... I can't use any of the draw tools with my image, and I have no idea why. I have figured out how to add bones, but because the draw tools are blocked out I can't add points to attach the bones to. The bones only move left/right, so how can I use a bone to move the bottom half of the mouth up and down?

Thanks for any help guys, sorry if this is complete beginner stuff!

VGE

gleeful · Post by **gleeful** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 11:08 pm

I use bones to make the lips move around to form shapes that correspond to sounds (phonemes).

To move a cutout mouth up and down you do not need bones. Just use the Layer Translation tool to move the mouth layer up and down.

Hope this helps.