Week 7 jaw animation, phoneme libraries

MIDTERM GRADES Students will be graded on final blocking, staging, performance and storytelling.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: Get a solid pass on the posing and timing before you begin offsetting your animation. It is extremely difficult to adjust poses once you have started offsetting the curves.

You may follow along on this weeks class 'jaw animation and phoneme libraries' even if you have not yet started offsetting and overlapping your animation.

Animations may be in final blocking for mid-term grades.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Activity: Watch James Baxter DVD on facial animation

Notes: Facial expressions and adding asymmetry. How to animate a blink. When to add a bit of brow movement to accent a blink. Take notes when watching the DVD. Set up face cam.

Demo: Animating the jaw. Sound breakdown, use of exposure sheets, finding keys for mouth shapes. Putting together a simple phoneme library.

Recommended book: The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression by Gary Faigin

jaw animation curve

Sample phoneme library

0 - neutral jaw closed

1 - neutral jaw open

2 - AH ("call")

3 - AY ("say")

4 - a ("hat")

5 - EE ("see")

6 - E ("them")

7 IH ("it")

8 OH ("no")

9 OO ("took")

10 OO ("shoe")

11 UH ("up")

12 D,T

13 G,K,NG

14 L

15 M

16 B,P

17 B,P cheek puff

19 N

19 R

20 SS,Z

21 SH, CH J

22 TH

23 V,F

24 W (use shape for OO)

jaw up down and phonemes

First go through the mouth controllers available for your character, becoming familiar with each controller. You will use these to sculpt the mouth shapes for your phoneme library.There are infinite possibilities on how the shapes will look. (For example an EE on one side of the mouth).

Be Organized! Decide which shapes move similar parts of the mouth. Use these shapes together when sculpting your final phoneme mouth shape. Find the shapes that include the cheeks, and those that don't.

Decide if there are any shapes that are 'overall shapes' that are not specific to dialogue. Do not key these when creating your face shape library.

Tip: do not include the jaw up down as part of the phoneme. Animate the jaw on a separate pass, and use the same keyframes for the phonemes. Store your animation library poses in the negative frames. Go to the phoneme you want. Select all the controllers, unselect jaw up down, right mouse to your key frame and save key. Check for overall shapes being used for expression. These may need to be dialed out during dialogue

Find the rhythm of the dialogue, Start with the jaw.Don't enunciate each syllable. Some syllables are transitions.
'that's a lot'. The word 'a' is a transition. Shapes from the library are made from different sets of controls. Watch out for over enunciated words and pops. The mouth has to get into position to say something. You need a lead in (8-9 frames). "How are you" The mouth has to be prepared for the 'h' ahead of time'. You are dealing with 1/24 th of a second. You don't want to be late! Pop the mouth open before the sound by 1-2 frames. B's and P's are closed for 2 frames, modulated. Move the jaw so that you don't get a nasty stick.