JLipSync Program

JLipSync is a Xsheet program that can help you map out you mouth phonemes (with a visual representation) to the waveform of you sound clip. Download the zipped program from the link below:

www.tonyjaramillo.com/storage/programs/JLipSync.zip

Instructions:

1. Open JLipSync.jar

2. File - Open - (change options to .wav file) - select your sound .wav file

After it is imported you should see the waveform in the upper section of the program.

3. Go to the desired frame (by scrubbing through waveform or selecting it in the xsheet section), double click on the desired phoneme on the left. You should see the picture in the upper right reflect your choice (and the phoneme description should be place in the frame on the xsheet).

4. Repeat through the entire sound clip.

5. Play and save.

If anyone knows how to attach files to a blog post (that aren't videos or pics) please let me know.

Tony

Week 4 eyes and brows

Demo: copying animation from root to spine. Adding Head nods. Beginning to rough out the gestures.

Demo: adding eyes and brows.

Once you get a pass with the eye movements, the characters will start to come to life. I do this as early on in the animation as possible, once I start roughing out the gestures. I find it difficult to visualize the performance until I get the eye direction in there. Most of the information about what a person is trying to communicate is in the brows and eyes.

Do a pass with the eye movements.

Go through your entire animation, look for key moments of emotional change that are communicated through the brows. Key the upper and lower eyelids with the brows. Keep the keys together.

Working from the root outwards ....

Note from SIGGRAPH 2009 :

A time honored, classic technique used in animation is pose-to-pose. Landreth argued that humans don't actually move "pose to pose" so already the animator is setting up the characters in unrealistic circumstances. In The Spine, Landreth's featured short at this year's Siggraph, he was trying to push the boundaries of realism in animation even further. To do this, the animators were actually told not to use a dope sheet when planning their animation, which prevented the use of "posing." Instead, the animators were encouraged to take an "inside-out" approach when defining the character's movements. He suggested that they "inhabit the souls of the characters" and "do the motions to get into the body."

- Chris Landreth

Landreth then commented on the importance of gestures in animation. “Doing nothing excellently” is important to keeping your characters real. In the mid-60s, Andy Warhol did a series of “screen-tests” in which he sat a person in a chair and told them to “do nothing.” What emerged from these tests were incredibly engaging scenes that seem to have such weight and action in very subtle movements. Bob Dylan’s screen-test was particularly inspiring to Landreth’s study of realism. “Allow your characters to just simply exist.”

X-Sheets

Here's a link to one style of X-Sheet we can use, you can always do a google search if you'd like it in a slightly different format.

http://anishark.blogspot.com/2009/06/animation-x-sheet.html

Week 3

Topic: Blocking Root node only

Notes:

Lecture/Demo: Blocking out the shot from the root.

Activity: Dailies: Look at and Discuss reference movies

Assignment: Start blocking, root node only. Do a full pass on both characters.

File 1_rootblocking.ma

In the first movie file, you are blocking the full body movements, using only the root node.

File 2_body_gestures.ma

Start building the poses over the foundation of the root timing. Use the same frames as the root node. Using the graph editor, copy the movement of the root into the nodes of the spine. You will then need to remove some of the range of movement in the root, since copying the movements up the spine will multiply the effect. Rough out the arm poses, using the same keyframes. Don't worry too much about getting the poses for the arms looking perfect for blocking.

Goals for this week's Blocking;

1. Size and placement of the characters in the scene
2. Staging to best show the performance
3. Choreograph the performances to work together and lead the viewers eye from one character to another during the dialogue piece

The viewer's eye can only be in one place at once.

Don't... have one character standing still, while the other character is talking, waiting for their turn to speak. Rather have them listening and reacting to what is being said. 'Do Nothing Excellently'. The trick is to keep it subtle. Sometimes the reaction of the secondary character is more important than the character talking.

Week 2

This week we will be looking at reference and thumbnail sketches for your ideas.

Topics: Working with reference.

Notes: Finding the key poses.

Lecture/Demo: Acting out the dialogue and how to use reference

Activity: Improv with Radiostar : exercises to eliminate self-consciousness when

acting out your reference.

To quote Michael Caine 'if you see a performance you like, steal it. Chances are they stole it from someone else'. Study the great actors. Act out the piece yourself by lip syncing as close as you can over the sound track. You can use the best parts from several bits of reference and put them together to use as your reference for animation.

Radiostar Improv leads a class at Yerba Buena gardens

Homework:

1. Act out your reference and create a movie file.

2. Collect other clips of reference from movies/famous actors.

3. Finish working out your ideas using thumbnail drawings.

4. Get approval from your instructor for your choice of audio file and thumbnail sketches.

Once you get approval:

5. If you are using Norman, create modified Norman characters in costume as needed for your animation.

6. move onto week3 'blocking with the root node only'.

Week 1

Topic: Research

Notes: Class Introductions, Grading Policies, Ground rules on assignments

Lecture/Demo: 1.Researching your subject. 2. How to pick a good piece of audio that tells a story and has subtext 3.Planning: What is the character saying, what is he really saying? ‘What should I have the character do?’ ‘How Can I best show it?’ Working out the cutting, staging and continuity.

Activity:Watch BBC master class on acting.




Assignment: Find an audio file and reference for a two character shot.

Create 2 pages of thumbnail sketches to show your idea.




No Animation this week.




Students may work on an individual shot, or using the anim jam method work with other students in the class to create a series of shots that can be cut together to make one long continuous piece.




Please check out the

'how to modify Norman' tutorial on aauanimationclub.blogspot.com




Dialogues for download - Radiostar Improv

Introduction

Introduction to ANIM 499 SPECIAL TOPICS

'LIP SYNC ANIMATION'

This course introduces students to performance in animation as well as working with dialogue. Your instructor will take you in detail through an entire shot from beginning to end. Students will follow along week by week completing their own dialogue piece. This in-depth study will explain techniques for making characters feel alive using the animation principles already learned as well as tips on polishing an animation.

The course is designed to help the student create a workflow for animating a shot. Please follow the naming conventions and use the workflow given in this course. We will be using a hierarchical approach where the performance is layered onto the basic movements of each character starting with the root, rather than a pose to pose approach where the key poses are created for all the nodes of the character then inbetweened.

Animators will be asked to use reference, but not to copy it. This class will emphasize acting and includes one improv class. The goal of the class is to create believable characters with an original performance.

As a result of successfully completing this course, students

Will be able to at an intermediate level...

1. Create performance animation with speaking characters
2. Create a feeling of empathy with the characters on the screen
3. Work with the graph editor and other interfaces of the software
4. Analyze performances and interpret in CG
5. Create a workflow for animating a shot