lipsynch

[serious]

hi,

i'll be doing a test on a talking animal. i'll be using a still picture and not a 3d model. is it possible in softimage to make it talk? like a cat for example? or do i need to switch to another software like elastic reality which i have very little knowledge of. any tips or suggestions are highly appreciated.

thanks,

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_ ; )
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"I am SPARTACUS!!!"

[atyss]

Ahum... Softimage is basically, as you know, a 3D package, less suitable to animate 2D pictures. To get good results, I suggest the use of Photoshop (making a layer for each important lips movement), AfterEffects, Flash, and so on.

But there might be a way in Softimage, I would like to know what everybody thinks.

Map (UV coordinates) a cat picture on a NURBS grid, and make sure that you have control points near the mouth.
Simply shape-animate those control points, to move the mouth.
The concept is based on the fact that when the textures are UV-mapped on a NURBS surface, the texture follows the deformation of the wireframe. If the wireframe is deformed down, then the neighbouring part of the texture goes down too.

Maybe you could also animate the visibility (Overall Blending in the textures) of differents textures of the cat. So you'll be able to create many expressions for the cat.This technique could be useful to animate all of the facial features.

I hope this solves your problem
Bernard Lebel

[fredc]

You might try using a visibility key (located in save keys). This way you can see your textures update in real as you scrub the timeline. The visibility key simply turns an object on or off on a given frame. You will need to use different grid for each texture. If they are coincident, use the schematic view to keep track of each grid.

Before you start select all the grids with MULTI, then go to your first frame. Use Display/Hide/Toggle Keep Selected (2nd on list). Then select SaveKey/NodeVisibility. This will set a key for all grids to be off. Then just turn the grids you need on and off as you work.

Hope this helps,
Urp