Personal Development Project
Previously I had never had to work on lip syncing an audio clip using an animation, but I was eager to get started as I felt this would be a real learning curve for improving my animations skills. Before I decided on what rig I would be using for this project I had browse through the audio clips form the site that Alec listed on the project page. There countless options to choose from and I enjoyed going through each of them and seeing what other animators had made using the clips. This was also a useful source of inspiration for how I was going to animate my character rig.
I was able to find an audio clip which I thought would be fun to animate on:
https://www.11secondclub.com/competitions
One I had decided on the audio file that I would be using I went on the internet and search for “lip-sync animation references”, to help me get a better understanding of how the mouth would need to animated.
I was able to find a great referencing for lip syncing the audio with on the Autodesk website:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/motionbuilder/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2017/ENU/MotionBuilder/files/GUID-E3D27BE8-1392-4CC0-BD5D-17EE3D016EC3-htm.html
I used a fan-made character model rig for this animation the link to the original creators page can be found below:
https://thestoff.gumroad.com/
I made my reference videos to help with animating this project.
Reference videos I created for this project:
ANIMATION PROCESS
This process was far less tedious then I had originally anticipated. The lip-sync reference image that I had found during my research was incredibly useful during this process. I still found myself mouthing out the words to be able to get a better representation of the accent from the man speaking in the audio clip. Importing the sound file into Maya meant that I was able to check at the bottom of the screen to use the spectrogram to help with the timing of the animating the mouth.
Here are the controls for the face rig on the model:
Screenshot of the spectrogram:
After I had finished working on matching the movement of the models mouth with the audio, I began working on some facial details that would improve my animation.
Frown
Relaxed
To show that the character of my animation was being defensive I decided to have his arms folded as the I felt the body language matched the situation.
I animated the characters stomp to show added signs of aggression. This was very much a matter of trial and error as the timing was hard to capture even with the aid of audio however I was really pleased with the outcome.
I placed the characters hands on either hip and arched the back of the model slightly to give the character a confident appearance.
REFLECTION
At the start of the year I didn’t enjoy 3D modelling but throughout this semester, the skills that I have learnt have made the process a lot more interesting. One thing I liked particularly about this assignment was the freedom my peers and myself had when looking for audio and what rigs we would be working with, as it gave us a good chance to work towards something more personal, making me feel a lot more motivated during the process. If I was able to spend more time on this project I would have spent more time with the spacing between keyframes to make the animation smoother, and perhaps spent some time animating the cape, however I am still please with the end result of the animation. I plan on further developing my skills in terms of animating characters mouths and facial expressions over the summer break.