Research
For this assignment, I decided to continue attempting to improve my 3D animation skills, as I think it fits into the area of the animation industry I’m interested in the best. Picking the audio proved difficult for me at the beginning as I was struggling to find ones I wanted to animate that were within the right time frame and had enough speech in them. I enlisted the help of my friends and siblings to send me and interesting audios they had saved.
It came down to;
- Audio from the Great British bake-off of James Acaster and his flapjacks
- A clip of a stand-up comedian, Rhys James
- Part of a podcast I listened to, The adventure zone, found through 11 sec club
- Audio from Doctor Who, which I’ve never actually watched
I ended up choosing the Doctor who audio, as I had an idea for it and had never watched the series so there were no preconceived notions in my head about what the animation ‘should’ look like.
I also had to find rigs to use, as I had chosen and audio with multiple characters, as I’d wanted to animate an interaction. I found the Zelda and Link model rigs, and with the new release of Totk and me and my friends playing it non-stop I figured it might be fun to use those ones. The rigs are by https://twitter.com/artstoff?lang=en
The Audio Clips;
I found a lot of videos on lip-syncing animation to learn more about the specifics of what to do and what not to do when animating it. I also did some research into animating people speaking and the mouth shapes that we form to make sounds, as I have little to no experience with actually animating speaking. (Links and Reference Images below)
Reference Video
I didn’t record an actual reference video for the movements in my animation due to time constraints, however, I definitely think it would’ve been helpful for some of the movements. I did record myself saying the lines of the audio though as I wanted to see how my mouth moved when saying them, and I couldn’t find the full clip of the audio online easily. Also, the parts I could find didn’t have a clear view of the mouth. Each line was recorded individually so I could easily animate one line at a time, so I’m only putting the longest 3 recordings in here.
Animation Process
As I was doing a 3D animation, I was using Maya for the process, so I referenced the rigs in my scenes and fixed the texture paths. I started by writing out all of the lines in the audio and highlighting the obvious sounds, like closed mouth B,M,P and open mouth Oh sounds. Then I used the studio library plugin to create the mouth shapes for the sounds I needed and then used them to animate the lip-sync, and then tweaked some of them when needed.
I am actually really happy with how the lip-syncing came out, although I know it isn’t perfect and I could’ve focused more on the main sounds and pronunciations so that the mouth wouldn’t be moving around quite as much and the speech might be clearer. Despite this, I think you can tell what they’re saying pretty well, even with the audio off if you scrub through it.
I focused on moving the head and eyes next.
I then began animating the basic movements I had in mind for the animation, though I forgot to take a video of the blocking-out stage. I pretty much free-styled the movement due to the strong image I had in my head and the lack of references I had, although it was fun I think making a reference video is a good idea for next time.
I also had to look up a video on how to make constraints, as I hadn’t realised before I began animating that the sword only had constraint controls for the left hand when I needed it in the right one. At this point in animating it was too late to switch the layout or characters around so I made my own, which was easier than I thought it was going to be.
I then tried adding more facial expressions to the animation using the rig brow controls, though due to the upcoming deadline and my personal issues, I had to rush it a little bit.
Feedback
I sent the last recording above to some of my friends, as well as showing it to family members to collect feedback on changes I needed to make or find any issues that I wasn’t seeing personally.
I also got feedback earlier on about making the characters blink from one of my siblings, which I hadn’t immediately thought of but I’m sure I would have.
Finished Animation
The animation gets lower quality as it goes on due to me having to change render settings to get it done on time.
Reflection
I had an idea in mind for what I wanted the animation to look like, especially knowing the characters I chose for the rigs and their dynamics/personalities. I wanted to put a lot of effort into the lip-sync part of the animation as I wanted to improve that area of my animation work, and I think it paid off as I am proud of the lip-sync I produced. I do know that there is room for improvement there though, like letting the sounds linger more instead of trying to fit most sounds made for each word in. If I could do this assignment again, I would’ve definitely started earlier on so I would’ve had more time to fully polish the movements the characters made and add the little extra details that I believe make things come to life. I just didn’t have the time to perfect the movements or add the smaller details like lots of finger movement, meaning the hands look a little stiff to me at least. Apart from that I am generally happy with the energy and personality portrayed through the animation, even if not perfect, I think it puts across what I was trying to get it to, and it shows the character’s dynamic well. I’m also proud of myself for getting it done despite all of the issues I’ve been having.