Lip sync:
When I was informed that I would have to search for my own audio to use in this assignment I was very stumped. I don’t consume a lot of ‘clippable’ media to be used in a 8-11 second clip, so I turned to some friends in order to help me narrow down my search. After some ideas I was lost for a while as everything I had found either didn’t meet the criteria or wasn’t fit for lipsyncing. Eventually I landed on an audio used within a podcast that was sent to me called ‘The basement yard’. The transcript of the following audio goes as such:
Person A: I didn’t know that half of the world’s blindness could be cured.
Person B: I’ll go one step further, I didn’t know that half the world was blind.
Person A: Half the world isn’t blind, you idiot, I said ‘half the blindness’
Person B: Laughter
I thought this audio was relatively perfect for a cross-cut conversation, and would make it easier to focus on each individual as they spoke. It would also aid in showing my knowledge and capabilities when animating lip syncing as it would be clear and concise throughout their conversation.
After I had found my audio I took to my Ipad in order to do the general blockouts and storyboard, as I knew I would be travelling for a while throughout the holidays. I have come to realise however how even though at the time it is convenient, later down the pipeline it becomes very inconvenient. This is because you either have to send yourself each individual frame if you wish to upload it to harmony. Also there is another added difficulty of not having everything on the same device. In the future I wish to completely remove this from my workflow as it hinders more than it helps.
This was the block out/storyboard I did for each section:
My main goal at this stage was to get the correct timing/poses at the key words spoken. I wanted it to feel like a casual conversation so I didn’t want there to be anything over the top.
From here I moved onto researching lip syncing and how to approach it in animation. One of the most helpful videos I found was this:
Lip Sync Guide! │What every animator should know
The reason it was so helpful was that it tells you the most common mouth shapes and how using yourself as reference is the most helpful tool when animating speaking. I also found that throughout the process speaking the words out slowly to yourself helped in understanding where your tongue was positioned during certain words.
Another take away was that moving the head during speech can help deliver lines and make them feel more real in the moment. I made sure to go back and add additional overlapping actions to my storyboard.
I imported my storyboard into Harmony rather unskilled fashion, as I am still trying to learn and comprehend the software. How I did this was uploading specific keyframes from my animatic into Harmony, then changing their transparency and placing them on the desired frames reflected in the audio.
In order to do this however, I had to learn how nodes worked in Harmony. Whilst I don’t consider myself versed in how nodes work, I had to get a base-line understanding. Using these tutorials I found out that I had to drag the Transparency node from the library into the node view and hook link it back into the composite. This was the result:
I had decided that I would break up my animation into 3 separate files, this way it would be easier to render, work through, and manage each stage better. I broke it up by each portion of the conversation, and would edit back together after.
To start the animation itself, I broke up each segment into each layer, that way it would be easier to tweak timing, and manage each portion of the character. I began with the main actions of the character, focussing more on the larger movements such as hands, head and body. This was so that when I moved onto the mouth itself, I could easily track its placement in comparison to the head.
When it came to animating the key mouth shapes itself, I found that two images in particular were the most helpful. Using Pureref, I made sure that they always stayed on my screen so I was ready to reference them when needed. These were the two images:
The reason I like the first one the most is that it not only shows the drawn version of the mouth shapes, but also a real life depiction of it.
In terms of animating the lip sync I rather enjoyed it. The instant gratification you can get when you finish animating a spoken word and seeing it match up to the audio is a very satisfying experience. The hardest part of the experience for me was hearing the same audio on repeat and loop constantly. Because of this I found myself having to take small breaks between.
This was the final product:
In terms of the final product, I am happy with its outcome. I really enjoy the overlapping animation with the hands and the smear they create when moving the first time. I think in the first portion, them turning and being placed down onto the desk in a staggered motion created a very pleasing visual that aids the casual conversation being portrayed by the audio.
However, if I were to change things in the future I would incorporate the movement of the jaw with the mouth movement. It was something that I had wanted to do in the first place, but I found myself low on time and skill in order to achieve that desired result. I had also attempted to add more overlapping action with the hair flowing and following the head in a more natural way, but again, my attempt wasn’t good and didn’t feel right so it never made the final result. I would also remove the empty space around the characters, as I didn’t realise that they were too small whilst I was animating it. I did attempt to fix it post-production but found no good solution.
Weight Lift:
To begin my animation on the weightlift portion, I began with researching the body mechanics lifting something heavy. I did this by searching up references on youtube and google images/pinterest where necessary. The main references that stuck out and helped me throughout my process were these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r7srq2dHv8
The video was the most helpful to me as when I imported it into syncsketch I was able to break it down further and assess the most important frames and key moments during the action. I mainly took note of the second step to get closer to the hammer on the floor in order to get better leverage when lifting it. This was something that I took into my final piece.
Once more I began drafting on procreate. The main goal of this was to get a general idea of how I wanted my animation to be staged and timed. I struggled at first of how I wanted to portray lifting something heavy, and this step helped in putting my ideas out there until something stuck. Eventually, I decided on getting somebody to lift a large sword from the floor.
This was the idea that didn’t end up being my final piece:
This was the result of my draft:
Once this was done I went to a lecturer for feedback. The main thing I took away from it was that it was unrealistic to take a second step closer to the object after attempting to pull the item from the floor the first time. I would go on to change this in the final product.
From here, I moved onto Harmony. Unlike before, I didn’t import keyframes into harmony as the reason for my draft wasn’t to give me something to work from, but rather generate ideas that would go on to be my final piece. I was also more comfortable with Harmony as time went on. Before I was constantly googling short-cuts and quick fixes for issues that I had encountered, but for this project my workflow was more streamlined and I had the most important short-cuts that I needed memorised.
This is my final weight lifting piece:
https://youtu.be/cirBuZVA79c
In comparison to my lip sync I don’t think I am as proud of the result as I could be. For instance, I wish I could have drawn the character in a more solid form. I know that the main purpose of the assignment was to show my understanding of weight within animation, but I believe I could have taken that one step further. I also think that some of the movements look jarring and unpleasing to the eye. For example, when the character first attempts to lift the object from the floor and snaps back fast as if to show how much effort they’re putting in, it looks too sudden and snappy. If I was to redo it again I would probably smooth out the motion with some inbetweens. I also feel unhappy with the character shuffling their feet closer to the blade.
Despite my own criticism, there are things within the animation that I do enjoy. I like how the blade arcs when the character swings it up and onto their shoulders. Despite how slow and sudden, I think the slow push upwards with the object on their shoulder has good timing and shows how heavy the object really is. Also I like the small impact frame of when the character hits the ground, and stretches outwards as they splat against it.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, I have learned a lot more about animation and the process of it over the course of these past projects. I feel as if I am growing more and more throughout each one. Not only am I slowly getting a grasp on Harmony and its many layered intricacies, but I am becoming more and more organized throughout each step in the process. I know for a fact that I am my biggest critic but I am taking steps to make and show my mistakes happily, another thing that these projects have assisted me with working through. Whilst I did struggle with it initially, the creative freedom of being able to choose our own audio really helped in keeping me not only interested but also excited to keep working even though I really did not enjoy constantly hearing the same audio over and over.