help!!!

# 1 03-03-2007 , 08:02 PM

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I am doing a movie and (70 sec) about the Adelaide film festival. I was working there (sort of) and I filmed some heavy hitters and some not so heavy hitters, well I interviewed them actually.

I want to do a montage of fast interviews all glued together by a simple animated character, simple because thats all i can do.

what I am worried about is the talking, sooo..., what is an easy way of making lips move or even just having a curve on the face that moves, i can sort of laboriously key it because the whole movie is so short and most of the time the animated character will be seen from the back of back three quarter and so his mouth will not be seen. But at the beginning and end, maybe some brief moments during the movie he will be facing the camera and talking. I wouldn't mind doing some eye brows and stuff too.

it has to be done fairly quickly too. so another reason to keep it simple.

heres a sort of example, i think the character will have to be easier than even this

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# 2 03-03-2007 , 08:11 PM

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if the character has to be simple anyway, why not make the mouth really simple - just a couple of mouth shapes that you use to make the words, that you flip between - say an open shape, a smile shape, a closed, etc.... You don't even have to really worry about making the movement really fit the words - a lot of cartoons just have the mouth open and close, like south park. It might even add some humour to the film if the character is really crappy and simple - no offence to your maya skills - i just meant in the same way that south park is supposed to be crappy and simple.
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# 3 03-03-2007 , 08:40 PM

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hey thanks arran, much appreciated. I am panicking mate, I think thats it, I cant think, I can usually think of something but Im brain dead (done say a thing user added image

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what you suggested is exactly what I want to do, but I dont know how to do the basics shape thing you suggest or if I do I just cant think. would I use blend shapes or can I key a couple of curves, maybe use the sweep??

what do you think is best, south park thing works well for me, I can adjust the lighting to suit in after effects or something like that in post.

I have 'magpie pro' around but I dont want to learn a new app just now unless it is a breeze to use, ever used it??

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# 4 03-03-2007 , 08:59 PM

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I'm guessing you could just make a simple head and alternate between the different expressions by applying them as textures - this would probably be fairly quick and easy to pull off - or you could make the expressions from blend shapes. I might go the blendshape route as a simple head shouldn't take too long to set up - just make your characters head, duplicate it and then reshape the duplicate to make the expression - say an open mouth for example, then select the duplicate, then the original and go to deform>create blend shape. Remember to keep everything seperate - so keep the eye shapes seperate from the mouth shapes, the smiling shape seperate from the open mouth shape. You create expressions by combining shapes.

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# 5 04-03-2007 , 12:21 AM

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that sounds the trick to me.., although I did find a mouth in the magpie plugin folder, a sort of sample I guess, it has about 9 blend shapes for just a mouth, which of course needs to be stuck onto a head. But your suggestion sounds easier, to blendshape the whole head.

is there a way I can control one arm and hand with out joints?? well all I need is a closed fist to hold the microphone, i was thinking bend deformer?

can I blendshape an arm?? does it matter nurbs or polys

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# 6 04-03-2007 , 12:27 AM

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yeah - sure - as far as I know you can blend shape whatever you like. Duplicate your arm. Adjust the duplicate to hold a microphone and then add the blend shape. Not sure about the dreaded nurbs and blend shapes, but I imagine for what you are doing, polygons are the way to go. user added image

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# 7 04-03-2007 , 10:20 PM

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i got that blendshape for the mouth working.., now i have to design a character.., might have to be based on Franky?? Maybe as you say.., go for the southpark look.., but it is great to have the mouth moving via the blendshape.., much appreciated.., i only needed the confidence to dive into it. user added image

can I target the eyes and stuff separately?? You mentioned something about that, can I make a blendshape of the mouth and then separately make one for the eyes that will be targeted on the same face..?? hope that makes sense

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# 8 04-03-2007 , 10:53 PM

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yeah - you can add as many blendshapes as you want - just make sure you duplicate from the same base head - the geometry has to stay the same. with blend shapes you want to model each of the shapes seperately and then combine them together to make the expression - when you smile, your eyes squint together, so you want to make one shape for the mouth and one for the eyes, otherwise when you combine shapes you will get some unfortunate results - you'll see when you start experimenting. user added image

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# 9 05-03-2007 , 03:32 AM

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Not having read this topic fully, my answer to your question, bud, is that the way to go is blend shapes.

Create about 10 duplicates of the head and shape the mouth to the standard letter shapes. A, E, I, O, U, M, L etc...

These should allow you to make the mouth form roughly the correct shapes to allow you to think its him.

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# 10 05-03-2007 , 03:48 AM

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cool yes, thanks, Im glad I asked really!!! I was a mess trying to figure what to do but its great to have some friends to help me, really good.

I am making a very primative man from the maya 6.5 foundation book, it is quick (relatively) and easy to shade. Im worried that to shade franky would really take a long time and the movie only goes for 70 seconds, its in prep for the mobile phone invasion thats happening now.

cheers guys, any mor suggestions please do, Im all ears. (actually something like that in the move would be good, 'Im all ears' and his ears stretch, stuff like that .., you know.., slapstick.., is possible with maya.)

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# 11 06-03-2007 , 01:27 PM

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this is the interveiewer.., he has an eye aim constraint, joints in the stick body and arms, his mouth has 9 b;end shapes, and I really cant spend anymore time than this if I want the movie to be related to the recent festival

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