Lip Sync, Gregory House

[Obraxis]

Hey man, that isnt a bad start.

I think that you have far too many mouth movements in there, as right now he looks like his mouth is jumping all over the place after the first line.

I'd start by taking out anymouth movements that are not needed and is too close to other frames, ie, you have 3 frames all with different mouth keys on.

The dominant mouth shapes should come through more when someone is speaking fast. This is because the eye only really picks up the large mouth movements to the extremes.

I'm not sure I've made any sense, but I hope this helps a little.

[tankut]

Just re-started working on facial blendshapes for an old pet project of mine - and going through articles/pointers/resources on the net. Came across this page, you might want to check it out:
http://www.keithlango.com/tutorials/old/lipSync.htm

[dickma]

Thank you for the opinions.

Well, this is the scripts I am working on:

Hello, sick people and their loved ones.

In the interest of saving time and avoiding a lot of boring chitchat later, I'm Dr. Gregory House.

You can call me Greg. I'm one of three doctors staffing this clinic this morning.

I am a board-certified diagnostician, with a double specialty, infectious desease and nephrology.

Actually I planned a one-minute of script but I think I can't finish it all. Well my purpose of doing this lip sync is about I would like to use it as a feature of my demo-reel. (I am not an animator with formal training, just I would like to show the hair setups of the beard and moustahes that they are about to sync with the facial morphing. I never see too much animation about that.)

Yes, i think it is a bit difficulty about doing lip-sync with Hugh's speaking. He is speaking fast but clear.

For guys and gals who giving opinions, if you can state about which sentences of words are too fast for motion, that will be much more helpful.

[Gephoria]

he reminds me of a new york auctioneer on crack but it looks like you got the general idea down, i haven't played with XSI so i don't know what the learning curve to it is like, good job either way :)

[tankut]

In youtube it's hard to pinpoint the correct frame - but it seems to me (and taking cues from the articles I've been reading recently) you are trying to animate every sound. You might need to omit some of them.

I'll give another link - it is a stylized example but the timing is very good.

http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/3d__and__animation/aardman_speaks

[dickma]

I will try to mimic the mouth movement for a better realistic results.... Yes it is kinda hard about how to do keyframes, such as:

[quote]double specialty, infectious disease and nephrology.[\quote]

Yes, I've do sync on every sounds I heard and then once I saw him saying "double"..its kind of "fun" for the movement.

I'll show my progress, once I finish the modification.

[tankut]

Looking forward to it..

[Kadastrophic]

To me it seem like it's just a tad off sync, or there is no anticipation his face. He should began moving before he start to speak. I notice this the most between the first two lines.

Also it might be easier to spot stuff if you turn the wire frame off.

[dickma]

Currently it is still in wip and I would like to finish all the lipsync part first, Then I can work on other parts of animation.

If anyone can teach me about some foundations of using Animation Mixer to do animate it will be very good to me. I know how to do keyframe but when it comes to using Mixer,..I don't have a strong concept about it.

[dickma]

http://www.youtube.com/v/Oxh3oSM_StA

This is the update one with a longer script... Yes, I know there's still room of improvement.

C&C are welcome.

[dickma]

no critques?

[Dipscom]

Hey man!

I had a look at your wip and there are some really good bits. But for me, the voice feels out of sync in relation to the movement and (I know people said there were too many mouth shapes to begin with) but now it seems that you've erased a bit too many of them and some words the mouth does not move.

I would suggest you to have a look at the video you took it from. Watch the expressions and how he moves his mouth. There is a point at the begining where you can hear the actor drawing a bit of breath, you should add that in as well. Those little things are what give life to the character.

I also think you open the mouth a little bit too much at some extreme points and close it completely when you don't really need to.

Ultimately, think of the phonetic that is being said, not the letter... You will find that you can skip a lot of work if you focus on the sounds and mix the mouth shapes depending on the phonetics.

Keep up man, never surrender! Never give up :)

[dickma]

This is the REAL comments that I need.

I would suggest you to have a look at the video you took it from. Watch the expressions and how he moves his mouth. There is a point at the begining where you can hear the actor drawing a bit of breath, you should add that in as well. Those little things are what give life to the character.

Yes, I forgot to make him breathing. Thank you

Would you mind to tell me which line of script is out of sync? Also about the mouth movement, I only found "ones" in the first line is a bit big, and "doctors" I am a bit don't know how the mouth movements.

And I need suggestion. What do you think is there a difference about doing a minute of script or 30 seconds, if the quality if lip sync is the same? I think the one minute script is a complete "scene" or "story". And I can add a little bit animation (But I didn't know how to use Animation Mixer for the whole animation) and the current complete one is just lip sync exercise I called that is complete .

And I have to think about the rendering problem as well, Is it alright to show wireframe in the reel for job hunting?

[KyleG]

You really should start off blocking in head movement, as it is now his head and neck doesn't move at all and this feels unnatural. His eyebrows also aren't moving very much at all, and when they do it is very quick. I would go back and block in his upper body and some brow and facial expressions you want him to hit and then start refinning the lip sync from there, instead of starting with the mouth right off the bat. Keep up the good work!

[dickma]

I wanna to do a WHOLE ONE MINUTE of ANIMATION!

but currently I am learning Animation Mixer, open the old XSI 5.0 tutorials and just go through once. So I can only try to do lip sync first because that is what I can do now. But it is not that bad because I can study or try to imagine his facial expressions when I listen to the track.

[dickma]

First of all, let me update the Script for Lip Sync


Hello, sick people and their loved ones.

In the interest of saving time and avoiding a lot of boring chitchat later, I'm Dr. Gregory House.

You can call me Greg. I'm one of three doctors staffing this clinic this morning.

I am a board-certified diagnostician, with a double specialty, infectious desease and nephrology.

I am also the only doctor currently employed at this clinic who is forced to be here against his will.

That is true, isn't it? But not to worry.

Because for most of you, this job could be done by a monkey with a bottle of Motrin.

Speaking of which, if you'r particularly annoying, you may see me reach for this.

This is Vicodin, it's mine. You can't have any.

And, no, I do not have a pain management problem. I have a pain problem.

But who knows? May be I'm wrong. May be I'm too stoned to tell.

So, who wants me? (Sigh) Okay. Well, I'll be in Exam Room One if you change your mind.



http://www.youtube.com/v/bTTDER_X3qE


And now I completed about 30 secs of lip sync.

[KyleG]

It still feels a little weird, you may be trying to hit to many of his lip sync shapes, I would recommend looking at this tutotial on lip syncing

http://www.keithlango.com/tutorials/old/lipSync.htm

[dickma]

Hi KyleG

Yes, I follow the references from you and I've made amendments about the lip sync.

Like after the latest capture is uploaded to the Youtube, I reviewed and corrected some previous Lip movements.

Like:

"In the interest of saving time and avoiding a..." and

"this job could be done by a monkey..."

I hope you can still follow up my thread, and for my improvements it may be help if you can spot out which sentences I have to work harder.. thx.

[KyleG]

It still feels really poppy, like your trying to hit to many phenomes instead of just focusing on the basic sound the word is making, also it feels like his mouth movements are coming to late and aren't really matching up with the dialog, wherever the sound lines up on the timeline you want your character to be hitting that sound 2 frames before for it to visually make sense. Your character is also closing his mouth after every phenome and lots of these movements are happening way to fast, there's no rule saying that the mouth has to come to a close after every word. I would recommend video taping yourself saying these lines then watching, you'll notice a lot of subtle things you otherwise wouldn't. And does this character has other facial controls, smile, frown, sneer, etc? If so I would try adding some of these into the lip sync, it will really help give the character more personality. Keep up the good work!

[dickma]

also it feels like his mouth movements are coming to late and aren't really matching up with the dialog, wherever the sound lines up on the timeline you want your character to be hitting that sound 2 frames before for it to visually make sense.

Ahh.. about the sound delay... is it something like the "lightening and thunder"? that we can see "lightening" (visual) first and then we hear the "thunder" (sound) later?

If that is the correct theory, then I can pull the whole soundtrack two frames forward then.

(Oh yes, I use a headphone for doing lip sync.)

[KyleG]

Yes, people register visuals quicker than they register sounds, so you want your character to be hitting the sounds slightly before the sound happens. You can try pulling the whole soundtrack forward, but I have a feeling this won't work, in your animation some sounds seem to hit okay and others are off, if you pull all the sound forward you may just be creating more work for yourself. I would really recommend pulling out lots of what you have and go back to a starting point, making sure you hit the mouth opens and closes and wide shapes at the right times, then go from there with refining.

[Obraxis]

Yes, people register visuals quicker than they register sounds, so you want your character to be hitting the sounds slightly before the sound happens. You can try pulling the whole soundtrack forward, but I have a feeling this won't work, in your animation some sounds seem to hit okay and others are off, if you pull all the sound forward you may just be creating more work for yourself. I would really recommend pulling out lots of what you have and go back to a starting point, making sure you hit the mouth opens and closes and wide shapes at the right times, then go from there with refining.

Quoted for agreement.

You wont know how many time's I've been working on a lip-sync project for ages and it not working, only to find my stripping out most of the parts that dont seem to work, it magically just starts to work out :)

[dickma]

Away from Lip Sync...(actually I finished a minute of Lip Sync, whole complete, uploaded to Youtube and waiting for show up)
I have question about using Animation Mixer, or animation in XSI. (pretty new to me)

I am using a biped generated by biped guide provided by XSI

1. Global transform and Local transform - I am a bit confused about the keyframing on the position of Global and Local, that's like if a child item is parented (like the right hand effector), if I do a keyframe in Local position, the child item will move with the parent... and if I do a keyframe in Global position, the child item will not be affected with the parent, is it true? And what is the relationship and priority of Global position and Local position?

2. I am thinking a walk cycle with a cane and it may a bit complex I think, because sometimes the cane controls the hand movement and vice versa. Any example about the setup?

3. I feel a bit confused about the timeline at the bottom of the screen and the animation mixer. I don't know... is it not good to just do traditional keyframing by just using the timeline at the bottom, or it is better to make clips for what you done in the timeline and clear all the keyframes in the timeline, and doing composition in Animation Mixer?

[dickma]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoVpJMcsl28

the whole script complete.

[blakboks]

In regards to your animation - forgive me if this has already been discussed - I think you ought to stick to something closer to 10 seconds of dialogue (or monologue as in this instance)--and just keep working on it and getting feedback on it 'till it's something as good as you'd see on TV or a major video game or film or something and then work on another clip. 1 minute of dialogue--of acting--is a TON to animate well (as I'm sure you're finding out). A whole minute is also a lot to ask for for others to comment on as well. I think you'd be able to get good, detailed, focused feedback if you only give like 10 second increments for people to comment on. I think if people can spot only one or two things, they don't mind taking the time to point them out, but if they spot a half-dozen or more things, they probably won't even take the time to point out the first one or two.

Since I took all that time to write all that, I at least owe you some feedback on it:
In general, it feels really mechanical and completely emotionless. Everything comes back to one rest position. It might be a good idea to load up a new scene of everything you have here minus the animation (i.e., model, rig, and audio track) and go through and every couple of seconds create an entire 'pose' of the face that reflects the acting (i.e. the thoughts) that the character might go through. Now start moving around those poses in time so it corresponds with the dialogue, hold them for the length of time that's appropriate (i.e. until it changes to the next thought). Once you have it somewhat timed out, go back to your main scene and and try to apply those expressions to what you currently have (so you don't have to completely re-do everything from scratch). Be sure that the character moves from thought to thought rather than rest->thought->rest->thought->rest.

Like I think someone else might've mentioned, you really should go back and do the movements of the whole body first--get that acting down first--then go back and add the facial animation. It will really help make him feel less like a robot if he doesn't deliver all his lines completely stiff.

To answer your XSI-related questions:

1. Global transform and Local transform - I am a bit confused about the keyframing on the position of Global and Local, that's like if a child item is parented (like the right hand effector), if I do a keyframe in Local position, the child item will move with the parent... and if I do a keyframe in Global position, the child item will not be affected with the parent, is it true? And what is the relationship and priority of Global position and Local position?
If, when you're using the translate tool you have it on global mode (the button in the transform panel clicked), then your manipulators are aligned to the global (a.k.a. world) coordinates. If you're in local mode, then the manipulators are aligned to the object's local coordinates. All of your keys are stored in local coordinate space by default, I believe--unless you specifically mark Global Transformations and set the keys on that instead. Because your keys are all stored in local coordinates, if your child object doesn't have any translation animation on it, if there is animation on the parent, then the child object will move along with it. There's a lot of information on coordinate systems and everything right in the manual, have a browse through if I wasn't really too clear, they're a lot better at wording things.


2. I am thinking a walk cycle with a cane and it may a bit complex I think, because sometimes the cane controls the hand movement and vice versa. Any example about the setup?
It's certainly possible to rig it up to get the sort of interaction you want. I don't know for sure, I'd have to test it out to be sure, but I'm thinking you can do some things with some nulls and constraints. Maybe have a null as a child to the hand controller, and position constrain the cane to the null. Then, you could have a second null that isn't driven at all by the hand controller that you position around toward the floor and use that as an up-vector constraint on the cane as well. That way when you move the hand the top of the cane follows, but, the bottom will remain planted on the floor (or wherever the bottom null happens to be). You could then activate and deactivate the up-vector constraint if you wanted him to twirl the cane or something (as opposed to animating the up-vector null moving around in a circle, which wouldn't produce as nice an animation.


3. I feel a bit confused about the timeline at the bottom of the screen and the animation mixer. I don't know... is it not good to just do traditional keyframing by just using the timeline at the bottom, or it is better to make clips for what you done in the timeline and clear all the keyframes in the timeline, and doing composition in Animation Mixer?
I think that's all personal preference. I'm sure there're advantages of using the Animation Mixer, though--for example, for reusing parts of animation. The nice thing about working with the animation mixer is that if you don't like a part of one of your clips, you just fade it out for that section and add some new animation over the top of it. However, that can become confusing if you only need to make some small changes to your f-curves, 'cause then you gotta remember which clip contained which animation and have to navigate through it and everything--as opposed to having it all in one timeline.

[dickma]

Hi Blakboks

First of all, thank you for your opinion.

Regarding to my one minute as you said it is right, the animation is too mechanical. I've discovered that problem earlier. As in the earlier stage, I captured the clips with wireframe on. Currently now, I just capture the clip with shaded. I think the beginning script is work much better than the later one because may be it is a bit rushy to finish the clip and more time is spent on the beginning.

I will try to add more emotional morphs during and in between the dialogues and the next preview of clip will be a big advance in progress.

For about Animation Mixer problem well I start to get used to it...Currently I am trying to animate a walk cycle that involve a cane and crippled. In order to get familiar with animation mixer, the walk cycle is somehow I treated as an exercise because actually the main animation only involves a little, or no walk scene at all, (about the problem of dynamic parenting of the cane, I solved).

In conclusion, one minute clip is too long for me, especially when I have a look at the animation mixer, the shape tracks. It is so horrible that the clips covers all areas (1800 frames) Due to my learning step is a bit different, at the beginning lip sync part is the only thing I can do. Yes, now I think I can think about acting more.

[dickma]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RyLbQmN5Ec

Sorry for the video quality of the Youtube link and the length of time of the video.

Now I thinking about myself that I know nothing about animation.

This is the most primary walk cycle that I am trying to work it out.

Personally think about a cripple guy walking cycle is a bit different than a normal guy walking.

I do the main Keyframing at the following scene.

Frame (0, 5, 10, 19, 28) where his right leg is crippled and left leg start to walk first, so the keyframe layout is uneven.

Yep, I think about Dr. House walking isn't very exaggerated like a real cripple man in walking, He is just walk in pain and NOT unable to walk and the cane is just assist him. But I will think about the asymmetry of his poses when walking.

But somehow, it is just a test for me. I only animate the main body animations, that is his body, and limbs. for other secondary motions like feet roll while walking, I didn't touch it first. (a temporary shoes will add later to see the feet roll.)

Well, Because I think of using Animation Mixer, I think the first frame and the last frame of the walk cycle, his pose should be the same for contination of walking.

This is just a test to familiar the using of Animation Mixer.

[Chiko]

Hello, I just took a look at your animation WIP. I saw some great improvment over the course of all 4 of them.

The first one I could tell was way to poppy. Even at your latest stage, it still seems a bit fast and doesn't quite sync up right. I really like your face shapes though, very expressive. I think this will all come together nicely once you add int eye/head/ everything movement.

[dickma]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-SkXH3LL_8

This is the latest update of my animation, I add motions regarding to Dr House lip-sync. Also, the lip-sync has a improvement around the cheek and eye areas.

C&C welcome.

[dickma]

http://www.youtube.com/v/0y1t6-8uaUo
A little longer of the animation.

I feel hard a little bit about the animation. Start to wonder if I can finish the whole clip.

Well, for the animation, because of the camera capture angles, I mostly concentrate the upper body. But I never thought the interaction about how he deal with the cane (and later a bottle of medicine)just becomes more complex and I don't know if I thinking too much or working it great.

The obstacle that I always deal with is the using of XSI.

C&C welcome.

[blakboks]

Hey Dickma,
It's coming along nicely. When you do these tests, it would be nice if you could hide all the controllers and get a bit more fill light in there so we can see what's going on.
-Chris

[dickma]

blakboks:

Sure, I will do it in my next capture. But this capture I think it helps me to study the sihouette of the whole figure. This will help me to think about the acting. And sometimes the Youtube video lost some details about my capture.

I am still "afraid" to use the Animation Mixer and currently still doing keyframing. Currently it is not a problem as I think I don't have anything to reuse and doing cycle. Just I would like to learn more about it and use it efficiently.

[dickma]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zd1leKqyMU

My next update, 29 sec of clip now.
As from blakboks' request, controllers turn off.

[dickma]

Waited for 2 days but still I receive no reply....

[dickma]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WNPQ7rSocE

New Animation for the Grab Vicodin action..

Yes, about the grab action, it is a fake cloth sim with bones and shape animation.

[dickma]

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Greg House Animation+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The one-minute animation for practicing a LOT of skills of mine. Modeling, Texturing, Rigging, Animation, Lip Sync, Constraints, Interactions, Cloth Simulation (faked by bones and morph maps) Arrr! for one minute, 1800 frames well someone may think it is a pain in the ass if do it by one-man-band.

This week I am dealing with Dr House acting with a cane and a bottle of Vicodin. An interaction about how he "Playing with" the objects:

1. Grab a bottle of vicodin using his left hand from the purse of the suit, while he is still grabbing his cane in the right hand.
2. Showing his "Vicodin"
3. Put his cane to the left forearm from the right hand.
4. Open the bottle with his left thumb while the right hand to pick the pill.
5. Take it and "GET HIGH"
6. Right hand to grab the cane again.

I have to remember THESE....

Current process. step 1 to 3 is done. and a lot to go.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Well for using XSI it is not very difficult for doing that with constraints. Mostly I use position and orientation constraints. Well the difficult part is to do activations of those constraints (ON/OFF) and a lot of NULLs is involved in the whole animation. With the bone objects in the both hands and the NULLs around that area, it is a disaster and chaos to handle those.

And of course I faced some XSI glitches like an object like NULL cannot handle two constraints simutaneously (seems to) because one of the constraints may be lagging or lost its effects while doing playback or capture preview and animation.

Hey Dick Ma, Why don't you just grab a marionette, and do something basic like walk cycles and jumps?

Because I have the model ready to act and I have to proven that my character design can act and can do animation, it is not just a still image.

I really hope that there will be more discussion in the WIP animation section in the CGtalk, because the thread has been cooled down for 4 to 5 days. Your comments is a way for my improvement.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[dickma]

http://www.youtube.com/v/kQYpUAxWdSI

Update to Step 5 and working on Step 6.

[Blekdar]

Hey this is pretty slick so far, but my only crit is that some of the posing should be a little more exaggerated, I know house acts kinda stiffly, but it looks a little too stiff.

[dickma]

http://www.youtube.com/v/UUl_5sKsXpQ

The above link is the latest update of my animation, go though all the steps that I listed in the previous thread. from the resolution problem I can only mention about there's actually a pill comes out from the bottle of Vicodin.


http://www.youtube.com/v/U4CuqolKITU

The whole clip that combined with the previous animation that I have done, although the later part of animation (playing with objects) is not so updated than the above.

Comments and Critiques are Welcome. (or here I presented more than 45 secs of animation here if you have nothing to say, I am sorry for wasting your time here.)

[dickma]

http://zea.yoopix.org/1186853556/93129130/22/capture.jpg


Here I present the rendering preview of my animation and now I am start to tweak the shading.

AND -

http://www.youtube.com/v/d2xYwEle--Q(sorry, the uploaded video is removed due to slow upload to Youtube cause data error, please patient to wait or give critique to the previous post. Link will be replaced.)


An over one minute of animation needs your attention. I need critiques from you to improve that as now it is near the final stage. (Well I don't know if I am able to render the whole thing or not as I have problem about render times). But just leave it now and improve the animation first.

(PS) Can someone who is proficient in XSI tell me how to seperate render pass for hair, I need the original hair, and the alpha channel, In case if I cannot afford renderfarm service and have to deal with the monster alone.

[dickma]

http://www.youtube.com/v/vERXHZAXspE

I hope this video works.

[dickma]

http://www.youtube.com/v/vERXHZAXspE

The above video receive honors: #49 - Most Linked (Today) - Film & Animation (http://www.youtube.com/browse?t=t&p=3&s=mrd&c=1&l=)

But I hope that I can receive more comments and critiques from your guys and gals. (Personally I think CGTalk is a bit too concentrated on image stills. I can understand that because create still images are much easier and fast)

I (http://www.youtube.com/v/vERXHZAXspE) made replies from the xsibase.com and I hope your guys can understand what the animation about:

AndreZX, and the dust: The face model has a Zbrush displacement map enhanced and about the modeling I don't think I can do much to do more enhancement, may be he is too slim but it is about which frame I choose to do a render test and his face is longer when he had his mouth open... I have tone his skin more white so thank you for your input.
D Trip: Thank you for your input and I am trying to seperate passes. Seems successful. (PS can I obtain a pass that contains shadow casted from the hair to the skin without the hair render?)
XSI User: Cloth Sim is a Fake one, no syflex. it is a keyframe animation with morphs. Personally I think when actors do acting it is not always starring to the camera. The scene is about Dr house is talking to the public and his eye contact is quite diverse so.. However, currently I am doing camera movements for the animation.... well I will give him 1-2 seconds to stare to the camera.
itsgallus and CreativeSheep: thank you.
And hope your guys and gals can stay tune for this thread as animation update is frequent!

Original questions and threads can be found in

http://www.xsibase.com/forum/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=32019&start=0

[KyleG]

pretty much the same critique I had from before, the lip sync feels "poppy" and doesn't seem to be hitting at the right times, I would really recommend going back and reworking this.

[Obraxis]

Hi man, good to see your still doing this.

Your texture work is very good, looks great on the model(s)! :)

The animation however, I also still have the same crits. It's very 'floaty' and looks pose-to-pose.

I heavily advise you to read through Keith Lango's tutorial here (http://www.keithlango.com/tutorials/old/popThru/popThru.html) for help.

Good luck :)

[dickma]

Thanks Kyle G and Obraxis,

Because from previous post that there's nobody make critiques and inputs so I am unable to check up and improve mistakes that I didn't notice. Now I am working on the Camera animation and seems that I have to work hard on the animation techniques.

It will be more helpful to be more specific about what problems I have in the animation because if the comment is too generalistic I will be very hard to concentrate every part of the animation.

I think it is a very good example for specifying a mistake, from XSIbase.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I'm not gonna comment on the model nor texturing since that seems to be going in the right direction.

Altho I like the animation , I'm not grabbed by it. It kinda looks like a lipsync exercise instead of someone talking. Do not take my comments personal, I do not mean to say that it's bad animation. It's just that the animation and the sound seem to be two seperate things. For instance when he does the long part and ends with " I'm the only doctor employed against his will, that is true isn't it" after that he has a pause, and you put it in there but I believe it should be more noticeable. That pause is the confirmation that he is there against his will. That pause is the entire tone of the monologue, his thought during his speech.

Offcourse using one shot is a bad idea I believe, it makes it to tedious for the viewer, it may become boring.

I don't know where I heard it but someone once said that if you turn the audio off and the people get the scene then it's good acting. It's the hardest thing to do.

So I think this is becoming a great piece but by taking a step backward and reevaluating your scene this could become even beter.

Keep going man, good work
Ciao
Mathieu Vierendeel
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I don't know if the above request is too much for me and too harsh to do for your guys to give opinions. Just wondering about. And of course I really don't mind for above critique as I just want to seek advice and doing exchange.

To Obraxis

well I just have a slight reading for your suggested link. Yes it is a very good source as a guide for animation. well I think I unintentionally follow the guidelines when I doing keyframing for some part of the frames but because it is "unintentional" I don't know where I have do that and where is not...

I hope I can do better changes and improvements about the animation.

[dickma]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI_98TvXAok (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI_98TvXAok)

Animation with camera setup, with minor changes to animation and lip-sync.

[dickma]

http://zea.yoopix.org/1187364353/93129130/13/new-1.jpg

Seperate passes and composite:

The default pass without hair / Shadow pass and Hair pass for the whole rendering.

http://zea.yoopix.org/1187364631/93129130/64/test3a.jpg

http://zea.yoopix.org/1187364745/93129130/23/testc3.jpg

http://zea.yoopix.org/1187364690/93129130/44/testb.jpg

Just finish the seperate passes for the composite, well for the hair rendering time was cut down a bit, still I cannot stand for 20 mins or more for the hair pass...(although Dr. house's wig made him too handsome....) Main hair count is about 60000.

[dickma]

http://zea.yoopix.org/1187922555/93129130/68/740a--00000-.jpg

http://zea.yoopix.org/1187922623/93129130/29/d1--00000-.jpg

http://zea.yoopix.org/1187922679/93129130/57/1616c--00000-.jpg

The above is the composite result for your references (for the composite it is in NTSC, but images are not streched)

&

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXt-70fdeTE

This is the final render preview of the animation. Enjoy.

Note, Well it is a bit unfortunate that I am unable to use Animation Mixer due to a wrong setup of the biped that I cannot corrected (too complex to correct, what I want to do is to plug a little walk before he speaks) so they are all keyframe animation.

And it cost a lot of time to correct some of the animation, because for the body motions, I also need to do correction for the fake cloth sims.

And a pill REALLY comes out from his bottle of Vicodin. :-)

Now I have the biggest hurdle to face: Rendering of 1965 frames.

C&C still welcome...

[a13xr3d]

Nice animation! Can't wait to see the fully rendered and composited.

[dickma]

Thank you a13xr3d



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGI7kSQoRQ4

Currently I made the above video for doing a fund-raising campaign that seek for sponsors or donation, to support the production of the animation by seeking the renderfarm service.

But most of the clip is about some of my production process about the model transfer, hair setup and system, lip sync, render layers and composite result.

[dickma]

Yesterday I headed to the Digital Media Center at Cyberport, Hong Kong. That is where I can have the renderfarm service in local. Well they actually only offer me 1 FPS rendering for the whole animation for free (ie totally I will have 60 or more still frames, for the test in renderfarm and render check up.

Today I also try to do rendering on my desktop (I have one laptop and one desktop, I use the laptop to produce my current animation project). Surprisingly my laptop (Core 2 Duo 1.83 GHz, 1 G Ram with 4G readyboost) renders a lot faster than my desktop(P4 2.6 GHz with 4 G Ram). For the desktop computer to render 1 frame with 3 passes it almost cost 1 hour.... not a good news for me to help my render.

Due to preparation of the rendering I was just lack of sleep and I have to end up here.

Still I have one more week to push the animation more as for the renderfarm I was queuing for that. So C&C are welcome and I may work on modeling a simple background.

[dickma]

For the people who contribute to the animation render, I would like to giving out DVD in return, and if the donation is reached the specific amount, your name will be listed as acknowledgement.

For details please have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7O6PDKk0ko (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7O6PDKk0ko)

Thank you.

[dickma]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGI7kSQoRQ4&eurl= (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGI7kSQoRQ4&eurl=)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JTAAjosOrI&eurl= (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JTAAjosOrI&eurl=)

The above link is the final rendering of 200 frames of Greg House animation (only 6-7 sec).
This is what I can do now as for the rendering is only used two computers to deal with four animation layers. Have to open the machines continuously for 24 hours for over a week. (and sorry to make up the whole video for a total 40 secs, just really need somebody's support for rendering.)

I hope that you will like the current Dr House settings.... seductive blue eyes, healthy honey skin and rich hair...

(Content erased by original author....personal desire that not willing to expose or mention about anymore)


But still I need donation and sponsor to make the above things become possible. As an animator of course the donation thing is not only the main point. The most important thing is to promote animation, to let people know more about the inside of the animation. Now it is at the end of the production stage and that is what I can do.

« Last Edit: Today at 03:20:42pm by Dick Ma »

[dickma]

Animation captures

http://zea.yoopix.org/1189537106/93129130/93/800.jpg

[dickma]

A new video response related to my animation.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-ee0dUssMTw

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