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The Simplest Lip Sync n 15
Hmm, that’s interesting. It looks like we’re seeing the same motion over and over. This
is a bit of an oversimplification because of timing and strength of the motions, but in
essence, the Open/Closed cycle is going to be a function of syllables. The Open/Closed
should be treated like a sock puppet. If all we had as a tool to work with was Open/
Closed, we should still be able to convince people that the words are coming out of the
character’s mouth.
The Simplest Lip Sync
You’re ready for your first sync tutorial!
We don’t want to get bogged down in math expressions and fancy heads and crazy
shapes just yet, so for now we’re going to do some very basic point-pulling and rigging.
Every practical instruction needs a tool, but you can use any of several good 3D animation
programs. For my hands-on tutorials, I use Maya, but the principles will carry over to other
software—you just may have to do a little bit of digging to find the specific buttons and
tools you need for this and other work that will follow.
Creating a Sync Tool 1: Shapes
First we’re going to breeze through creating our shapes. Then, I’ll have you create a sim-
ple circle and a set of Wide/Narrow and Open/Closed keys along with an interface. With
this little model in hand, you can start on some of the early practical work of the book. If
you would rather not build it yourself (although I highly recommend that you do), you
can load the finished setup from the book’s website—in the Chapter 1 folder, look for
SplineMouth.ma.
Units! For the duration of the book, I speak in terms of 24 frames per second (fps) and the Y
axis as the world up.
1. Create a circle of eight points. In Maya, choose Create
➔
NURBS Primitives
➔
Circle
q
.
2. In the options window, select Z as the Normal Axis option (this makes the circle
upright as opposed to flat), and leave the rest of the options at their defaults.
3. Name the circle Mouth.
4. Modify the shape so that it looks almost like a flat line. (It is very important not to
just scale the object; make sure you’re manipulating CVs.)
5. Duplicate the Mouth object twice, so you end up with
three separate objects. Move the new objects away from
each other and the original.
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