Anim8or Community

How handy is anim8or.
 Not really said as a question, more of a statement. Please feel welcome to share your own experiences. Mine is this.
 I live in a bus and am in the process of making an 'owners manual' for the next 'inhabitant'. (probly my daughter after i'm gone). Have realised a manual will be important, for things like the 12 volt setup, the 240 volt setup, the plumbing etc etc.... I've done everything myself, so i understand all the nuances of how it all works, but for someone else, i've realised it could be a nightmare to try and work out my wiring and so on. So an 'inhabitants manual' has been my project for some time now. And some time to come.

 This photo of the bus is a few years ago now, when it was operating as a business vehicle. It still goes, however has been parked up for the last 20ish years, in which time its had several facelifts.

 So, how handy is anim8or!!  The bus has 2 'very large' battery banks for 12volt power, and they are inside lockers underneath the bus. (x forklift batteries) Too large and awkward to really get a good idea of what they're all about. So......

interactive card trick

Hi again,

 I've spent the last wee while, torn on where i should post this. Here, or in the Lipsync tool thread.

 Because of the current work being done on an8 lipsync tool, and because of the pics and short vid which i've made with 'anim8or lip sync' in mind, i've decided to post it here, rather than clog up the lipsync tool thread with, essentially, only my way of doing lip syncing
 But by posting here, i'm also hoping it may still be helpfull, somehow, in the building of the an8 lip sync tool, and the syncronization of it into a simple workflow of lip syncing in Anim8or.

 First off, here's the example video. (it repeats to show mouth shapes)


 So, step 1 is identifying which phoneme goes on which frame of the timetrack.

 This is probably the hardest and most important thing i've found with lip syncing, so steve, theres plenty of crucial work there, and am looking forward to that journey with you.
 
Up until 'sound and lipsync' coming to anim8or, i've used a trial version of 'magpie pro'. The full version has plenty of bells and whistles, but all u need is a picure of the .wav file with corresponding frame numbers, Magpie trial has a 'select and zoom' function, and 'arrow key scrubbing'. These help tremendously in locating the right frame with the right sound.
 I'm old school, so i record the frames like this:


 With this info we're good to go.
 
 You'll notice by the numbers in the pic above, that normal speed speech doesn't have a lot of spare frames in a word. In fact, there's often only 2 frames between 1 phoneme and the next. This makes  'Overlapping phonemes where one is transitioning into the other' quite a critical part of getting realistic lip syncl.

 Heres the time track with keys set for "family of thieves"

 The keying itself is actually quite simple, the trick to realism is being able to use the graph editor to adjust the strength of the keys.
 Another important trick is to allow a mimimum of 1 empty frame between each phoneme key, to avoid 'popping', which really doesn't look good, and wants to be avoided if you want your lipsyncing to look ok.

 And heres a gif of the results (because i love making animated .gifs)

 "Family of Thieves"
 I'll contiue posting progress of this new 11 second clip as i get through it, and welcome any feedback
 Ideas of anim8ors new sound and lipsyncing should be placed in the appropriate threads please.

 Thanks.   

 Audio courtesy of 11secondclub.com   Thank you

I'm posting this in stages as a record of workflow, from start to finish.

 Inspired by the monthly competition at https://www.11secondclub.com/ .and by now having sound in anim8or

 Tho my animation and lip sync skills are not yet up to a standard worthy of entering into the 11second club, i'm hopeing that with enough practice i'll, one day, come up with a finished clip which is good enough to stand amongst entries posted by other 11second club animators, and at the same time, help to put Anim8or on the map as a capable piece of animation software.


 So, i'm downloading the monthly audio clip from https://www.11secondclub.com/
and posting progress here on Anim8or.com

 I have my own method of doing things, some probably correct, and some probably not. I think we find our own methods and workflows, and i basically work with what i feel comfortable with. It's always a learning thing and i'm happy to share any thoughts, ideas, tips and tricks which i have, and will, pick up on the way.
 In the same vein, i welcome any questions, tips, tricks, comments and critiques from other anim8ors.
 In the perfect scenario, we can all learn together.

 

 As in normal animation, i have an order to how i do lipsyncing, and that is to 'block' it out for timing, and then tweak, improve and polish over the course of several 'passes'
 The audio clip is a conversation between a male and female.
 The first thing i've done is lipsynced both characters and got the timing about right.
 Have just made the basic mouth movements, and nothing else. Next pass i'll add some expression to their faces, but no real eye movements until i begin to animate their positions relative to the scene and each other.
 I find it best to do the majority of lipsync and facial movements before animating the characters. Once the characters get moving, it can be time consuming getting a view of their faces to animate, while they're moving around in the scene.

So, here is stage one of this months clip.
ttps://
...more to come...

 

 Was asked if there were any Anim8or IK tuts out there, and it seems that only whats in the manual at the moment.

 So maybe this little clip could be somewhat helpfull to someone who is looking at IK from a complete beginners perspective.
 It's pretty basic stuff, and just the way i'm doing it for 2 legged characters at the moment. Seems to work pretty well so far, tho maybe some of the joint limits are just a little restrictive.
 Note, IK joint limits are quite different to the limits i've been using with FK.

 Hi there steve,    (hav misplaced froyd emotogifs, willfindthem tho)
 Anim8or has really evolved lately. Mostly what i've been using, and discovering, has been working well and properly. Couple of minor IK issues hav arose, but will report them in appropriate forums.
 I also hav a list of really cool things going on in anim8or now. Such wonderfull awesome things  Will post those also.    

 Anyway, hope this short vid may prove to be helpfull to some. 

EDIT: I'm not hearing any sound. will look into it.....
 edit again. Sound is working.


 

 Have updated the links for the emotogifs from this post.
http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php/topic,4707.0.html
 (most of the old links had died)

 Folder with updated links attached. (must make some more of these........