Introduction:
This is the second part of Character Monologue assignment. In the previous assignment, you should have animated a character pantomiming a monologue track, now you will be adding phoneme mouth shapes to make your character look as if he’s talking.
Assignment Description:
This is part two of the monologue animation assignment. Using a free character rig (the assignment from the previous exercise), animate the character reciting a monologue track. Again, its best if you have video reference to work from, if not, you may have to act out the scene and record yourself, or you may have to locate the actual footage to help you along.
Competencies:
By the end of this exercise, the student should be able to:
Link these poses together so the character pantomimes the dialogue.
Incorporate subtle movements in the animation called moving holds.
Incorporate phoneme mouth shapes.
Create synchronized mouth movement.
PrePlanning:
This assignment is simple and straightforward, but it will require concentration. Therefore, break the frames you would like work on in manageable chunks. I recommend looking at 48 frames at a time. Also, do your best to internalize and memorize the lines, this will help in some cases where the wave forms are not clear, you can help yourself by acting the lines in front of a mirror if needed.
Phoneme (Mouth) Shapes :
Phonemes are the shapes that the mouth makes when speaking. This is crucial when animating dialogue, you don’t want the voice to be heard while the character’s mouth is not moving, and you don’t want his mouth to move with no sound. A consistent and accurate synchronization of mouth movement and voice is desired, but depending on the type of character, you may have room tp not be as accurate. A good example of this, are the Muppet characters whose mouths simply move up and down, with no details in the mouth, yet their dialogue is believable.
A good method, and process for creating phoneme shapes is essential, this will be highlighted below. The most common shapes are the ones centered around certain sounds, they are listed below as well as a recommended process, and frame count to achieve believable dialogue. Once you have established and have bookended your poses, begin breaking the animation down by adding overlapping action and secondary motion. Test the animation and evaluate how it looks and feels.
Once you are satisfied, and you have gotten feedback, then proceed to block in your dialogue, notice that similar mouth shapes are grouped together. Create them in the order listed below:
- Memorize your lines.
- Work on 48 frames at a time.
- Move the jaw up and down first, especially for the vowel sounds for general mouth movement.
- Go back and do the mouth shapes for sounds M, B and P. Hold these for two frames.
- Do your O, U, Q and W phoneme shapes.
- Create phoneme shapes for long E and Y sounds. Edges of the mouth will mouth outward in this shape.
- Check your animation.
- Move and show the tongue on sounds L, TH, and D. Hold these for two frames.
- Create the phoneme shapes for F and V. Hold these for two frames.
Tips :
If this is your first time animating dialogue with phoneme shapes, keep it simple. Don’t animate the full figure yet, as you are still getting used to the phoneme process. There will be time to do this later.
- Explore and know the facial controls of your rig first. Familiarize yourself with them and see if you can get your character to make the basic phoneme shapes.
- Work in manageable frame chunks to keep your keyframes organized.
- Book end your mouth shapes if needed. This means to hold a mouth shape for two frames, with the specific phoneme mouth shape key-framed in between.
- Do playblasts often to check to see if you are on target.
- Set up a separate viewport window where you can see all of the controls in one place, and keep these controls in the same place every time you animate this shot, so you can instinctually go that control to make adjustments.
EVALUATION:
Here are some questions to consider asking yourself to make sure you are on target with this assignment.
- Is your lipsync accurate?
- Does it look as though the character is speaking?
- Are you hitting the correct phoneme shapes?
- Are there areas where there are no sounds but his mouth continues moving?
- Show this animation to someone and see what they think? Does it look believable to them?
- Compare your animation to actual footage, is the timing similar, if not, why?
As a form of constant improvement, this monologue exercise is one that you could do on your own, aside from other projects that you have to do. For example, apart from doing freelance commercial work, I will find an audio clip from a movie, and will animate it whenever I have free time. I may get to it once a week, everyday, maybe even once a month. The idea is to keep working on something that improves your skills on a regular basis, that contributes to your demonstration reel, and that also helps you establish and become familiar with an animation process. There are many sites that host downloadable sound clips and I recommend that when you choose one, it is from a movie you are familiar with and that it is simple to animate. Most of all, it is meant to be fun and enjoyable, so pick something that makes you laugh, and happy animating.
