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animated face sequencing tips


daveo150

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After blowing a fuse in my brain after watching Kevin's Halloween house (about 20 times!!!) I've decided I need to add a talking pumpkin for this Halloween....I
ll consider Christmas trees after determining the success of my pumpkin face....

So, are there any specific tip or tricks the pros would like to share regarding getting the mouth movements right? I've searched quite a bit here and find some hints here-and-there, but I was hoping we could share them in one place.....

Thanx all,
Dave

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As with all things; the more you want it to do, the more time it takes to sequence. I use 3 mouth positions (half open, full open, and O). Not as fancy as Kevin, but easy to sequence once the timing marks are set. I do the face for the kids, and they love it, so I'm sticking with the lazy man approach.

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My face uses 9 channels.

The eyes look left and right (as well as center), the eye brows look left and right ( as well as center ), and there are 3 mouth positions.

If you go to Milton Christmas Lights 2011 on youtube you can see some video .. sorry not the best quality of the face in action.

Dave

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I get asked this so much that I think it would be easier to make a short how to/tips video than anwser every request.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Quoting the other guys' posts. It all depends on How you're making your face. If you have 3 channels for mouth positions, it's easier to program/sequence the movements, but if you do what I did, and I think Cracker did, and have 5 mouth movements, it's a lot trickier. How many mouth channel are you planning on ?

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Guest wbottomley

daveo150 wrote:

After blowing a fuse in my brain after watching Kevin's Halloween house (about 20 times!!!) I've decided I need to add a talking pumpkin for this Halloween....I
ll consider Christmas trees after determining the success of my pumpkin face....

So, are there any specific tip or tricks the pros would like to share regarding getting the mouth movements right?  I've searched quite a bit here and find some hints here-and-there, but I was hoping we could share them in one place.....

Thanx all,
Dave


http://forums.lightorama.com/forum80/26004.html
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  • 2 weeks later...

Cracker wrote:

I get asked this so much that I think it would be easier to make a short how to/tips video than anwser every request.


:( don't dangle the carrot in front of us to just keep pulling it away!



There are postings out there that help simplify the process, just do the foot work and you can find the threads. What I used as a template was the basic Cartoon animation guidelines, A, E, I, O, U mouth movements. This was my 1st year and I was very happy with my results but compared side to side with those who have been doing this a lot longer you can tell. Even still I hope to get better over time as they all did.

Kevin, if you do something like that along with everything else you have shared with this community, I along with everyone else would be extremely grateful!

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To cut down on the # of channels being used for my face ( 9 in total ) I kept my mouth positions to closed, open and O.

Made it easier to sequence and as it has been mentioned SOOO many time on different topics .. we can all be too picky.

People of all ages last year loved the face we had .. The eyes / nose look left right and center and the eye brows go up and down.

All depends on how detailed you want to look and how many channels you have free to use.

A sample ( as poor as it is video quality ) is here .. http://vimeo.com/34645117

Dave

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ainsworth wrote:

RaceMedic; how did you make your "eyes".


Just used rope light and made a circle ... there are actually 3 sets of eyes .. center, left and right.

Meant to add ... the rope light makes 1 eye down to the nose and back up to the other eye. I just taped off the areas I did not want seen.

If people are interested I can pull it out and take some pics !

Dave
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George Simmons wrote:

Nice work, Dave!


Thanks George .... wonder who my mentor was. :D

Dave
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RaceMedic wrote:

ainsworth wrote:
RaceMedic; how did you make your "eyes".


Just used rope light and made a circle ... there are actually 3 sets of eyes .. center, left and right.

Meant to add ... the rope light makes 1 eye down to the nose and back up to the other eye. I just taped off the areas I did not want seen.

If people are interested I can pull it out and take some pics !

Dave


Looks great. and you can put me down as being interested..
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I will pull the face out this evening and takes some up close pics so you can see how I did it !

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I'm almost done making my face, but realized there are two eyes and am scratching my head trying to figure out how to have a single channel controlling both sides? I'm sure it's a simple solution, but I am having a serious Saturday brain fart!! Anyone have a solution aka Gas-X for the brain ?

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I'm almost embarrassed to reply to this, but have you tried plugging the cords from each eye into the same extension cord that comes from the controller?

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JUST the eyes ?!

Make a look carry it across the face and make a 2nd loop.
Use black electric tape to black out what you don't want seen.

Sorry ... VERY busy few days .. Have not had a chance to pull my face out yet to get some pics ... will try tomorrow !

Dave

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George Simmons wrote:

I'm almost embarrassed to reply to this, but have you tried plugging the cords from each eye into the same extension cord that comes from the controller?

I'm kinda scratching my head also, maybe we don't understand the question.
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Guest Don Gillespie

George Simmons wrote:

I'm almost embarrassed to reply to this, but have you tried plugging the cords from each eye into the same extension cord that comes from the controller?

No your not LOL
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