Animated portraits

[Alex V.Sharp]

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Here's an interesting resource I've been preparing for the "Mask of Darkness" project.

These are only dummy animations since the characters are repeating the same mouth movement over and over. It is a technique that was used in many old adventure games because there wasn't any audio, so the creators used this to make an illusion of the actors speaking. Of course, once voices are recorded it's always better to do lip sync... 8)

Look: a chat room!
or
(I've found some old back-ups on my removable HDD. Got the rest of them on another PC. Will update once accessed. Sorry. )

Another great trick is the blinking animation. Here's a sample:

This will definitely be used in the project, as well as some special ones. You'll never guess what they are...

[Lauli]

What you are making a LF2 flash movie?

Awesome.
Did you think about enlarging every body part with photoshop filters (so that they don't look blurry), and use each part as a individual moving one?
If... you get what I mean.

[Evil Sonidow]

They look nice, but perhaps the blinking period is too slow. You could also combine into talking and blinking.

[LutiChris]

I agree with Evil Sonidow
first of all in gif format
1st image [speed: 50]
2nd [speed: 0]
3rd [speed: 0]
4rth [speed: 500]
5th [speed: 0]
6th [speed: 0]
my avatar's blink like that...

[8obis]

What about breathing

~RtXaS~

[Vladuss]

cool but like evil says :

You could also combine into talking and blinking.

[prince_freeza]

nice dude..

[no one]

It look nice but you'll need to add the upper lip and some kind of tounge so it won't look like a hole just happen to open.

Jan mouth movement look really nice, except for the part that when her mouth move, the center point of it suppose to be a little on the left side, not the center.

But all in all, they're just minor issue. I can't wait to check out that flash movie.

[Alex V.Sharp]

perhaps the blinking period is too slow.

Could be; I don't know. Quoted from Wikipedia: "Blink speed can be affected by elements such as fatigue, eye injury, medication, and disease. The blinking rate is determined by the "blinking center", but it can also be affected by external stimulus". I just tried to make it look realistic - even this is too fast for natural blinking...

You could also combine into talking and blinking.

Actually, my original idea to animate the portraits was from about four years ago, and they were suppose to be a combination of blinking and talking. I found a back-up of this old test flash I done back then to see what it would look like (note: the dummy lip movement was just horrible ) so check it out if you wish.

However, while studying modern anime facial movement I noticed that characters mostly don't blink while they talk, or at all for that matter. The animators usually change a lot of camera positions and so avoid having to animate blinking - it's an illusion to make the viewers think the actor already blinked. Sneaky devils...

What about breathing

Might be an interesting idea - I'll look into it while preparing those "special" portraits I've mentioned earlier.

It look nice but you'll need to add the upper lip and some kind of tongue so it won't look like a hole just happen to open.

The upper lip? Perhaps. Not all characters seem to have it drawn anyway... As for the tongue, it isn't really necessary. It could be a nice detail but once the portraits are shrunk even a little it would be nothing more then a red dot. And to be honest: I've got other resources to prepare then fixing missing tongues...

You could do it for me? Help is always welcomed. 8)

I can't wait to check out that flash movie.

It'll be a loooooong wait, but I promise you I'll try and see it through!
The more people join up the faster (and more qualitative) it will be.

[betitngoan]

so cool