SpectraLipz Wav Player for Animation Lipsync

 

THE TIGER WELCOME SAMPLE

This tutorial contains a step by step description of how the talking tiger giving the welcome message was done.
Last Update: 060218

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:

Windows PC
Mirror (No kidding)

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS:

You will need the Spectralipz software (Demo or Standard), 3D Studio Max ver 5 or greater and optionally a video editing software like Adobe Premiere.

SAMPLE FILES:

You can download the sample files here. It's a zip file with a directory named "tigerWelcomeSample" that contains the following:

Just unzip the file onto your hard drive and you're ready to go.

Part 1 : Generating the Mouth Shapes Using SpectraLipz

  1. Running the software

    The first step is to run the Spectralipz software. The opening screen will appear as follows:



  2. Importing the Audio File

    Click on the main menu options FILE->OPEN and select the "welcome8k16m.wav" file.
    There will be a prompt saying "Generate Spectra? Yes/No".
    Click on the "YES" button.
    Wait while the spectrograph is being generated and the following message displayed.




    The audio waveform along with the spectrograph will now be displayed as follows:



  3. Adjusting the Spectra Filters

    You can make the graphics display clearer to see by moving the sliders in the Spectra Filter groupbox.



  4. Listening to the Audio

    Press the "View" button in the "PLAY" groupbox to play the audio. This will play the sound segment being viewed on the audio display window. You should be able to hear the word "hello".



  5. Determining the mouthshape to use

    Look at your mirror and voice out the word "Hello". You will see the the two major shapes your mouth forms is in the "E" and "O" parts of the word. What about the "H" sound? Try voicing the word "ELLO". Do you see any major difference? No, because the "H" sound is generated as you mouth moves from the rest position to the "E" position. There is no separate "H" mouth shape that your mouth forms when you say the word "Hello".

    What about the "L" sound? Try voicing out the word "HELLO" without the "L" sound - as in "E-O". Do you see any major difference in mouth shape? No, because making the "L" sound doesn't require a major change in the shape of your lips. However, your tongue plays a significant part in making the "L" sound as it moves forward to the tip of your upper front teeth and this is a unique identifiable change in the way the mouth looks. The default mouth shapes being used does not have any teeth or a tongue but it does have a mouth shape to stand for the "L" shape.

  6. Determining the timing

    Now we know we have three major shapes "E", "L" and "O". The question becomes "In which frames do we set these key shapes?"

    Press the "View" button in the PLAY groupbox and watch the cursor move across the audio display. If you want, you can click the "3/4" "1/2" and "1/4" buttons on the "Speed" groupbox to set the play speed and then press the "View" Button on the PLAY groupbox. The audio will play slower and the cursor will move slower across the screen.




    We can then determine that the "E" sound starts at frame 25, "L" at frame 29 and "O" at frame 31.
  7. Setting the KeyFrames

    We can now start the keyframing. To start, let's first put a "rest" keyframe at frame zero. To do this, place and drag the cursor over frame zero (the leftmost frame) and then click on the "rest" text at the mouth shape list at the right side of the screen.



  8. Setting the Units from seconds to frames

    You might notice that the display in the middle of the screen is in seconds. To make it easier for this tutorial, we will need to change the units to frames. Click on the "FRAMES" button in the "Units" groupbox to change the display units from seconds to frames. This will make the tutorial steps easier to track.



  9. Setting a keyframe at frame 25

    To set the "E" keyframe at frame 25, first click on the audio display and drag the green vertical cursor bar to frame 25.



    Next, click on the "E" at the mouth shapelist on the right side of the screen.



    You will then notice that there are now two keyframes, the "rest" mouthshape at frame 0 and the "E" mouthshape at frame 25.



    Continue doing this for the "O" shape at frame 31.

    You just then repeat this procedure throughout the entire audio clip, setting keyframes for every mouthshape that you need. You can then save the project afterwards.

  10. Tips & comments

    Remember, this is a skill just like any other. You need to practice to get it right. The reference provided by the graphical display of the software will make it easier for you to get the timing right. Can you imagine doing this without any graphical reference point at all? Or doing it at normal audio speed using a conventional audio player?

    Keep practicing. As you go on, you will even be able to pick out visual cues from the spectrograph itself as to what sounds are at a particular frame.

  11. Exporting the data into a format usable by 3D Max

    For the purposes of this tutorial, let us assume that you have already completed the entire keyframing step.

    Load the "tigerWelcome.slt" file by clicking on the menu option FILE->OPEN and selecting the file. This contains a completed keyframe file already.

    To export the file, click on the menu option FILE->EXPORT->Comma Delimited (v1) .txt and save it with a filename you like.
    There is already an available file there named "tigerWelcomeSLCDV1.txt"

Part 2: Importing the data into 3D Studio Max

For the Studio Max part, you will need the following files:

  1. Run 3D Max

    First thing to do is to run 3D Studio Max.

  2. Load the "tigerWelcome.max" file.

    Next you load the file "tigerWelcome.max". You should then see a display like the following.



  3. Load the script file

    Go to the Utilities Panel, select MaxScript and click on the "Run Script" button.
    Select the file "SL_maxImportSLCDV1.ms". This should be located in the Utilities directory under the spectralipz application directory. When the script file is run and you select it, you should then get a display as follows:



  4. Select the Morph Object

    Click on "Select Morph Object". A dialog box will appear listing the objects in the scene. Select "tiger".


  5. Import the File

    Click on Import File. You can then load the file you exported above, or the file "tigerWelcomeSLCDV1.txt" included in the sample.



  6. Keyframes are loaded

    The keyframes will then be set.



  7. Load the Audio

    You can then load the audio file "welcome8k16m.wav" in 3D Max so you can hear the sound as you play the animation.



  8. Play or Render the file

    You can render the file to see how it looks. That's it!

 

©2005 Alexander Calero