Talking Skull Animation

Matsuemon · Post by **Matsuemon** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 12:31 am

Hey guys,
I'm kicking around a fun animation idea, in honor of Halloween, and I'm wanting to animate a talking skull. However, there are several ways I can think of to possibly do it, and not sure which is the most efficient. For instance, I could do it all with point-level animation, or just do a switch-layer going between the open mouth/closed-mouth skull, etc. Just not sure exactly how do approach it and would welcome any suggestions. I'm using AS7 Pro. Thanks for your help

--Jason

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 12:51 am

Since there will be no lips or tongue I would suggest using action with a close mouth going to open and then use blend morphs to adjust how far the jaw drops. This way you would only have to have one action going from full closed to full open and the blend morph will let you have anything between.

Stephen

Matsuemon · Post by **Matsuemon** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 12:57 am

sbtamu wrote:Since there will be no lips or tongue I would suggest using action with a close mouth going to open and then use blend morphs to adjust how far the jaw drops. This way you would only have to have one action going from full closed to full open and the blend morph will let you have anything between.

Stephen

Hey Stephen,
Yah I was thinking along the same lines, and I figured I'd just need the two pics and go between the two. I'll probably add a side-view and a 2/3 view just for variety, so I can have the head moving around a bit, too. So if I import the completed drawings, can I use them directly, or will I need to trace over them in AS?

Matsuemon · Post by **Matsuemon** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 2:53 am

Hey Sbtamu, I downloaded the file you posted, but there isn't any pics in the file. It brings up two frames with an odd graphic in them, but it's not a skull or anything. So not sure what it is you meant to show me?

I'm trying to trace a pic of a skull I drew in photoshop, but it's very frustrating in AS. This skull is requiring some fairly detailed lines, and the drawing tool in AS is pretty clumsy. And the way it adds points to the line you're putting down is bizarre. It'll clump them up like five or six right next to each other, then space them way apart in other areas. When I get to the teeth, it's going to be almost impossible to do. Any ideas that might help?

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 2:54 am

Matsuemon wrote:Hey Sbtamu, I downloaded the file you posted, but there isn't any pics in the file. It brings up two frames with an odd graphic in them, but it's not a skull or anything. So not sure what it is you meant to show me?

I'm trying to trace a pic of a skull I drew in photoshop, but it's very frustrating in AS. This skull is requiring some fairly detailed lines, and the drawing tool in AS is pretty clumsy. And the way it adds points to the line you're putting down is bizarre. It'll clump them up like five or six right next to each other, then space them way apart in other areas. When I get to the teeth, it's going to be almost impossible to do. Any ideas that might help?

yes i need to download the pngs, give me 2 min and u can get all 3

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 3:26 am

Here is the how too and the head and jaw.

lower jaw and head
http://www.sendspace.com/file/lrz224

http://www.sendspace.com/file/tpn1e2

The how too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psKs4aigeO0

I Modified the skull from a jpeg to png and I do not own the skull art. I used it just for an example.

Matsuemon · Post by **Matsuemon** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 5:05 am

Wow Stephen, thanks for the great skull pics. I saw your tutorial and I figured out a way to make the lower jaw look even better in the animation. Basically, I'm putting it into Photoshop and slightly reshaping it (using the liquify filter primarily), then re-saving it and bringing it into AS. Should look good when I'm done. I'll let you know how it goes =)

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:11 pm

i believe you could also use bone warping to keep the jaw sides attached while moving the bottom up and down - that way you avoid that bottom jaw stretching rather than opening...

Matsuemon · Post by **Matsuemon** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:45 pm

funksmaname wrote:i believe you could also use bone warping to keep the jaw sides attached while moving the bottom up and down - that way you avoid that bottom jaw stretching rather than opening...

Hey Funk,
Wow I didn't know about the bone-warping. Still pretty new to AS. The problem is that I'm using actual images for my two parts of the skull, not something drawn in AS. So, I can only do so much with manipulating the images in AS itself, and I'm trying to figure out a way to do like a switch-layer/actions kinda thing going between the closed and open mouth, which I previously tweaked in Photoshop. So, not sure if I'll have the flexibility I need working with the image files, but drawing it has been frustrating so far in AS.

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 10:17 pm

i dont really work a great deal with images in AS, but i believe you can turn on bone warping in the layer settings for image layers, then they can be warped based on a parenting bone layers bone influence, so you could put a bone with influence on either side of the jaw (effectively pinning them down) and have a larger bone for the bottom which you can animate to move the jaw up and down. You could also make the warping more pronounced, and add some more bones to make it look like 'mouth shapes' despite it only being a skull, but this may look odd

still, if up down movement is all you want, the best way is probably the way you did it - extending the jaw in photoshop and then just moving it up and down...

Matsuemon · Post by **Matsuemon** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:41 pm

Hey guys,
Well, I'm not having as good a luck with this animation as I hoped. It's acting oddly when I import all three pics together (top of the skull, lower jaw closed, lower jaw open). I can't seem to get it to only show one of the lower jaws at a time, unless I manually hide one of them. So I'm going to try and set it up as a switch layer and see if that works. I'm not sure it'll work with image files. Anyone happen to know?

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:56 pm

Matsuemon wrote:Hey guys,
Well, I'm not having as good a luck with this animation as I hoped. It's acting oddly when I import all three pics together (top of the skull, lower jaw closed, lower jaw open). I can't seem to get it to only show one of the lower jaws at a time, unless I manually hide one of them. So I'm going to try and set it up as a switch layer and see if that works. I'm not sure it'll work with image files. Anyone happen to know?

Look back in a few hrs and I'll upload a how too for this with bones.

Matsuemon · Post by **Matsuemon** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:57 pm

Thanks Stephen. Yah it's not letting me work with both the open and closed jaw, for some reason. The background is red on the open jaw image, and it won't allow me to insert any kind of reference on the timeline in the usual manner. I'll keep messing with it and check back later for your update. Thanks!

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Fri Oct 15, 2010 12:09 am

Try it like this using the 2 PNG images I posted earlier in the thread.
Two things I forgot to mention; make sure no bones are parented to another, other words make sure You click in open space before make the next bone etc.

The other is you will have to play with bone strengths.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku_LS8iNx3Q

Matsuemon · Post by **Matsuemon** » Fri Oct 15, 2010 12:30 am

Hey Stephen,
Ok I'll try adding the bones now. Quick question, though: I think I would just add the bones to the lower jaw, right, like three bones total (one horizontal and two vertical)? the main part of the skull probably won't move. I'll toy with that and see what I can come up with