Quick Start Facial AnimationFP: Difference between revisions

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== Prelude ==
== Prelude ==


So you have your character lip syncing perfectly, but he or she is just staring blankly at you. You need too animate the facial muscles contained within the model.
FacePoser can animate various muscles in models. This can lead to a more realistic appearances of characters, such as facial animations. This article will act as a guide to creating facial animations within a scene.


== Starting out ==  
== The Process ==  


First up you need to create a choreography scene, so navigate to Choreography->New... And when it asks you to create a new actor choose the name that's displayed in the bottom right hand corner.
First, create a new scene by navigating to Choreography -> New. Give the new scene a name, and push Save. When asked for the name of the actor, fill in "gman_high."




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You will now be presented with this in the choreography tab, this is your work area that you will use to create a scene for source to play back in the game.
The new scene will show up in the Choreography tab:




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Right click on gman_high and you will be presented with a list menu, select New->Channel.. and enter audio, and then repeat the process and enter another channel and call this flex_face.
This is the work area that will be used to create a scene for Source to play back in the game.
 
 
In the Choreography window, right click on gman_high, navigate to New -> Channel, and enter "audio." Repeat this process by creating a channel called "flex_face."




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Audio needs to be added to the audio channel, so right click on audio, just like you did with gman_high and find your newely created sound and add it to the choreography work area.
An audio file will be added to the audio channel: Right click on audio, select "WAV file", choose an entry in the Speak Sound menu, and push OK.




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Then add flex animation in the same way you added audio to your work area, you may need to move the flex animation bar to cover the audio event.
Flex animation will be added in the same way of adding audio, except by choosing "Flex animation" instead of "WAV file" in the popup menu. If needed, align the flex animation with the audio by moving the flex animation bar in the choreography. Do this by left clicking the bar and dragging it to a more suitable place.




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A usefull tip is to enable "All tools drive mouth" it's hidden away in the control panel, you can find it here.
A useful tip is to enable the "All tools drive mouth" checkbox in the Control Panel. The Control Panel window may need to be extended to see the option.




<center>[[Mouthtools1.jpg]]</center>
<center>[[Image:Qsfa-mouth.jpg]]</center>




You now have everything ready to start animating, make sure the flex_face bar is selected then open up the flex animation tab, you will be presented with this screen.
To start animating the face, select the flex_face bar and open up the Flex Animation tab. The window will look like this:




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Each description in the dialogs relate to a facial muscle that you can manipulate, to start manipulating double click on a muscle in the dialog and a more detailed view of that muscle will be shown, to add "keyframe" points hold control and left click in anypoint of the opened muscle and it will add a keyframe to the timeline.
Each description in the various dialogs relates to a muscle available for manipulation. Double clicking on a muscle's dialog box will reveal a more detailed view. To manipulate muscles, add "keyframe" points by holding the Control key and left clicking in any point of the opened muscle. Doing this adds a keyframe (shown as a red dot when selected, blue when not) to the timeline.




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As shown FacePoser will smooth out the time line for you, now all that is needed for you to-do is add more keyframe points and you will have a superbly animated character in no time.
Add more keyframes to have a more defined muscle manipulation:




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Hint: This green time bar can be manually slid just hold down left mouse button and drag.
Hint: This green time bar can be manually moved. Do this by holding down the left mouse button and dragging across the timeline.




<center>[[Image:Timeslider.gif]]</center>
<center>[[Image:Timeslider.gif]]</center>
[[category:Choreography]]
[[category:Choreography]]

Revision as of 00:06, 7 July 2005

Prelude

FacePoser can animate various muscles in models. This can lead to a more realistic appearances of characters, such as facial animations. This article will act as a guide to creating facial animations within a scene.

The Process

First, create a new scene by navigating to Choreography -> New. Give the new scene a name, and push Save. When asked for the name of the actor, fill in "gman_high."


Gman.gif


The new scene will show up in the Choreography tab:


Choreo.jpg


This is the work area that will be used to create a scene for Source to play back in the game.


In the Choreography window, right click on gman_high, navigate to New -> Channel, and enter "audio." Repeat this process by creating a channel called "flex_face."


Channel.jpg


Flex face.jpg


An audio file will be added to the audio channel: Right click on audio, select "WAV file", choose an entry in the Speak Sound menu, and push OK.


Sound.jpg


Flex animation will be added in the same way of adding audio, except by choosing "Flex animation" instead of "WAV file" in the popup menu. If needed, align the flex animation with the audio by moving the flex animation bar in the choreography. Do this by left clicking the bar and dragging it to a more suitable place.


Slicer.jpg


A useful tip is to enable the "All tools drive mouth" checkbox in the Control Panel. The Control Panel window may need to be extended to see the option.


Qsfa-mouth.jpg


To start animating the face, select the flex_face bar and open up the Flex Animation tab. The window will look like this:


Image29.jpg


Each description in the various dialogs relates to a muscle available for manipulation. Double clicking on a muscle's dialog box will reveal a more detailed view. To manipulate muscles, add "keyframe" points by holding the Control key and left clicking in any point of the opened muscle. Doing this adds a keyframe (shown as a red dot when selected, blue when not) to the timeline.


Image31.jpg


Add more keyframes to have a more defined muscle manipulation:


Timeline.jpg


Hint: This green time bar can be manually moved. Do this by holding down the left mouse button and dragging across the timeline.


Timeslider.gif