I am working on an entry for the eleven second club, and I have a few questions. First, is it possible to play back the animation with sound? Second, what is the ideal lipsync technique? And third, through p-2-p animation, how do i make it “snappy/loose feeling”?
You asked some very good questions that need to be answered. Go to the video sequence editor and add a your soundtrack. Now you have sound.
Ideal lipsynch? Find the frames where the phonemes hit, and animate the poses there with morph targets. you don’t have to hit every single phoneme, or the character will look strange.
Pose 2 pose animation has baffled me for a while, I have finally found the secret, and now I am an animator for a living. For a good toony pose to pose animation, hit the poses strongly, and in 3 to 6 frames. Depending on the action. Loosen the pose a bit, and hold it for 1- frames or so, and move onto the next frame. These are not rules, they are just suggestions to help you get started. In the short before wall-e the poses were sometimes hsnapped in a couple of frames.
I hope this helps.
This is a great website. here is a tutorial from it that explains cartoon snap in pose to pose animation.
http://www.keithlango.com/tutorials/old/toonSnap/toonSnap.htm
Be sure to check out his other great tutorials at
And for lip-sync you can check out my noob-to-pro tutorial here.
Note: When Nathaneal refers to morph targets, he’s talking about what Blender calls “shape keys” as discussed in that tutorial.
Shape keys work well for characters with a fairly simple mouth shape but if your character’s mouth is rigged with bones instead of shape keys, you can follow all the same steps except you will have to set keys on the bones instead of setting shape keys on the mesh.
Sorry about that. I used to use anim8or when I first got started in 3D graphics. ( I believe the creator of anim8or draws his names from 3DS Max.)
Thank you all for replying to my plea for help. I will try these methods. But, I still have some questions. First, I would like to know in detail what you meant about using the sequencer with sound. Second, is it possible to press alt-a and hear sound, because I don’t want to have to render that often. Third, not to burst your bubble or anything, but I have already been to Lango’s site a few times, and he says that there is a difference between fast and snappy movement. Speciffecily, I would like to know how to move between poses to make it look snappy. Fourth, it possible to get this http://www.3dlessons.com/tutorials/Tricks-for-Cartoon-Snappy-Motion-14956.html
with an IK setup?
I know I’m asking for a lot of knowledge here, but when I’m done I will put this all in one big tutorial, and you’ll be in the credits.
Ciao,
MTracer.
Move between poses? Just move quickly, and do long holds. This is the secret to snappy. Moving fast just makes your animation look stupid, but to make something look snappy, you have to hit your poses very fast, and hold them for a long time. Watch some older warner brothers bugs bunny and yosimite sam to see this in action.
definately, IK is almost all I ever use.
Never be afraid to try anything. Experimentation is key in this industry.
Alt-a will play back the sound. Just insert sound in the sequence ditor with spacebar. Animate, play back, and you will hear the sound and see the animation.
I really think we’re onto something here. The sound works. (Thanks!) But I just need two more things. One, could you try to describe the method used to get snappy motion with IK? I can’t get it to work. Two, don’t you need some kind of breakdowns within the motion to make it snappy? If so, could you describe these breakdowns? That should be all!
Ciao!
MTracer
If I had alot of time, I would make tutorial complete with screenshots. I will try to describe it.
Say you have Keith Lango’s arm rig, but it has an IK effector, or target at the end. Simply drag the target to reach your desired poses, and key them. Make sure your poses are extreme. Than, go back to the poses, in the action editor, copy and paste your pose keys forward. Enough, so that transitions between poses are quick. If you play back the animation now, you should see a bunch of extreme poses moving, then being held for a while, then transistioning to the next pose quickly. Now, for the snap. Go to your held keys, and slightly relax each held pose. Now, with a little bit of tweaking, you are on the road to snappy animation.
This sounds promising. I will try your method. But, I will also see what happens if I use breakdowns. Thanks for your help, you’ll definitely be in the credits!
Ciao!
MTracer
Thank you. I feel famous.