Turn in video via the Google Classroom Assignment
Tuesday, November 25: WIP 1 - Audio recording, script (where applicable) + storyboard
Thursday, December 4 (end of class): WIP 2 - puppet creation + mouths
Thursday, December 11: WIP 3: Rigged puppet
For this assignment you may work solo or in pairs. You'll create a 20 to 45-second video of your character speaking - this entails lip syncing as well as secondary animation - body and head movement, eye blinking, etc. You may record the audio yourself, or use an appropriated recording. (I.e., we want to make use of the skills you have developed to make your character expressive through body motion & clear poses, not just lip sync.)
WIP #1: Audio Recording + Storyboard: Choose or create a text that has a clear point, or "punchline" - it's short, but it should have a payoff! Draw up a storyboard that demonstrates character movement variation. You may either record your own audio, or use appropriated audio. For the latter, you might download audio from YouTube, or use QuickTime to record audio from your computer. Make sure the speakers are clear! You shouldn't have more than one character speaking at once, otherwise the lip sync won't work. If you record your own audio, write the script first - clearly identify the lines that will be spoken by the characters.
For the animation, we will be working in a new software: Adobe Character Animator, which allows you to "perform" the lip syc and movement via a web cam. This doesn't mean it's simple - there is a lot of setup needed to get to that point, which we'll walk through together. (For those of you who have limited prior experience with Adobe, we can work on an alternative approach in OpenToonz, or a simplified character puppet).
Your puppet needs to be set up in Photoshop (or Illustrator if you prefer) using names and a structure that Animator can recognize, and to coordinate with the behaviors you want it to be able to perform. Behaviors can control specific features of a character's body. To enable a specific control, name the feature's layers in Photoshop or Illustrator using the following group/layer structure/naming, or use the tags with the names listed below (you don't need all of these!). Your Photoshop file should have groups (folders) organized according to the templates provided: see Chad.psd for how to set up the face and head, and Chloe.psd for how to set up the body.
Create a mouth set for lip sync: Develop individual visemes, or mouth shapes, each on its own layer, for the following sounds/ emotional states. This folder should exist in a separate .psd document, and can be dragged into any character file. See the Lip Sync Guide for more information.
Important points to remember:
You must add a + (plus sign) in front of any folder you want to be able to move on its own, without influencing any other parts.
To make your eyes able to blink, you need two separate folders inside the Head folder: + right eye & + left eye. Don't put these into a single "Eyes" folder. The pupils also need to have a + sign in front of them so they are able to move independently.
All of the folders and layers need to be inside a main puppet folder - name this whatever you want, but it needs to hold everything else. This is necessary for rigging, and will allow you to affect the puppet as a whole.