Lightwave Tutorials Chapter 12: Deformations and Movement Throughout Inside LightWave 7, you've learned different techniques, tips, and tricks. You've learned about keyframing and the Graph Editor. You've learned about organic modeling and lighting. This chapter takes you a step further into organic animation. Organic animation in LightWave is more than just moving a ball from point A to point B. It is the blending of points and the changing of shapes. It is movement and timing. You'll use tools within Modeler and LightWave to deform objects into different shapes. Project Overview The goal of this chapter is to help you create talking characters and put a creature in motion using bones. The endomorph technology in LightWave that you'll learn about in this chapter has many uses, but its primary function is for character animation. You learned how to make a human head in Chapter 10, "Organic Modeling." This chapter (originally written by Stuart Aitken) has been updated for LightWave 7 from the popular Inside LightWave [6] book. You'll use the head model from the book's CD and learn how to give that face motion. In addition, you'll learn what the next step is after setting up Skelegons and converting them to bones. Specifically, this chapter covers the following: Creating endomorphs Grouping points and polygons Vertex Map (VMap) tools MorphMixer for lip sync Using SockMonkey Facial bones for animation Movement for a bat Preparing for Facial Animation Although there is not enough room in this book to describe the entire process of creating facial expressions, movement, timing, and the art of character animation, there is enough space to stress the preparation you can take before you embark on such endeavors. Facial animation is one of the most difficult aspects of 3D animation. Human facial expression has so many nuances that we take for granted. If you stop to look, really look, however, you'll find that with a few key facial expressions, you can make a character come to life in LightWave. A number of books on the market deal specifically with character animation and the human form. Many of these books discuss facial muscle structure and illustrate various facial positions. This chapter takes a different approach and uses a simple method—do it until it looks right. Although most of your preparation requires manipulating the 3D model, you should take some time and visit your local library or bookstore to study the human form. This, along with just watching people's movements and expressions, is the best way to prepare yourself. From there, it's up to you to create facial animation. Endomorph Technology The endomorph technology in LightWave is not only smart, it's also helpful and user-friendly. Endomorphs enable you to create a 3D object in Modeler and build an unlimited number of morph targets into the object. A morph target is a change in the position of the points or polygons of an object. You can use morphs to change a straight road into a curved road, or a car into a boat, and so on. Although you'll be using morph targets for animating faces, you'll see that they are useful for many other types of animations. In versions of LightWave earlier than 6, to create a morph you needed separate objects. The endomorph technology in today's LightWave software enables you to create all your morph targets with one single object. You can change the base model and add polygons to it. Adding polygons to a morph previous to the endomorph technology resulted in crazy morphing results. Endomorphs solve many of the production headaches of morph targets, as you'll discover in this chapter. Endomorphs are an extension of LightWave's VMap capabilities. Weight and UV maps generally use the same feature. The difference is in how the information is interpreted. With endomorphs, different point position sets are defined. Note - Although you can edit your model with endomorphs, you still need the same number of points and polygons to properly morph between targets. Animating Faces Facial animation is the number one reason endomorph technology exists. If you remember the Morph Gizmo plug-in in earlier versions of LightWave, you'll understand what the new technology of endomorphs and MorphMixer can accomplish. Animating faces can be a complex, arduous task. You need to understand the timing of eye movements, phonetics of speech, and everyday expressions. However, you can easily set up facial animation in LightWave by sometimes just looking in the mirror. It's often difficult to picture, say, the facial expression when someone says the word "trumpet." If you look into a mirror and say it, however, you have your animation reference. Animators who keep mirrors at their desks are not usually that vain. By keeping a mirror at your desk, you have an encyclopedia of facial expression animation references. Full Bodies and Endomorphs Because many of the demonstrations of the endomorph technology depict a face, it shouldn't go unmentioned that a body can be attached to the face as well. The process of setting up bones for a character is only enhanced by the animation created with endomorphs for a face, and muscles. Using full bodies with endomorphs is easy. In another layer, the body can have a full bone structure set up with Skelegons. By bringing the object into Layout, you have a full character, bone structure, and morph targets all in one model. You can animate to your heart's content. Add to that endomorph targets for bulging muscles and breathing, and you're on your way. Creating Endomorphs Creating endomorphs is easier than you might think. By using some of LightWave's grouping technology in the next exercise, you'll be able to adjust and manipulate your model into just about any expression you like. Exercise 12.1 Creating Selection Sets In Chapter 10, you learned how to create a female head. This chapter takes that model even further by creating blinking eyes, facial expressions, and a few mouth phonetics. The first step is to create a Selection Set. Selection Sets define a group of points. They are not always needed to create endomorphs, but they can be very helpful for this project, or any project you come across. Open Modeler and load the LW7_Head object. This is a copy of the head model from Chapter 10, "Organic Modeling." When loaded, press the a key to fit all views. Be sure you have a default quad view in Modeler to match this exercise. You can see from Figure 12.1 that the model has multiple layers. The layers contain eyes, teeth, a tongue, and the head itself. Select the first layer, the head. The first step in creating endomorphs for this model is the setup of Selection Sets. Selection Sets enable you to select a range of points and give them a group name. To select a particular polygonal region in previous versions of LightWave, you needed to create a separate surface name, even if the surface attributes were the same. Now you can group selections within one surface. ("Parts" are used in place of different surface names because they work at the polygon level. Point groups are really like nothing that existed prior to version 6.) Figure 12.1 A copy of the head model created in Chapter 10 is loaded and ready for some endomorphs. Select just layer one of the head object. Zoom into the lips of the head object by pressing the period key (.). You can move the mouse pointer over a specific area in a viewport, and press the g key. This instantly brings to the center the area where the mouse is. Use this while zooming in to get the lips to full view. Switch to Point mode at the bottom of the Modeler interface. Selection Sets work with points, and although you can select polygons and create a Selection Set just as easily, point selection can be more precise for this exercise. Click and select a point or two on the bottom lip. If you work in a Shaded mode (such as Texture), it's a bit easier to see the selection. Also if you decide to hide points for easier visibility, you won't be able to select them. Figure 12.2 shows the selection. Figure 12.2 Selecting a couple of points on the bottom lip is all you need to do to get started. Because the original model's lips are close together, selecting just the bottom lip is difficult and time-consuming. To make sure you selected what you wanted, use the Expand Select command, found under the Tools tab or by pressing Shift+]. (That's the right bracket key, two keys over from the p key.) Expand Select one time and notice that points are being selected outward from the initial few first selected. Note - The points in Figure 12.2 might seem a bit large to you. This is because the Simple Wireframe Points option is on in the Display Options panel under the Interface tab. This enables you to change the visible size of the points in Modeler. You also can turn on the Simple Wireframe Edges option. Figure 12.3 shows the Simple Wireframe Points option. Figure 12.3 Simple Wireframe Points is on to make the points more visible in Modeler's views. Continue using Expand Select until the entire bottom lip is selected, as in Figure 12.4. Zoom out slightly using the comma key (,) to fit the jaw into view. In the right view, while holding down the Shift key, select the points that make up the jaw area of the head object. If you're working in Shaded mode for this view, switch to Wireframe to be sure you select the points on both sides of the head. Figure 12.5 shows the selection. Figure 12.4 Using Expand Select, the points in just the lower lip are easily selected. Tip - If you're working in a Wireframe mode in the Right viewport (bottom right), you can right-lasso around the wanted points. Using Wireframe mode while selecting points or polygons selects "through" the object, selecting both sides of the jaw. Figure 12.5 The points in the bottom lip and jaw are now selected, ready for a Selection Set assignment. This group of points can now become a Selection Set. While the points are still selected, choose the Point Selection Sets command from the Display tab. You'll find the command under the Grouping drop-down list, which is located under the Selection heading of tools on the left side of the interface. Enter the name Jaw for the Point Set, as in Figure 12.6. You do not want to remove points. Click OK and the Selection Set is created. Deselect the points. You can quickly deselect points by pressing the / key, or clicking the blank area on the toolbar. If a tool is selected, such as Rotate, press the spacebar first to turn off the tool. Remember to work with just the first layer, which contains only the head model. Figure 12.6 After points are selected, the Selection Set tool enables you to name the group. While in Point mode, press the w key to call up Point Statistics. Click and hold the bottom triangle in the list and you'll see the new Selection Set, as in Figure 12.7. Choose the Jaw selection set. Click the plus sign (+) next to the name on the left of the Statistics panel to select the points defined by the Jaw Selection Set. (Clicking the minus sign [–] deselects it.) As you create more point Selection Sets, the names you assign to them will be here in this list as well. Note - If you have older LightWave objects that use different surfaces to control selections, you can use the Surface to Parts command. You can find it under Additional List of Tools. It assigns a selection of polygons to a specific surface. This "parts" list is available in the Polygon Statistics panel, similar to the Selection Sets for points. Figure 12.7 The created Selection Set is now accessible through the Point Statistics panel (w). Create additional Selection Sets, such as for the eyelids, nose, and so on. Create these sets for areas that you want to easily select later. It doesn't affect your model in any way, but rather, defines areas of points for easy selection. Remember that using Selection Sets isn't just for characters. You can create them for any model you build. Perhaps you have a model of an aircraft. At times, your client wants to see the model with the door open to make modeling adjustments. Because the door would have the same surface name as the aircraft itself, you would have to manually select the necessary points or polygons to move them. Instead, just define a Selection Set as shown here. This will enable you to quickly select the points of the aircraft's door and make necessary adjustments. Note - The biggest difference between a Selection Set (points) and a part (polygons) is that a point can be in more than one Selection Set, but a polygon cannot. For the next exercise, you will work with a model from the book's CD. This is the same model you were working with in Exercise 12.1, but it has a few Selection Sets already applied. Exercise 12.2 Building an Endomorph Character Using a version of the same head object as in the previous exercise, this exercise shows you how to create the various endomorphs for facial animation in Layout. Using the Selection Sets from Exercise 12.1 will help you get started. Select Close All Objects from the File menu in Modeler to start clean, and then load the Head_Sets object. This is the head object you loaded in Exercise 12.1, but with Selection Sets applied to the eyes, upper lip, and lower lip. These areas are normally hard to select, and because the specific surfaces cover more area than is needed to adjust their position, a Selection Set is appropriate. Open the Point Statistics panel, and click the bottom triangle to view the Selection Sets, as in Figure 12.8. At the bottom right of the Modeler interface are the W, T, and M buttons, for Weight, UV Texture, and Morph. Figure 12.8 The Selection Sets for the head model are ready to be selected and used to create endomorphs. Here, the Statistics panel is left open, and the Modeler interface is squeezed to the left for a controlled working environment. The Layers panel (Ctrl+F5) also is open. Select M for Morph. The drop-down list next to it says Base. The model you're viewing in this neutral position is the base model. Click and hold on this list and select New. The Create Morph Map panel opens. Type in the name Mouth.Open. It's important to add the dot (.) between Mouth and Open. This creates a group and a slider for the MorphMixer plug-in in Layout. The Mouth becomes a group tab, and the Open becomes a control. You'll see these results later when the model is animated in Layout. For now, keep the type at Relative and click OK. Figure 12.9 shows the Create Morph Map panel. Figure 12.9 Selecting New from the M list creates a new morph map, or endomorph. In the Point Statistics panel, select the Jaw Selection Set. Click the white plus sign (+) to the left of its name. The points of the jaw are highlighted. Press the y key to select the Rotate tool, and from where the joint of the jaw would be—in the Right viewport, in front of the ear—click and drag slightly to the left, to rotate the jaw, opening the mouth. You just created an endomorph! Figure 12.10 shows Modeler, with the Point Statistics panel open, and the Rotate Numeric tool. These are moved to the side so that all tools and the interface are visible. Figure 12.10 Use the Selection Set and the Rotate tool to easily open the character's mouth in preparation for setting up an endomorph. From the M drop-down list, select Base, and the mouth should return to its original position, closed. Then from the list, select the newly created endomorph, Mouth.Open. You'll see the mouth open. Deselect the jaw points by clicking in a blank area of the screen, or by pressing the minus sign (–) next to the Selection Set name in the Point Statistics panel. Turn off the Rotate tool by pressing the spacebar. From the M (Morph) list at the bottom right of the Modeler interface where you created your first endomorph, select New again. Name this new morph map Eyes.Blink and click OK. Select the Eyelids Selection Set from the Point Statistics panel. When the name is added to the list, press the white plus sign (+) next to the name to select the eyelid set on the left. Again, select the Rotate tool (y) and from the corner of the eye in the Right view, click and drag to the left to close the eyelids. You might need to move (t) them forward slightly on the negative z-axis to completely cover the eyeballs. Figure 12.11 shows the change. Figure 12.11 The Eyelids Selection Set is used to close the eyelids and create another endomorph. Turn off the Rotate tool, and deselect the eyelid points. Choose the base endomorph to view the eyelids open, and then choose the Eyes.Blink endomorph you just created. You'll see the eyes open and close. From this point on, you need to create the phonetics of speech. Doing so is easy with reference and Selection Sets. The model you've loaded for the previous exercise has the Selection Sets you need to begin shaping the mouth into proper phonetics. A model with many endomorphs already made is on the CD. The file is labeled Head_Morphs. This model has Selection Sets as well as a full set of endomorphs. When you get a chance, load this model into Modeler and look at the different endomorph positions. Before moving on to the next section, make a note of the following things to remember when creating endomorphs: Always select New from the M list before creating an endomorph. If you don't, you will end up making adjustments to an already set morph target. Use the something-dot-something naming convention to properly set up group assignments for the MorphMixer in Layout (for example, Mouth.Open and Mouth.Closed). The Mouth becomes a group, and Open and Closed become slider controls. You can of course create endomorphs without this convention to have one list of slider controls in Layout. The choice is yours. Although phonetic speech is complex, you can convincingly get away with making only vowel sounds and facial expressions. For example, A, E, I, O, and U, along with a smile, open mouth, frown, and grin, can create enough combinations of morphs for lip-syncing. Try using the Bkd-to-Morf command from the Map tab to create a morph map from a background object. For example, if you have multiple morph target objects—say, from a previous version of LightWave—you can combine these targets into one target with Bkd-to-Morf. With the LightWave 7 endomorph in the foreground and the morph target in a background, you can apply the tool to create a new morph map. Use the Copy Map command from the Map tab to copy one endomorph to another. For example, you've created an endomorph of a great smile. It took some time to get it just right. The next endomorph you need to create is similar to this smile but needs to be slightly different. If you select New to create a new endomorph, your model will jump back to the base model. Instead, run Copy Map, as seen in Figure 12.12. First, select the endomorph you want to copy. Run Copy Map and type in a new name. Back in the Endomorph list at the bottom right of the screen, you'll see the new endomorph. Select it and make any necessary adjustments. Copy Map enables you to take a preexisting endomorph and create a new endomorph from it. Figure 12.12 The Copy Map tool enables you to copy any of your morph maps. You can clear a map, morph or otherwise, by selecting the Clear Map command, also found under the Map tab. Select the morph map you want to clear, and then run the command, or press the underscore key (_). Clear removes the current VMap from the points. In other words it resets the map values to nil (that is, not zero). Right after you clear, you can edit the map. If you don't edit, it will soon disappear because the map is empty. This is different from Delete map. Delete kills the map immediately. When creating phonetics for speech, don't just move the lips. Too often, animators forget about the rest of the face, making their characters look stiff and unnatural. By the same token, don't just close the eyelids during a morph. Bring the bottom area of the eye up, and bring the brows down a bit, in addition to closing the lids. Take a look at the Head_Morphs object's Eyes.Blink endomorph. You'll see more movement in the eye area when applying the morph. Figures 12.13, 12.14, 12.15, and 12.16 show different facial expressions you can use as references. Figure 12.13 A look of pleasure. Notice how the lower lids of the eyes ride up, as do the cheeks, even though the eyes are closed. The facial expression is more than just a change to the mouth. Figure 12.14 A pucker. This expression is a morph target used for the letters P, B, U, Q, G, and O. Figure 12.15 The same face making the E sound. This can be a morph target for E, I, C, S, T, Z, and D. Figure 12.16 An open mouth. This can be used as a morph target for A, H, J, K, R, and Y. These figures and letter references are not rules, just guidelines. Remember that you can use just a percentage of a morph target, or you can blend targets to create different facial expressions. The examples here are good for many situations; if you are creating a larger production, or something that is higher profile (such as a network television show), however, you should consider modeling many morph targets. Although the vowel sounds can suffice for most everyday projects, taking the time up front to create morph targets of the full alphabet (a, b, c, d, and so on) will pay off in the long run. With all 26 letters of the alphabet created as morph targets, as well as many expressions (sad, happy, angry), you will never be at a loss for achieving the right look. From this point on, take some time and make many endomorph targets with different vowel sounds. Along with applying Selection Sets to points, the best way to shape the face of a character is to do it a few points at a time. It is situations such as this when modifying detailed areas of a character benefit from good modeling. Overbuilt models will give you more headaches than you can imagine. Making morph targets and phonetics for faces is exceedingly easy when the character is built with simple geometry, and sub-divided later. Endomorphs in Layout As much fun as you had creating different expressions for your character, when it comes to facial animation, the real fun is in Layout. LightWave's Layout gives you the tools you need to create talking characters. In the next exercise, you will load an audio track from the book's CD-ROM directly into Layout and animate the cover model of this book to the sound track. You'll use a displacement plug-in called MorphMixer, as well as the Graph Editor. LightWave has some features that can make your life much easier when it comes to bones, characters, and parented objects. It has always been a challenge for animators to parent eyeballs attached to a character head whose motions are controlled by bones. LightWave enables you to parent anything you want to bones. When you bring in a MultiMesh object, such as the head for this tutorial, there are separate layers with the head, eyeballs, teeth, and tongue. These layers can be parented to the head; but if the head has bones deforming it, the parented objects will not be deformed. Instead, you can parent the eyeballs directly to the controlling bone. To do this, select the item you want to parent, such as the eyeball, and press m on the keyboard to open the Motion Options panel. At the top for Parent Item, select the appropriate bone. After it is parented, the eyeball will follow the bone movement. The bone won't deform the item parented to it unless you tell the object to Use Bones From in the Bone Options panel. Another way to associate parented items with a boned layer is to use the same bones for every layer. For example, the head in the scene you'll load has two bones in it, just like the examples in Chapter 11, "Character Construction." The bones are associated with the hand object in that chapter. The other layers, such as the eyes, tongue, and teeth, have no bones. Essentially, every layer from Modeler is treated as an independent object. You can associate any layer of the object, such as the eyeballs, to the bones of the head. If you select the eyeball layer of the object and then switch to Bones mode, for example, you'll see that the current item listing for bones reads [none]. Even so, pressing the p key brings you into the Bones Properties for the eyeball layer. At the top of the interface, you can specify to Use Bones From Object, such as the head. Figure 12.17 shows the panel. Note - Applying the Use Bones from Object method is great, but you will not be able to independently animate these associated objects. The bones from the selected object will solely influence them. Figure 12.17 You can assign any layer of an object to Use Bones From Object. Exercise 12.3 Creating Talking Characters For this exercise, be sure to save any work you've done, and then select Clear Layout from the File drop-down list. Also save any work you might have back in Modeler and close Modeler. Using audio in Layout requires more system resources than normal, and because you won't need any program other than LightWave Layout, close them all now. In Layout, load the LW7_head_morphs scene from the book's CD-ROM. This is a version of the cover head that you can use for setting up lip sync. The eyeballs, tongue, and teeth are parented to the head. Figure 12.18 shows the scene. Note that the camera is cheated over to the left to leave room for use of the MorphMixer panel. Select the Objects button at the bottom of Layout. Press the p key to enter the Object Properties panel. You'll see under the Geometry tab that the Display SubPatch Level is set to 1 for faster display in Layout, but the Render SubPatch Level is set to 4, creating a high-quality model when rendering. Figure 12.18 Here is the LW7_head_morphs scene when loaded. The Display SubPatch Level is set to 1 for faster updates in Layout. Show SubPatch Cages also is turned on from the Display Options tab (d) in the Preferences panel. You can turn this display off if you want. Note - Remember that the SubPatch level is set independently for each object in the Object Properties panel. Also under the Geometry tab of the Item Properties panel for the head, you'll find the Subdivision Order drop-down list. This is important for SubPatched objects in Layout. Figure 12.19 shows the list. Figure 12.19 This is the Subdivision Order list within the Geometry tab of the Item Properties for an object. These settings tell LightWave when you want the SubPatch data calculated. By default, the value is set to First, meaning LightWave will subdivide the object before applying effects such as displacement. Figure 12.20 shows the head model morphed with the Subdivision Order set to First. Figure 12.20 With the Subdivision Order set to First, your object will be subdivided and then morphed (for lip-syncing). With this order, your morph is stretching the final model, resulting in a cracked surface. Note the corners of the mouth and the brow area in this image. With Subdivision Order, you can choose from First, After Morphing, After Displacement, After Bones, After Motion, and Last. Figure 12.21 shows how the same model looks in Layout with Subdivision Order set to Last. Figure 12.21 With Subdivision Order set to Last, the cracked surface at the corner of the lips is no longer there, and the brow area is smooth. As you can see, changing (or setting) the Subdivision Order is important to your projects. For this exercise, set the Subdivision Order to Last for best results. Because you're working only with the head, you don't need to change the subdivision order for the objects in other layers. Do change them, however, if you are applying morphs to them. Note - Using Subdivision Order set to Last, your system performance will suffer slightly. Be patient. Also you'll need to be aware of the Subdivision Order setting for other areas within LightWave (such as Motion Designer for soft body dynamics, explained in Chapter 21, "Motion Designer Creations"). Set your Current Object to Head_Morphs:Head from the top of the Object Properties panel, and then select the Deformations tab. From the Add Displacement list, select MorphMixer. Figure 12.22 shows the selection. You should see the words Mixing 12 MORFs in three Groups under the Name column. Figure 12.22 Selecting the displacement plug-in MorphMixer applies the MorphMixer to your object. Double-click this selection listing to open the MorphMixer panel. Figure 12.23 shows the MorphMixer interface. You can see in the image that there are three groups across the top. As discussed earlier, if you create new endomorphs with the Mouth.Open (or Eyes.Blink) style, the Mouth portion of the name is now a tab or group. You can see that sliders have been created for the second part of the name. Here, the Eyes are a group, and Blink is a control slider. Figure 12.23 The MorphMixer interface shows all the endomorphs created in Modeler. Close the Object Properties panel, leaving only the MorphMixer panel open. Move the panel down to the right so that the model in Layout is in view, as in Figure 12.24. Note - If you have a dual-monitor setup, now is the time to use it. Figure 12.24 LightWave's non-modal panels enable you to keep the MorphMixer window open and move it aside while working. Click in the Layout window, and then press the d key to call up the Display Options tab. Be sure to set the Bounding Box Threshold to 6000 or higher. If you want to see the teeth, eyes, and other objects as well, you'll need to set the threshold higher than 11,000. Make sure your system can handle it. With a Display SubPatch level of 1 for the head object, and a threshold of 6000, the head object will remain solid while using MorphMixer. Back in the MorphMixer panel, click and drag the slider labeled Open from the Mouth group. Watch the mouth open on the character. You'll also notice that a small key mark has been added to the end of the slider, telling you a keyframe has been made. Figure 12.25 shows the mark. The timeline slider in Layout was at frame 0. By moving the slider for Open in the MorphMixer window, you instantly created a keyframe of an open mouth at frame 0. Figure 12.25 Clicking a slider button and either sliding it or not creates a keyframe, which is represented by the small key mark in the MorphMixer window. Now, move the timeline slider in Layout to frame 10. Back in the MorphMixer panel, click the Face tab. You'll see four sliders for the face: Frustrated, Grin, Happy, and Sad. Drag the Frustrated slider to 100 percent. You'll see the model update in Layout. You now have made a combination of Mouth.Open and Face.Frustrated endomorphs. If you make a small preview in Layout, you can see the face with an open mouth at frame 0 and a frustrated look at frame 10. Some basics apply to setting up MorphMixer with an endomorph character. Try different settings, different timings, and different combinations of morphs to see what you can come up with. Also take your time to get a feel for how the sliders work in combination with other groups in the model. Exercise 12.4 Animating with Audio This exercise uses LightWave's audio feature to do more with endomorphs and the MorphMixer plug-in. What good is a cool morphing plug-in without audio to sync it up to? With the LW7_head_morphs scene from Exercise 12.3 loaded, open Layout's Scene Editor. From the Audio drop-down list at the top of the interface, select Load Audio, as in Figure 12.26. Load the wouldnt.wav audio file from the book's CD-ROM. Figure 12.26 You can load a WAV file into Layout to time your animations, or to lip-sync characters to it. Click the Fixed Frequency option in the Audio drop-down list to keep the audio playing at the right pitch in Layout. Also from the Audio drop-down list, select Play Audio. You should hear "wouldn't you like to know." This is the audio file to which you'll animate. Close the Scene Editor. If you look at the timeline in Layout, you'll see a visual representation of your audio, as in Figure 12.27. This is a helpful guide when lip-syncing characters. Figure 12.27 Adding audio to Layout is represented by a visual graph in the timeline. Open the MorphMixer panel to animate the face of the character. Move the panel to the side but above the Layout timeline so that everything is visible. You'll be using both the Layout timeline and the MorphMixer panel. Drag the Layout timeline back and forth and you'll hear the loaded audio. Listen carefully. What is being said and at what frame? Repeat the words and pay attention to the shape of your mouth. To say the first word of the audio ("wouldn't"), the mouth starts to open and then closes just five frames later. At frame 0, slide the Mouth.Open slider to 0 percent. You can just type 0% percent into the MorphMixer panel as well. This closes the mouth. At frame 2, slide the Mouth.Pucker to 30 percent and Mouth.Open to 60 percent. Now move the Layout timeline to 5. You'll hear the "n't" part of "wouldn't," and you can start to hear the "y" sound of "you," the next word in the audio track. At frame 5, bring the Mouth.Pucker slider back to 25 percent. Bring the Mouth.Oooo slider to 25 percent as well. A keyframe is automatically created for you. Now, around frames 7 to 11, the "you" sound is happening. Here you can accentuate the "y" part of "you" before the character opens her mouth again to say the "ou" part of the word. At frame 8, move the Mouth.Oooo slider to about 80 percent and the Open slider to 15 percent. You'll see that the mouth of the character changes slightly. This adds a nice, soft transition between morph targets and avoids linear change between keyframes. At frame 11, bring all the sliders back to 0 percent and bring the Eeee slider to 60 percent for the "l" in "like." Move the Layout timeline to frame 13 and you'll hear the "i" part of the "like to know" phrase. Drag the Open slider to about 42 percent. As you can see, you can get away with making a character talk without many phonetic morph targets. If you create the vowel sounds, you can re-create most speech patterns. Of course, a full endomorph with proper phonetics is always best if you have the time (or better, the client is paying for it). At frame 16, the audio finishes the word "like" and begins to say "to know," so set a keyframe at 16 with the muth closed (all sliders at 0 percent) and then opened slightly at frame 18 or 19. This will keep the mouth closed right until the time it should speak and then close slightly after frame 18. From here, move the Oooo slider to 50 percent and the Open slider to 30 percent to shape the character's lips to the "to." This is the next syllable the character will say at about frame 22 or so. This is where you'll hear the "know" part of "wouldn't you like to know." Bring the Mmmm slider up to 45 percent and the Pucker slider to 70 percent, for the "n" part of "know" At frame 24. Finally, at frame 29, bring the Pucker slider to 0 pecent. At frame 32, bring the Oooo slider to 0 percent. The offset of these two values closing makes the mouth less stiff when closing. One morph happens, and then the next. Another thing you can do is copy and paste the Morph Mixer settings to other object layers, such as the teeth. In the Object Properties panel where you added the Morph Mixer plug-in, you can select Copy from the Edit drop-down list. Then select the Teeth object layer and select Paste. The morphs you've set up for the face are now applied to the teeth, and they'll animate in conjunction with the face. From this point on, you can drag the Layout timeline, listen to the audio, adjust the endomorph, and continue making the character talk. Here's a rule to work by: Do it until it looks right! There's no set formula for creating the perfect endomorph character. Use your morph targets together to make your character look and act the way you want. After you have the mouth positions set, you can go back to frame 0 in the Layout timeline and then start adding other endomorph groups. As the character begins talking, for example, choose the Eyes.Blink endomorph and make her blink. Move through the timeline listening to the audio, and when you feel that the character should blink, set the endomorph. At the end of the audio file, she giggles. Go to the Face tab and where you hear the laugh begin (about frame 37), click the Happy slider handle once. Just click it, don't move it. This will create a keyframe for it at that position and you'll see the small key symbol appear to the right. Then a few frames later at about frame 44, bring the slider to 100 percent. From there, bring it back to 0 percent at frame 53 or so. This tells LightWave not to start the smile until frame 37. Otherwise, the morph would begin at frame 0 through 44! Remember that you need to set a keyframe to keep the eyes open until the blink occurs. If not, the blink will begin from the last keyframe, which could result in a blink taking many seconds! Most blinks happen in about three frames—three frames to close, three frames to open. If you set up endomorphs for the eyelids individually, you can offset the blinks. This is great for expressive character animation. Continue just like you have in these steps. Drag the Layout timeline slider, listen to the audio, and then adjust your morph target. You'll be doing this over and over to make sure your audio is in sync with the character's face. It becomes quite repetitive, and sometimes confusing, when you hear the same audio track over and over. When this happens, take a break and come back to the animation. You'll be better for it. You also can make a preview of the animation for better playback. Do this by selecting Make Preview from the Preview drop-down list at the bottom right of the Layout interface. Note - You can load the LW7_head_lipsync scene from the book's CD-ROM to see the scene described here. However, audio files do not load even if they are in a scene when saved. You'll need to load the audio file as described in step 1 of Exercise 12.4. Be aware that this audio will not render with your animation. It must be added in a third-party editing software package such as Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Speed Razor, Video Toaster 2, or any other video editing application that handles WAV files. Endomorphs and the Graph Editor At times, the MorphMixer panel may just not be enough. This is when you could use LightWave's Graph Editor. At the bottom of the MorphMixer interface is a button labeled Graph Editor. Entering the Graph Editor through the MorphMixer panel automatically loads the channels of the endomorphs. This enables you to see and grab the keyframes and adjust the values in real time. Figure 12.28 shows the Graph Editor, as accessed through the MorphMixer. Figure 12.28 The Graph Editor might be your choice for better control or just timing adjustments for your morphs. Here, LightWave Layout has been sized down, the MorphMixer panel moved to the right, and the Graph Editor moved to the bottom. This configuration enables you to see all your controls simultaneously. You don't always need to use the MorphMixer interface for editing endomorphs. Using the Graph Editor can be superior because you can delete and move keys. MorphMixer is very limited because you can create and adjust existing keys only, however you still need to access the channels in Graph Editor through the MorphMixer panel. By accessing the Graph Editor through the MorphMixer window, the channels will be entered into the Graph Editor. Any time you open the Graph Editor after that, you will see each endomorph channel of motion. You also will see the keyframes created by MorphMixer. Using the Graph Editor for endomorphs enables you to precisely control keyframes by adding them, deleting them, or adjusting values. Of course, you'll have real-time feedback in Layout. Using the Graph Editor to tweak your lip-syncing projects is highly recommended, because you can cross-reference channels with others. In Figure 12.28, for example, the Mouth.Ffff channel is selected as well as two others, and you can see the curve with keyframes in the Curve Window. The other channels are visible in the background. This is beneficial because you can see whether a facial expression is overriding a mouth position, or perhaps an eyeblink is drifting over too many frames. Note - If you've set up groups for the MorphMixer in Modeler, such as Mouth.Open, clicking the Graph Editor button from a specific tab in the Morph Mixer panel adds those channels to the Channel Bin in the Graph Editor. But what if you need to add the channels from the Eye tab or another morph group you've created? If you take a look at the Scene Display portion of the Graph Editor in the lower-left corner, you'll see all of your object's motion channels, as well as its morph channels. Just add a channel as necessary. Chapter 5, "LightWave 7 Graph Editor," describes the Graph Editor in detail. In addition to using the Graph Editor to edit and create keyframes for your endomorph character, you can use modifiers to automate endomorphs. The following exercise shows you how to add modifiers to endomorphs. Exercise 12.5 Adding Endomorph Modifiers Load the LW7_head_graph scene into Layout. Go to the Objects Properties panel and select the HeadMorphs:Head object. Add and open the MorphMixer plug-in (Deformations tab, Add Displacement). Select the Eyes group, and click the Graph Editor button from within the MorphMixer panel. The Graph Editor opens and the Eyes.Blink channel is in the Curve Bin. Click the Modifiers tab in the Graph Editor and from the Add Modifier list select Oscillator. After it's loaded, double-click the oscillator listing to open its control panel. In the Oscillator panel, change the Cycle time to .5, making the blinks occur every half-second. All the other settings are okay at their defaults. You can, however, change the Damping to 25 percent or so, to make the oscillator modifier fade off toward the last frame of the animation. If you set a value for Damping, you'll see the change reflected in the curve line in the Oscillator panel. Close the Oscillator panel, and press the Play button in Layout. You'll see the character blink repeatedly, and you didn't set up keyframes. You can do this for objects, envelopes, morphs, and so on. Note - The only way to clear endomorph keyframes is through the Graph Editor. Using modifiers with endomorphs is much more powerful than the basics in this exercise. You can easily create repeating motions with offsets. You can modify an endomorph in Modeler and assign the change to the modified channel. Suppose, for example, that you've set up the Oscillator plug-in for the eyes. Perhaps your client wants you to make the ears wiggle while the eyes blink. Instead of adding another channel to the ears, you can assign the Ear selection to the Eyes.Blink endomorph in Modeler. Saving the changed object updates Layout, in turn updating the channels the oscillator modifies. You must have the LightWave Hub running for updates between Modeler and Layout. Note - You need to remember that a keyframe will drift if it is not locked down. If you want the character to blink 16 frames into the animation, for example, setting only a keyframe at frame 16 will make a blink that's 16 frames long—very slow. Instead, remember to create a keyframe a few frames before the blink so that the eyes stay open until it's time for them to blink. Experiment with other modifiers, such as the AudioChannel modifier. This modifier enables you to load an audio clip and assign it to a channel. If you selected the Mouth.Open channel and applied the AudioChannel modifier, LightWave would move the endomorph based on the strength and weakness of the audio waveform. You might need to adjust the values to get the right effect. You might think, why not use this for making the character talk! The AudioChannel modifier is really useful for things such as animated VU meters (VU is short for "volume units," a measure of average audio power). It also is useful for any movement that needs to be modified to match a sound. You can load a music file with the AudioChannel (double-click to open the controls) and assign the modifier to a channel. Additional Lip-Sync Tools LightWave has just about everything you need for quality character animation work. Its methods, however, might not be suited for you. If that's the case, there is another program that works with LightWave, but it is a standalone application. Magpie Pro, from Third Wish Software, offers the user an integrated set of tools for lip-syncing characters. It uses prerendered thumbnail images and also can reference an AVI file. You can even load 3D objects into Magpie Pro as well. Figure 12.29 shows the Magpie Pro interface. Figure 12.29 Magpie Pro is a third-party software application that can enhance your lip-syncing capabilities. Magpie Pro can be used to scrub the audio track and manually fill the exposure sheet frame by frame to obtain a highly detailed animation, or it can automatically analyze the audio and fill the exposure sheet. Magpie Pro's audio support is excellent, providing real-time feedback of your character lip-syncing. Besides syncing character mouths to audio tracks, you can use Magpie Pro to sync almost anything to the audio. It also can be used as a timing tool without the need for an audio track. Magpie Pro provides export options to many 3D animation programs, generating animation files with the preview contents. Another cool feature of Magpie Pro is that you can print the exposure sheet of your audio track as reference for setting up animations and timing. The software exports its information for LightWave. Check out Magpie Pro at http://www.thirdwish.simplenet.com. Using SockMonkey Earlier in this chapter you learned about Selection Sets. Although the information described earlier is simple, you can use Selection Sets for lip-syncing. What SockMonkey does is give you the power to control Selection Sets directly in Layout. It's easy, just follow along: Clear Layout and load the Head_Sets object from the book's CD-ROM. This is a model with a number of Selection Sets applied. Select the Head_Sets:Skin object and press p to open the Object Properties panel. First, make sure the Subdivision Order is set to Last under the Geometry tab. Then under the Deformations tab, select SockMonkey from the Add Displace-ment drop-down list. When added, double-click the listing to open the plug-in interface. Figure 12.30 shows the panel. Figure 12.30 The SockMonkey displacement plug-in enables you to directly control Selection Sets in Layout. In the SockMonkey panel, under the Relationship setup, choose the Vertex Group Type. By default this option shows Selection Sets; but if you click and drop down the list, you'll also see an option for Weight Maps. For now, choose Selection Sets. Click and hold the Vertex Group drop-down list. Look what's in the list—all the Selection Sets created in Modeler. For now, leave this set to [none]. You would normally choose one of these for specific control. Instead, you're going to set up the entire object with SockMonkey. The Control Item is useful for setting up a null object—for instance, to control a Selection Set. An easier way to set up SockMonkey is to click the Auto Setup Object option, as pictured in Figure 12.31. Click the Auto Setup Object button. Figure 12.31 SockMonkey's Auto Setup Object option easily assigns the plug-in to selection sets. When you click the Auto Setup Object button, you'll see all the relationships added in the SockMonkey display window, as in Figure 12.32. If you click any of these listings, you have controls available at the bottom of the interface for line pattern display, bounding box, color, and more. Figure 12.32 Auto Setup Object sets up control items (nulls) for the Selection Sets. Click Continue to close the panel. In Layout, click and hold the Current Item list for Objects (from the bottom of the Layout interface). You'll see your list of objects, but also your Selection Sets, as in Figure 12.33. Figure 12.33 When you apply SockMonkey to an object and use the Auto Setup Object option, you'll have control over each Selection Set directly in Layout through the Current Item list. In Layout, select Head_Sets:Skin_LowerLip and rotate (y) on the Pitch (green handle). Watch the lip move. Try moving some other Selection Set controls this way. You'll see how you can quickly and easily Control Items in Layout with Selection Sets applied. Here are few things to remember when using SockMonkey: When using the Auto Object Setup, SockMonkey sets up control items for each Selection Set. Because each Control Item is seen as a separate object, they each need to have their Subdivision Order set to Last. Do this under the Geometry tab of the Objects panel. The control for each Selection Set will be located at the 0,0,0 axis. This location will most likely be in the middle of the main object. Knowing what SockMonkey can do with your Selection Sets, think ahead while working in Modeler and building objects. You can use SockMonkey for all kinds of objects instead of morphing, and it's good for lip-syncing. Setting Up Skelegons for Facial Deformation Creating endomorphs in Modeler for a face, and then using MorphMixer in Layout to animate those morph targets, is a great way to go. At times, however, using bones rather than, or even with MorphMixer is a good idea. Of course, the choice is up to you and your project at hand. This next exercise shows you how and where to place bones in a character's face for facial animation. Exercise 12.6 Placing Bones for Facial Animation In Modeler, load the BoneHead_Blank object from the book's CD. Go to an empty layer, and place layer 1 (the head) in a background layer. Figure 12.34 shows the setup. Figure 12.34 A new layer is brought to the foreground, and the head object layer is in the background. From the Create tab, select Skelegons. In the Right view, click and drag up in the center of the neck to create a Skelegon for the neck area. Click above the initial Skelegon, creating another Skelegon to the back of the jaw, as in Figure 12.35. These two bones will act as anchors for the head, and give added control. Then add one larger bone for the head itself. Figure 12.35 Create three Skelegons in a hierarchy, starting at the neck, up to the back of the jaw, to the head. Press the spacebar to turn off the Skelegon tool. Now you'll create an additional hierarchy. This setup will control the lower jaw area of the face. From the Right view, starting at the bottom of the jaw, draw out a Skelegon about 30mm, to the front of the jaw. Create another Skelegon from there by clicking once under the lip, as in Figure 12.36. Figure 12.36 Starting at the base of the jaw, start a Skelegon chain. Create two Skelegons for the chin area. Note - You can use the Skelegon Tree from the Detail tab to see your Skelegon hierarchy and rename the Skelegons for clarity. Make sure the last Skelegon you created is selected (front of the chin) and continue and create three more Skelegons by clicking up toward the lower lip in the Back view, looking at the front of the face. Click once to the right of the lower lip about half way to the corner of the mouth, about 10mm, and click again at the corner of the mouth. Figure 12.37 shows the three new Skelegons. Remember to adjust your Skelegons by clicking and dragging within the small circles at the end of each Skelegon. Clicking outside the circles will create additional child Skelegons, so be careful. Figure 12.37 Continue creating three more Skelegons for the jaw area up through the lip. Press the spacebar to turn off the Skelegon tool. Select the two bones to the right of center, and using the Mirror tool (Ctrl+v), mirror the selected Skelegons to the left side of the lip, as in Figure 12.38. Be sure that the Merge Points option is enabled in the numeric window for the Mirror tool. Because these two Skelegons were child Skelegons of the center lower lip bone, the mirrored bones are children of that Skelegon as well. To see the hierarchy, open the Skelegon Tree from the Detail tab. Note - When you create the Skelegons, before you press the spacebar to turn off the Skelegon tool, you can click and drag directly within the small circles at the end of each Skelegon to position them. Carefully position the Skelegons using all views so that they line up within the upper lip area. Figure 12.38 After the right side of the lip's Skelegons have been created and positioned using the Drag tool, you can mirror them to the left side. Select the five Skelegons that make up the lower lip, and in the Right view, mirror them to the upper lip, as in Figure 12.39. Figure 12.39 Because the upper lip resembles the lower, you can just mirror the Skelegons rather than rebuild them. Use the Drag tool to position the upper lip Skelegons so that they are centered within the lip area. You also might use the Move tool to move the Skelegons into place and then use the Drag tool for added detailed placement. Press the spacebar to turn off any tool that you've been using. You're going to want more control over the mouth area, so draw two separate Skelegons on either side of the nose, as in Figure 12.40. Figure 12.40 Add more control for the mouth area by adding two separate Skelegons on each side of the nose. Now add some control in the jaw. From the Right view, click and draw out a Skelegon starting at the base of the ear, down toward the chin. Create three Skelegons. Position the hierarchy using the Move and Drag tools, paying attention to their positioning in all views. Figure 12.41 shows the new Skelegons. Figure 12.41 A hierarchy of Skelegons is created on one side of the face for the jaw area, down to the chin, and mirrored to the other side of the face. You can add even more control in the face by creating a couple of Skelegons for the cheeks. Draw out one Skelegon, remembering to position it using the Move and Drag tools as needed, paying attention to all views. Once in place, mirror it to the other side of the face. Figure 12.42 shows the cheek Skelegons. Figure 12.42 Cheek Skelegons are set in place for added control. Press the spacebar to turn off any tools you might have been using. Now you can create the Skelegons for the eye area. Similar to the lower lip, start below the right eye and create three Skelegons—one up, and then two to the right. Use the Drag tool to position the Skelegons. Figure 12.43 shows the Skelegons. Figure 12.43 The lower eye hierarchy is started, beginning below the eye. To make things easy, select the two Skelegons to the right of the lower eye. Then select the Mirror tool (Ctrl+v) from the Multiply tab and mirror them on the y-axis. Figure 12.44 shows the action. Figure 12.44 The two Skelegons of the lower eye are mirrored, finishing the hierarchy for the lower eye. You can use the Drag tool if needed to adjust and position the mirrored Skelegons. Mirror the entire lower eye hierarchy to the upper eye, and then mirror those eye Skelegons to the other side of the face. Adjust with the Drag tool as needed. Figure 12.45 shows the final structure for the eyes. Figure 12.45 The lower-right eye Skelegons have been mirrored to the upper-right eye. That entire structure has been mirrored to the other side of the face. Save your object if you haven't already. Now add just a few control bones for the eyebrow area and nose. Figure 12.46 shows the selection. Figure 12.46 A few more Skelegons complete the Skelegon structure for the face. Two Skelegons are added for the eyebrows, and three Skelegons are built down the nose. The full facial Skelegon structure has been created. Save your object. Figure 12.46 shows the full Skelegon structure. Send the object to Layout. With the object loaded in Layout, convert the Skelegons to bones (Item tab, Add, Bones, Convert Skelegons to Bones). Select the Bonehead:skin object layer and click the Bones button. Then click the Item Properties button. In the Properties panel, for Use Bones From Object selection, choose the layer with your Skelegons. Figure 12.47 shows the selection. Figure 12.47 Because the Skelegons were created in their own layer in Modeler, you need to tell the head object to use those Skelegons with the Use Bones From Object option. Select the first bone you created for the base of the chin. This bone is located below the chin, lying flat on the z-axis. Press y to rotate, and click and drag on the green rotational handle to rotate the pitch. Note that Show Handles should be On from the Display Options tab (d). Rotate the mouth open a bit. Select a bone in the upper eye and move it down slightly. You'll see the eyelid begin to close. Note - Changing your model so that the mouth is wide open can help make lip motions easier. From here, adjust the bones and set keyframes to animate the face. Although this setup is just a basic overview, the process had been started for you to continue and add additional control bones, and perhaps weight the face for added animation control. Animating a Bat with Bones Timing and movement are so important to animation that they're something you'll always perfect. Keep your eyes open. Motion information that you can use in your animations is all around you. Suppose, for example, that you want to animate a human walk cycle. You can get relative information just by watching your coworker move across the room. Other motions are often hard to reference, however, such as motions of animals or birds. Exercise 12.7 Flapping Bat Wings with Bones In this exercise, you're going to rotate the bones of a bat to make the wings flat. A slight offset on the outer bones will provide for a less rigid movement. You also will move the bones in the body so that more than just the wings are moving. The scene you'll use is a bat with bones already in place, which were created with Skelegons. It also has weights set on the arms for added control. Load the BatBoneKeyMe scene from the accompanying CD. Select Bone02(3). Press y to rotate. Note the rotational position for the Pitch—it's at –45 degrees. This is your first frame. You'll want the last frame to be at this exact position as well so that the wing can loop. So, with the bone in this position, create a keyframe at 15. Now rotate the bone on its pitch about 43 degrees (downward). Create a keyframe at frame 7. Press the down arrow to select the next bone, Bone03(2). Its keyframe at 0 shows the bone rotated at –55.0 degrees on the Pitch. Create a keyframe for this bone's position at 15. Rotate it downward to 30.0 degrees and create a keyframe at frame 7. Also create a keyframe in this same position at frame 9. This bone will lag behind the first bone, creating a slight extra motion so that the wing sort of sweeps down, instead of just rotating. Select the next Bone04(2) and note its initial position at frame 0 to 45 degrees. Create a keyframe for it at this position for frame 15. Rotate it on the Pitch to –37.00 and create a keyframe at 7. Then rotate it to 70.00 and create a keyframe at 9. Figure 12.48 shows the first wing in position. Figure 12.48 The bat's right wing is put into motion after movement of just a few bones. With the same bone selected (Bone04(2)), open the Graph Editor. Select the Position P (pitch) channel, and set the Post Behavior to Repeat. Do the same for the other two bones in the wing. You can set the exact motions for the bones on the bat's left wing, making sure to set the Post Behavior to Repeat as well. When you keyframe the bones on the left side of the bat, however, offset the timing by a frame or two. Also don't use the exact rotations for the bones—vary them a bit for added realism. Select the bat's body bone, Bone01(1). At frame 0, you'll see the Pitch is set to –3.03. Create a keyframe for this position at frame 15. Then rotate it to 5.0 degrees on the pitch and create a keyframe at 6. Also repeat its Post Behavior in the Graph Editor. Drag through the timeline and you'll see the bat flapping its wings, while its body is slightly moving. From this point, use the same formula to animate other bones of the bat, such as the feet, neck, and head. If the wings swoop downward, the neck and head would raise up a bit, and vice versa. Here are a few things to remember: Make sure the first and last frames are the same for looping motions. Add secondary motion to the object's body. Don't forget to animate the feet and/or legs as well. When rotating the bones in the wing, add a slight offset by adding extra keyframes for child bones so that the wings are fluid and not as stiff. This technique is very useful for bats, birds, and even dragons. The Next Step On the accompanying CD, you will find 10 various WAV audio clips. These are here for you to use to animate your characters. Use the models on the CD to make endomorphs and try to animate them to the audio provided. The details in this chapter have given you enough references and examples so that you can build your own characters with expression and personality and make them come to life. Remember that you can use the Audio feature in Layout for more than just lip-syncing. You can use the Audio feature to time your animations. By listening to the audio track, you can quickly determine what position a character should take. More importantly, you'll know exactly when to change the character's position (because the change will be based on the timing of the audio). Use the bones in the sample animation to move the character's head around after you assign morph targets for speech. When the animation is timed up, you can render it and, in your favorite editing solution, such as the Video Toaster, attach the audio clip you've been using as a reference to the final animation. They will time up perfectly. Summary You can read all the chapters in all the books you want, but the real magic of being an animator comes from practice. Experiment, practice, and always keep learning. No matter where you are in your career, whether a student, hobbyist, or professional, learning character animation takes patience and time. Throughout this chapter, tips and tricks were mentioned to help you along your way. It's up to you to take this knowledge of endomorphs, SubPatches, MorphMixer, and SockMonkey and put it all together to create the type of characters and animations you've always wanted. © Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.