3D Taking Character..

Destiny

Destiny

0
Hi.. We are running test to see if we can get a 3D talking character to talk in a Virtual Reality scene. We asked the forum at Character Creator but their solution is to download the software and use the free characters.. The issue for us, we only have a Mac, and a little note book we use of school to show slideshows to our students. Its not up to running such a app.. So we are back to square one. We know some animated characters work in the FBX formate, but we have yet to find a talking FBX character. We think it has to have bones, really do not think morphing will work.. We tried a character from Poser. The head bobs but no lip motions..

So we thought we would ask here.. We just need a basic talking character, no hair since that is not supported. Like a 3D Taking toon. Years ago we had a taking fish but software get updated and many of our old project just won't work anymore. So,,,, Does anyone have a 3D taking toon we can use to test if it works. We both have been at this for a long time.. We have the idea but lack the skills to make one..

Even better if the model was made in Cheetah.... We have been spending a lot of time lately trying to learn animations..

Thank you..
 
If a Poser character is possible, why don't you use a MakeHuman character? With this one you can also move the lips.
I once had my character Marty speak. He is based on a MakeHuman skeleton, and could also be exported as FBX. But it was very difficult because it's manually animated - no automatic lip sync. How do you want to animate it?

youtube.com

Marty thanks the Cheetah3D forum

youtube.com youtube.com

marty_facerig.jpg


A fish is also a good idea. It would be easy to make and you don't have to animate so much. I recently made a kind of fish (also with bones for the facial animation), where it's actually enough to open and close the mouth. And the fish can be made much easier. I think a simple, cartoony fish would be quickly modelled and rigged.

fish.gif


fish_rig.jpg



Another idea would be: I once made toy figures that were supposed to look like nutcrackers. You could make them even simpler and animate them. The animation wouldn't have to be so soft and fluid, because they are wooden figures. (Or like LEGO characters) And you could make a mouth that just flips open downwards, like a nutcracker. Just open and close, without any complicated lip movements. I think you wouldn't even need a skeleton for that.

toys.png



I just want to say that if it's a more complex character, like MakeHuman, it would have to be more elaborately animated as a whole.
You worked with this emoji from your profile picture some time ago. It could also just be a sun or a simple flower or something similar, so basically it's just a talking face.
Long story short: How complex should the character be and how should the facial animation be done? Automatically?
(Maybe you already have a character whose face could be made animatable with simple means)
 
Hey there.. Wow wow wow.. Your Marty is wonderful.. So funny.. Wonderful.. I wonder if your Marty would work in a VR.. My issue is, I make things years ago, but then they do not work after updates to software.. Many years ago, I made the little Yellow MM talk and a Blue Fish. I use Poser with Mimic. Just wonderful. But then due to upgrades nothing worked. I really want to wind back my little laptop and put Windows XP on it. Then my old Poser and Mimic will work.. I hope.. Mac went all 64bit and with that, some really great software went with it since it was only 32 bit.. I hate upgrade.. I never save my animations in the FBX formate because I did not know about it. I have heard about Make Human but when I checked it out, there was no Mac version. I just checked again, I think there is a Mac version now.. But I am confused by the download links. The Blue fish was awesome when it worked with Mimic, but the new Poser uses Talk Designer with a Viseme Map.. Now the Blue Fish will not talk.
 

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The main thing is, if the talking character saved in the FBX formate does not talk/animate in the FBX player, it will not work in a VR..
 
We have more time to play with all this after the end of next Term.. For the past 2 years or so, we have been sooo busy so we have not done anything in the 3D world.. Work, moving home and many other things took over. But we are retiring at the end of this year!.. Oh yay.. NO MORE TEACHING!!!!.
 
Destiny said:
Our daughter loves your Marty.. Really very cleaver.. Well done!..
Click to expand...
Thank you very much!
I have never worked with VR or Poser, so I can't help much. But Marty could at least be exported as an animated FBX. He's animated with controllers that disappear in FBX, but if you select "Bake IK" in the take before exporting, it should work.
With the pose tag, as with your fish, you can also create different facial expressions or specific letters for lip sync. But I think that would be way too complicated and time-consuming, and I still don't know how to do it easily and quickly for longer texts.

Bildschirmfoto 2023-09-02 um 13.13.59 Kopie.jpg
 
Hi Destiny
* I found a female face with a morph tag. Some 40 different targets have been set up with reasonably descriptive titles.
* It may make sense to split this mega tag into individual tags for mouth & lips (= language) and dump the rest (= facial expressions, probably less interesting).
* You can then study a take from the Simpsons (or Disney or put a mirror on your desk) and analyse what happens when specific phonems are enunciated.
* If you are interested, I can upload the associated .jas for some tests.

Screenshot 2023-09-02 at 13.16.46.png
 
Oh, one more idea, if the character can be very simple and the lip sync should be automatic, maybe these scripts would be something for you:

Sound Loader.js + F-Curve Controller.js demo

Sound Loader.js + F-Curve Controller.js demo Hello, I made some demo movie with my latest scripts. demo movie: https://youtu.be/54B9-l6lc-k Best tg_jp, Hiroto
www.cheetah3d.com www.cheetah3d.com

It might be a bit jerky and isn't a real lip sync with lip movements but it's quickly done and you can use several F-Curve Controller tags for different bones. I did a quick test with the fish. The upper and lower jaw bones follow the sound. When it is done with bones, you can save the animation as FBX. (First bake the f-curve to target, then bake IK in the take, then save as FBX)

fish_talks.gif
 
Helmut said:
Hi Destiny
* I found a female face with a morph tag. Some 40 different targets have been set up with reasonably descriptive titles.
* It may make sense to split this mega tag into individual tags for mouth & lips (= language) and dump the rest (= facial expressions, probably less interesting).
* You can then study a take from the Simpsons (or Disney or put a mirror on your desk) and analyse what happens when specific phonems are enunciated.
* If you are interested, I can upload the associated .jas for some tests.

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Hi Helmut. What I am really interested in is seeing IF a talking FBX will actually work in a VR.. All of the FBX animation I created in C4D never worked and the FBX is the only format I can use at the moment.. I have asked for the ABC but who knows if they will do that... But they do not work in the FBX player ether so I would bet its C4D or the way they are created. Since my 3D knowledge is sooo limited, I have no idea.. Well, actually, I have the ides just not the skills. :( If I can see a taking character talking I know it can be done and I can focus on this a lot more.. But at the moment I do not have any demo models.. So anything you can share so I can test I would be very grateful.. The models do not have to be anything special, as long as their lips etc are moving. I can add the audio in later on the Sequence Composer makes.
 
Lydia said:
Oh, one more idea, if the character can be very simple and the lip sync should be automatic, maybe these scripts would be something for you:

Sound Loader.js + F-Curve Controller.js demo

Sound Loader.js + F-Curve Controller.js demo Hello, I made some demo movie with my latest scripts. demo movie: https://youtu.be/54B9-l6lc-k Best tg_jp, Hiroto
www.cheetah3d.com www.cheetah3d.com

It might be a bit jerky and isn't a real lip sync with lip movements but it's quickly done and you can use several F-Curve Controller tags for different bones. I did a quick test with the fish. The upper and lower jaw bones follow the sound. When it is done with bones, you can save the animation as FBX. (First bake the f-curve to target, then bake IK in the take, then save as FBX)

View attachment 39477
Click to expand...
I downloaded the first one.. emmm... And the second does not have lip synch..
 

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Hey Lydia. I would very much like to try to put your Marty in a 3D Virtual Reality.. If I works, I can save it as a VR Package. You can then download the VR Player, borrow a VR Head Head and stand next to your Marty.. Walk around him.. Be in the same scene with him.. I do not need anything other than the FBX file of Marty, no props etc. I can add a ground floor in the scene. That's if you are open to this suggestion.. You get to interact with Marty and I get to test if it works or not. I have been trying to get a 3D character to be in a VR for YEARS.
 
Okay, I just see there are several problems with the Marty animation as FBX. He was just never meant for it.
The tongue is gone because I put it in the controllers in the hierarchy. The subdevision is gone and I can't merge it afterwards, then it shatters everything. It's a bit complicated to explain now, but Marty would then look like this :oops::
matry_low_poly.png


The file is also too big to upload here. But if it's really just for testing whether it works, I can offer to send you the animated FBX as a WeTransfer if you send me an e-mail address via PN. It would look like this (but 7.5 seconds of animation):

marty_fbx.gif


It doesn't look particularly nice, but if it works you can also do it with a MakeHuman Character. MH definitely works on the Mac, well, at least on mine. But I would still recommend you to use a simpler character, otherwise the animation will be really time-consuming.
 
Destiny said:
I downloaded the first one.. emmm... And the second does not have lip synch..
Click to expand...
You have to install the two scripts first.
Sondloader:

Sound Loader.js - v7+ only

Sound Loader.js - v7+ only Hello, It's a polygon script to load sound data as f-curve parameters. it's available for Cheetah3D v7+. http://tres-graficos.jp/blog/files/article.php?id=119 you can load various sound format ( "aac", "ac3", "aif", "aiff", "aifc", "caf", "mp3", "mp4", "m4a"...
www.cheetah3d.com www.cheetah3d.com
F-Curve Controller:

F-Curve Controller.js - v7+ only

F-Curve Controller.js - v7+ only Hello, It's a tag script to control other object's f-curve with attached object's f-curve. available only v7+. its parameters are almost same as F-Curve Linker.js.. tag index: -1 means attached object, and if 0/1/2.. means index of tag ( usually 0 indicates...
www.cheetah3d.com www.cheetah3d.com
Download:
 
I have Cheetah 7.5.3.. So I am guessing it should open.. I only really need the FBX file.. And sound later, if the lip-sync works..
 
Not to worry about the tongue.. Its the mouth I need to check.. I tried to download Make Human but its not really doing it..
 
I got the Make Human working.. Then I put the 3D Character into Mixamo.. Very good, but .. I need a talking character..
 
Oh, I'm afraid there's a lot of confusion here. o_O I think I need to explain this in more detail. But unfortunately I don't have much time at the moment. And I don't know exactly what you're expecting. What kind of lip sync? Automatic? Marty's is manually animated.

There's no facial movement in Mixamo. If you export the MakeHuman character with skeleton, you have to animate it yourself. That's why I thought of something simple.

You have to install the scripts - put them in the Scripts folder (Libary>Application Support>Cheetah3D>Scripts>...). Then you can open Hiroto's test file and see how it's done.
When I have more time I'll explain in more detail, or maybe someone else can help. I know I'm not good at explaining....;)
 
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