[MP2] Tutorial Update 0.7 - Skins, bones, & more

[Jokke_r]

Actually Sayantan, the mouth movement can be done by adding flags to the voice sound file, this i learned from Mixuk i believe, who works for Remedy and did level scripting and stuff.

[Corwin]

When you define a sound file in the database, there's a parameter called Lipsync = TRUE or FALSE. Set it to TRUE.
Then, in a level, assign that sound file to a character's head by using this fsm command:
::room::character->A_Play3DSound(name_of_sound, "Bip01 Head");
As Lipsync is set to true, the character's mouth will automatically animate to match the sound.

You can also trigger a sub animation called "sub_talk_3s" if you wish, it just make the mouth move randomly for 3s.

As far as I know, the regions in the sound files are used to set subtitles, just open a dialogue file from the game with a tool like Sound Forge and you'll see, you just have to name the region the name of the subtitle line in Subtitles.txt or any of the files it includes. Maybe flags can be used to get special mouth movements done at some precise moment, like for cut-scenes? But I never encountered a file in the game database with flags in it, only regions.

[HalloweenIV]

Thanks for your input all, but like I said I really wanted to know if Remedy or anyone else has released any tutorials on this subject.

[Corwin]

I'm pretty sure they didn't. All the tutorials Remedy released are hosted on the MP2 website and I'm sure you got them already, and apart from basic sound commands, I don't think they wrote extensively on the subject.

It's nothing special though, like I said it's the same process as playing a sound expect you make sure its source is the character's head and that Lipsync is turned on in the parameters of the sound.

[HalloweenIV]

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Cheers for that mate....

By the way, i'm a great admirer of your work mate.
My favorite being Max Payne Chronicles.
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[Sayantan]

Originally Posted by Jokke_r

Actually Sayantan, the mouth movement can be done by adding flags to the voice sound file, this i learned from Mixuk i believe, who works for Remedy and did level scripting and stuff.

Only for in-game stuff, where you can hardly see what the model is actually saying. ALL cutscenes use proper animations as you need to properly see the lip movement.

Originally Posted by Corwin

As Lipsync is set to true, the character's mouth will automatically animate to match the sound.

I don't think it automatically 'matches'. It just has a coded jaw rotation that keeps on happening. In games having flagged lip-syncing, they basically use 're-targeting' of bones rotations OR mesh data. That is the case when you maintain a very high level script file flagging as of at what time of the sound file, you want the lips/mouth to reach which target. The file looks very much like how a guitar tab looks.

[Maddieman]

I heard that MGS4 uses some pretty sophisticated tech for lip-sync and facial animation. At least, according to this article.

How things move forward. I can't believe I had this crazy idea of animating the heads in Katana to 'wobble' in time to the dialogue. In the end, I think I only bothered with one or two scenes (which turned out great, but was otherwise a waste of time).

[HalloweenIV]

Originally Posted by Maddieman

I heard that MGS4 uses some pretty sophisticated tech for lip-sync and facial animation. At least, according to this article.

How things move forward. I can't believe I had this crazy idea of animating the heads in Katana to 'wobble' in time to the dialogue. In the end, I think I only bothered with one or two scenes (which turned out great, but was otherwise a waste of time).

I'm getting around the fact that characters can't be seen talking in Max Payne 1 by placing the camera behind the head of who ever is talking in a cutscene, with the person they are talking too in the forground, then swithching the camera to behind the other characters head when they reply.

This works quite well, especially when the talker is gesturering as well. You can see how well this works right at the end of my main ( see link ), DOTD video that I posted on ModDB.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/dawn-of-the-dead1/videos
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[Sayantan]

Originally Posted by Maddieman

At least, according to this article.

Damn, now that's some fine technology. It seems since the syncing is almost automatic. They don't need to exclusively animate the faces for dialogues in different languages. Just Wow.

Originally Posted by HalloweenIV

http://www.moddb.com/mods/dawn-of-the-dead1/videos
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HELL YEAH!!