FaceRobot head test

[izze]

Hello everyone,

I spent the last few months working on a facerobot head test. I refined over several weeks to get the best solve I possibly could. Then built a facial rig over the top of the FR animation. It's a little wonky but it was a lot of work, and I would like to share my results. Next time I am going to see what I can accomplish with mocap so its not so uncanny.

[rray]

Nice animation izze. Thanks for posting your work here.
The whole eye area to me appears to be out of the uncanny valley already. What would put it over the top imo if the eyes were targeted at one spot in a few moments while they're not moving, but the head is.

[Daniel Brassard]

Good animation, I like the texturing of the face. A couple of thing to watch:

a. The lips move quite fast, you may want to adjust the timing.
b. I would slightly close the bottom eye lid (move up a bit) to a more relax position.
c. Take some pause and inhale (move the chest outward lightly) in between some group of words or swallow for a more realistic look.
d. Blink more often but don't over do it.
e. Move the eyes up or to one side from time to time like if your character was thinking of the next sentence.
f. Open the mouth a bit like the character is taking some breath in between group of words.
g. You may want to investigate "sticky lips" for added effect.

Overall, a good animation, look forward for your next test with mocap.

P.S. Watch this guy talking (turn the sound off) and see the nuance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuBJF2QiCSE

[rray]

f. Open the mouth a bit like the character is taking some breath in between group of words.

This reminded me that some breathing animation of the chest would be cool. Actually I don't remember ever seeing a 3D character that has breathing animation, even though this would probably increase realism.

[izze]

Yeah, im going to have to slow down that lip motion for sure. Breathing will be in my next rig. Did not think of that one. Thanks for the feedback!

[McNistor]

Hey, nice animation indeed.
Care to explain what did you mean by "Then built a facial rig over the top of the FR animation"?

[Pancho]

The stills look very nice!

First thing that hit me in the animation is that it looks to be a "mouth only" animation. The facial muscles themselves seem to be very stiff. The skin lacks sliding over the bone. Though the face is really well done, it still looks like an animatronic to me and not so much like a human being.

Pooby's two videos with the avatar like character really got this feeling that we are dealing with a living character.

Cheers!!

[izze]

McNistor - I basically just cached out the lip sync animation, then built my own facial rig. Then applied the point cache, and animated around that. Here is an image of my rig:


I slowed down the lip animation so its not so fast. I think it is looking better. Currently rendering it out again on our farm.

[McNistor]

I see. Nice job! One critique from me would be (as some else said) the mouth's moving a little too fast. You don't have to, or better yet, you must not animate every sound that corresponds to a letter but every syllable or even word.
Anyway, it's overall a good animation. Still a lot of room for improvement, but that's always the case, so keep it up!

p.s. I almost forgot, what did you use for hair? Also, what render did you use? Sorry if this was already asked/answered.

[izze]

Thanks for the critique McNistor. I used KristinKA for the hair and Arnold for my render.

[farhad]

great work!

[izze]

Thanks! I am still trying to render this new lipsync out. But our farm has been busy for the last week straight. I hope to get it out soon.