3D- Lip sync

Step by step of how I did the lip sync from the Die Hard scene.

 

Step 1: Draw out the key poses and break down the voice sequence.

 

 

Step 2: Map out key poses in Maya using stepped curves (Stepped lines in the graph editor).

 

 

Then more poses are added, to give more idea of movement (Second pass)

 

 

Step 3: Then I switched all stepped lines to linear curves to see what the computer made of the movement. It doesn't look too bad, although the timing for some movements is off, but this is normal as I am just beginning to work out how long poses should last for.

 

 

 

Below is the more refined linear curves as I've timed more of the poses.

 

 

 

Step 4: This is where I did some offsetting of keys to get a more naturalistic movement. The back for example doesn't fully settle into the pose until a couple of frames beforehand. It helps with the anticipation and overlap as well.

 

 

 

Step 5: The Splined curves are swapped in from linear curves, this rounds off the sharper points in the graph editor to get a fluid movement.

 

 

 

Final step: Lip- syncing. This is done last so I didn't end up relying more on the speech than the movement.

 

And here's a comparison video.