[Steven Stahlberg]

Here's a fun little screentest.
Lacking a bit in upper body movements, I know. The audio quality sucks, and the text makes little sense.

test animation (divex, 500kb)

[Dr. Bang]

hey steven. thats very good, she actually make me jumps out of the seat at the "Bastard" part.

Anyway, i have a small critic, when she frowns, the upper area of the eye is suppose to be pushed down and make her eye smaller. But in your case, when she frowns, only her eyebrown but her eye still has the same apperance as normal, that the only thing that seems quite artificial to me. The rest are excellent.

Since i know you gonna read this any way, i have a question for you. You said you work for Microsoft Games right? Where can i see your work on the market today? Were you the one that model those chix in DoA3?

[jr]

hahahahah HAHAHAHA, STEVEN I SERIOUSLY LAUGHED OUT LOUD! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, AWESOME! BASTARD!

[The Magic Pen]

Wow that's awsome man great lipsycing !!

[Icannon]

i think it's very well done! i'll try and say some constructive things, though. the shifts in her expression still look very jerky and mechanical - like the key expressions are jumping from one to another without any flow or rhythm. the expressions themselves, though, are just fantastic.

[Lunatique]

Good stuff as usual. I have a few C&C though.

It seems the different facial muscles are acting independently instead of together as a whole group.

The skin directly under and between the eyes should have more movement, especially when she yells "bastard." Her eyes should squint and the ridge of her nose would probably have slight creases when she does that(since she's an older chick with looser skin).

Also, the range of muscle movements on her face hasn't quite reached how far they could move. Maybe up the range a bit, and have the flesh under her cheeks be affected more?

At this point, it still has a bit of that "facial muscles controlled by sliders" look(I'm not sure how you're doing it, and I don't know enough about Maya anyways), and the critical eye hasn't been fooled enough to discard the suspension of disbelief yet.

It's a work in progress anyways.

BTW, I could be talking out of my bunghole, since I've never animated in 3D before.

[ February 08, 2002: Message edited by: Lunatique ]

[Steven Stahlberg]

Thanks for the great feedback everybody!
You know that when it comes to things like this, everyone's an expert. And I don't mean that sarcastically, but literally - every child knows what the human face is supposed to look like in certain situations, just about as well as the most educated professor of human anatomy or whatever... in fact artists might have a slight edge over other people in this regard, but not a big one. Except of course the poor artist who created the face, he or she will often be too close to it to see it properly.

I'll look into the frown, and the issue of immobility under the eyes, and lack of extremes. This is probably me modeling the morftargets too conservatively.
Yes I agree, the animation is too smooth/jerky/smooth, kind of, needs more keyframes, more detail and randomizing in the f-curves I guess. (Luckily she doesn't have to pass for real, she's supposed to be a construct living in a computer.)

[gArGOyLe^]

hahaha.. thats awesome hahahaha

[Strawberrysauce]

hey, thats fantastic, very realistic looking.

are all these model's and animation tests precursors to a feature based on your "Android Blues" script?

if so, i cant wait!

[Briareos]

I think your trying to hard.

[Steven Stahlberg]

Dr.Bang, sorry I forgot to answer your questions:

quote:

---

You said you work for Microsoft Games right? Where can i see your work on the market today? Were you the one that model those chix in DoA3?

---

I was fired from MS because they got sued years ago by temp workers and now no temp can work longer than 365 days consecutively. My time at Digital Anvil (bought by MS) was largely wasted, with regards to stuff to show for it. I did some work on Sarge's intro in Quake 3, all the cut-scenes with characters in Conquest (but that was taken over by a different company and by now all may have changed), and finally a lot of fixing and repairing and retouching characters on the upcoming Freelancer, nothing - except one or two pirates - I did myself, from scratch. No I didn't work on DOA3 at all.

Briareos: "your trying to hard." This can have several interpretations. Care to explain?

[Freddio]

great work steven..

That voice sounds very familiar, hmm I can't think of the actors name, well she is Australian and has red hair?

well I may be way off haha

[Steven Stahlberg]

You're probably right on the money - she is Australian, she does have red hair. And she looks a bit like that. But I don't know her name, sorry, I just got sent an mpeg and some soundfiles over the net. What's her name?

[julez]

Hey Steven, just make a morf target that has a smaller squint or make two and blend those over what you already have rather than edit the existing targets, you may be surprise what comes out of it. Superb work! Really love how the lips flow over the teeth during the BASTARD part.

[CyberArtist]

Something about the lips when she says "Of course" bothers me. The bottom lip doesn't seem to come down far enough, nor the corners pull in enough for the "ou" sound in "course" to be made. Other than that, excellent. I especially like the detail of the eyes moving back and forth.

Dr. Bang - The ONLY connection DOA3 has to Microsoft is that the game is on the XBox. DOA3 was created by Team Ninja and published by Temco, neither of which Microsoft has any controlling interest in. Team Ninja, if I'm not mistaken, is the group who's responsible for the all of the Ninja Gaiden series, as well as the first two Dead of Alive games.

[ February 11, 2002: Message edited by: CyberArtist ]

[Jolyon]

Hi Steven, always been a great fan of your work! Love the face, getting more realistic every time I see it. I like the fact you�ve chosen an older model this time, a lot more challenging. There�s one little crit I�ve got. When she says "Of course i�m fine..." her top lip is streched over her front teeth. The lip�s usually come forward in an "o" sound in the word �course� try it yourself in now without a mirror and you�ll feel how your lips stick out into an o sounding shape. When she says "You said you loved me the lips should definately be moving with a more exagerrated range of movement, especially considering the emotion, and maybe even curling a bit more which would lead nicely into the snarling "BASTARD" bit love it though, very nicely done!

[palladia mors]

hey, wow!
it would be extremely good if there were different camera angles and such dynamical subtle changes in the running video. and then - suddenly - syncronised with the "you lying bastard" a zoom or just a normal change into an extreme close-up on the lips.
just a thought...


*wish I had a tutorial on how to make 3d faces like that*

[Briareos]

Well.. I think what I meant by that is this:

you know how in a painting you lay down shapes boldly with large brushes to establish it, thats why they tell you to not use small brushes until the very end, same with holding your pencil at the end so you cant draw detail easily.. thats what came into my mind when I saw this test.. maybe move the torso around and the head around more perhaps some rotation, maybe she looks down, or looks away, or i dunno, im rambling... im no animator.. maybe this sound clip is limiting you. I know its cartoony, but check out this by one of my favorite animators Keith Lango did for ten second club:

http://www.keithlango.com/KDL_transfer/langoNov.mpg