Third Artefact

For my third Artefact, as stated in my second evaluation I used a WAV file taken from a Marx Brothers film. The reason why the sound file could not be loaded into 3D Max was that the sample rate was too low. For the file to work for the third artefact, the WAV file was opened up in Adobe Soundbooth. The file was edited into stereo and the sample rate was raised, which increased the Bit Rate from 64kbps to 1411kbps. The file could then be imported into 3D Max. Lip-synching could then be accomplished using the Waveform view in the sound option in the mini curve editor.

To get the lip-synching looking right I moved the animation controller in the Wave form view to find out the word spoken in the waveforms. I then moved the morphing controllers accordingly to alter the characters mouth to match the sound at the right time. To get the lip-synching looking right I rendered out test clips to see if the mouth movement matched the words. A couple of times the lip-synching did not look right and now have been corrected. I also altered key frames when the mouth animation affected the skin and looked wrong.

Next was to move on to the body movement, I purposely animated them sitting around a table so I only needed to express arm movement and not the legs and body.

Finally when the early animation looked right I extruded a line spline to create the wall. I used a tile texture for the walls, a wood texture for the table and changed the texture for the characters. Last of all I used an Omni light with shadow on, which gave it added depth.

I am pleased with my finished artefact as I believe I have accomplished what I intended. For the forth artefact I will use a loony tunes sound clip to see if it makes any difference to the humour.