Lip-sync in Second Life
I think most of us, when we were kids, have dreamt of creating an animation 'when we would grow up'. Well now, all of us can do it. Not only that, even kids will be able to do it too, on their own, right now. Here's how I created my first lip-sync animation in a couple of hours:
1. I am very well aware that I don't have super elocution skills. I therefore checked out the Project Gutenberg to get hold of a human read fable. Since I was mainly interested in exploring the production process, I did not waste much time in picking a story.
2. I downloaded and installed Mm Adler's SL client available here. I then tested my installation by speaking and watching my lips move and so on. I was quite delighted to see my SL face unfreeze for the first time. To make things a little more interesting, I enabled speech gestures as well.
3. I set my audio devices so that I could record anything that my soundcard would throw out.
4. I made sure the voice input of my SL client was actually pointing to my soundcard device and not the microphone.
4. I then played the audio file I got from Project Gutenberg, it was about a story involving a hare and a tortoise.
5. I launched FRAPS and proceeded to record my speaking avatar.
The rest is simple, I compressed the FRAPS file, edited it a little bit in a video editor and uploaded the result on video Google. The result is what you see below.
One problem I see with my approach is that a recording with multiple people speaking cannot be used, even those with background noises or music will be problematic. I will probably need to use actors (which will never happen LOL) in such situations. Background music or ambient music can of course be overlay at the end. Hmm.. perhaps the easier solution is to get another laptop and play the recorded speech through line in or mic inputs. In any case, please share relevant ideas/tips. And before I forget,
Please...vote to incorporate this code into the official SL viewer.
To get Linden Lab to incorporate this code into the official second life viewer go to http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-4794 and vote for it. You have to be logged in with your SL name and password to vote.
Comments