Anim8or Community

Thanks, FWL, I think this is the answer I was hoping for. I will try your suggestion.

Here's a stationary walk cycle - my first one - with a request for some help to graduate to a real walk. In searching the forum, I found a comment about using IK receptors to create a walk without sliding and skating. Aside from that comment I found nothing more about it in the forum or the manual.
I made the simple character following Ian's book and tried to use Johnar's method from his old walk cycle tutorial. I may have even discovered something useful. To avoid doubling the last frame, which is identical to frame zero, I made a key frame with all bones selected on the second to last frame, then reduced the number of frames from 24 to 23. The cycle might be a bit smoother this way, although it's still a pretty rough walk. Also pretty stiff because I don't know how to make the figure rise and sink during the cycle Johnar uses a bone lever system I'll try with the next character. In order to prevent skating, there must be a better solution than using position key frames to try to keep the anchor foot steady. Am I right that there is no onion skinning? Thanks for your patience and help.

Johnar, that’s how I did it, or tried to. So the lips are still moving during that stupid head rotation, which I will correct. I’m a long ways from mastering lip sync, the visual sound wave helps, but there’s also anticipation - mouths move before sounds are formed. Length of sound isn’t easy either, I was still unsure after different tries. A character without teeth doesn't have a convincing f. But I liked these results a lot better than with automatic lip sync with Papagayo in 2D programs.
There are two things I really appreciate about the phoneme morph editor: 1) it doesn’t seem to matter if the next sound comes before the fade of the last one is finished - by default, it looks like you would need five frames minimum before inserting another phoneme or you would have to manually replace fade out and fade in. That doesn’t seem to be necessary. 2) I went back to the object editor, deleted and reprogrammed a phoneme under the same name. The scene editor accepted the change and the key frames with that phoneme were still active and worked with the new shape. No extra work.
I don’t know if this is right, but it seems like my slightly dopey open-mouthed default position was a  lucky accident, because the transitions are smoother and it covers up slightly inexact timing. The neutral, or closed-mouth position was a morph and not the default zero in the phoneme editor.
Edit: Adding 2nd try here, the rotation was put at the end. Don't know if the head movements are too exaggerated now. It was impossible to delete the head rotation keyframes alone, I had to redo everything past those actions. The software "remembered" too much. Even converting the last frame before and the first frame after into corner frames did not prevent it. Fortunately only orientation was affected.

It's horrible the way computer programs do things behind the user's back that only an expert can figure out. Tracktion is now free, but it was paid software when I bought it.

I've completed the test run of my first 3D head. Not sure where to post it and where not. If it's ok I'll put a link here and in the thread about Ian's book, since all but the Johnar eyes is based on it. If it's not ok I'll delete it.

Happy Birthday and Happy Easter, Steve. I read you are in Italy, we're almost neighbors, I live in Germany. I'm a Steve too, but won't sign with it in this forum because some people might think I'm the "real Steve" who knows the answers to their questions.

First of all, please take a holiday break from answering queries, including this one. It can wait.

When you're ready, here is a smaller audio file that didn't show as a wave form, only a straight orange line (my file for the project is over 5 MB and wouldn't upload). It plays fine. Maybe it's the Intel graphic card? I tried both ARB and GSL views.

(Version in use: 1400) I finally have a head with phoneme morph targets and a wav file loaded in the scene editor.

Problem 1:  I can't see the sound wave graphic, which makes finding the moment to insert the phoneme morph more difficult. It's hard to find the right frame only by scrubbing.

Problem 2: According to Ian's book, there is supposed to be a phoneme editor accessible through Edit/Edit Phoneme Track. After I choose the character, it seems to add a track as I selected, but then nothing happens. The only way to edit the morphs I can see is with the key value editor, which requires at least a zero frame, a 1 frame and another zero frame for each morph - the mysterious phoneme editor is supposed to automatically put in the zero frames.

Problem 3: After inserting the right morph 3-4 frames too late, I tried to copy the keys with Ctrl+x and insert them in the right place. Ctrl+v did not put the keys back in. When I checked the morphs, that one had been deleted. So I had no choice but to close the program without saving.

Of course the first animation of a voice over won't be easy, but this rate I'll never get it done. Any help will be appreciated.

I couldn't find an answer in the manual or the forum, although it might be there. I've learned that objects can (and should) be named. In the item list I find things like Group 01 or subdivision 12. Is it possible to name these? As always, I appreciate your help.

Two-footy is hilarious. The whale jump is beautifully animated.