A recent innovation in our software
has resulted in making lip sync
very easy to accomplish, without
the need for the Face Tracker
gear we had used for many years. You might be interested in reading
about how it used to be done, when we had a system that
weighed 500 pounds and took four hours to set up.
Now, it is a much easier way to work,
with the Dell Notebook and Toon MX, but here is the
story of the previous technology. It just makes the
performing that much easier, more fun and more relaxed
for everyone.
Another
important facet of live animation
is the person who
performs the character, so that their facial expressions,
lip sync and voice are those of the 3D graphic character
itself. In some cases, producers hire their own actors
and actresses based on auditions, etc. in their hometown,
and then meet us at the show.We've even had one client
who wanted to be CHOPS himself!
Thomas Navaserro
of HT Enterprises in Manila hired us to come to his
city, and we puppeteered the show in the
disco lounge of the Shangri La Hotel. When he put on
the Face Tracker, his virtual alter ego came alive on
the videowall center stage as the host of the cocktail
party full of dignitaries. Navaserro's product launch
brought the Philippines into the satellite age with a
new telecom company. We modified Virtual Vinnie to fill
the bill and what a night! Even the Ambassador didn't
know who was in the back room, making Vinnie talk, until
Navaserro came marching out, waving the helmet in his
hand.
 Chris and Kirk Wilson of Slauson Transmissions, introduced a high-tech web
site a couple of years ago at an APAA-related show, Transmission
96. They put CHOPS up on a big screen TV monitor next
to a RetroLite. Then Chris Wilson performed as CHOPS,
and he was the right one for the job. He had designed
the website he was promoting at the show and knew its
contents intimately. But none of the customers knew that,
and CHOPS amazed them with his knowledge of automatic
transmission makes and parts.
Sometimes when complicated
productions are planned for special events like corporate meetings, they still risk
being boring. It's just the nature of the beast, that
when people sit in auditoriums in the dark, their expectations
go up. They want to get emotional and informed and inspired,
all at the same time.
Making that happen
with high production values requires a team of directors, video and audio systems and professional
crew, staging people, projectors and projectionists,
plus a whole bunch of other specialists, all working
in perfect sync with each other. They do more than just
get along with each other. They get acquainted, help
each other out, learn the cues, eat a few meals together,
and do a couple of shows, before they scatter off in
separate directions. That's the way the business is,
and most of the time, it works, because everyone is professional
and cooperative.
 When you thrust a "cyber human" into the mix, things could get
a little strange. We show up with road cases, looking
like one of the stage crew. After setting up and connecting
the Digital Puppeteer to the "video village" and
doing a couple of sound checks with the audio engineer,
it's time to run through the show. In order to come to
the venue better prepared, producers will often hire
their own actor and rehearse the lines, weeks before
the show is to be done. Then the actor is quickly prepared
to wear the Face Tracker, which automatically follows
his most subtle facial expressions.
 When we did the Hewlett Packard show in Beijing, China, our producer hired
a Chinese American marketing executive in his 30s with
a second home in California. The gentleman spoke English
like a native, and also spoke Mandarin Chinese, the official "formal" language
of China. His natural bilingual ability made it easy
for me to understand him and give him the idea of the
Digital Puppeteer, which he quickly learned. Then he
spoke as CHOPS (with dark hair and eyes localized for
Beijing) in such rapid fluent Chinese, that we had to
remind him to slow down a little.
 After doing a stage show in the morning, we moved over to an adjoining room
in the hall, and appeared on a big videowall in the exhibition
hall. You just can't imagine the look on the faces of
those students and computer professionals when CHOPS
said hi to them, and started up a conversation. He even
gave away a few T-shirts (totally American!), with the
help of a sharply dressed assistant.
But that is the
essence of peformance animation - it's fun, spontaneous
and makes people stop to look. If they
don't stop this time, they probably will the next time.
Everyone reacts to the CHOPS experience a little differently.
Each person relates to it in a different way because
it is a new artform brought about by computer graphics
technology. Doesn't that make the future of this technology
exciting? |
