Lip sync for puppet with profiles

Hi Alex,

I just had a quick look at a puppet I created that has different mouth states. I have a top level folder called 'MouthStates' and then under that I have different folders;

-Frown
-Terror
-Mouth

'Frown' contains sad mouths, 'Terror' is a triggered scream and 'Mouth' contains the normal mouths (what you have called 'Happy Mouth') I don't have time to look into this right now - however my guess is you need to have a default 'Mouth' group that Character Animator recognises. Perhaps try changing 'Happy Mouths' to 'Mouth' and make sure your sad mouth also has the mouth tag. Let us know how you go.

I've built many puppets with head turner and they all only ever generate one track of lip sync data. So you have done something outside the box there! Hard to diagnose without seeing a screenshot - but I'll race through some things to check.

For head turner you should have a layer/folder called 'Head' inside your puppet. Then nested in that folder are folders called;

+left profile
+left quarter
+frontal
+right quarter
+right profile

Inside each of those should be your mouth sets. Character Animator should automatically pick up each head profile tag when you apply the head turner to the 'Head' folder. 

Then inside each head profile you have your eyes, mouth folders.

If you start adding other things, like different body views or the ability to walk, the rigging can get much more complicated. There are a number of free puppets or paid puppets that would be worth getting and studying the structure - as finding this out after you've spent all that time creating and rigging can be frustrating! (We have a 'Free Dudley' puppet and various paid puppets you can reference @ ElectroPuppet.com that all do what you are after). Hope that helps Alex.

Thanks Platty. I know I`ve got myself into a bit of a complicated thing, but it`s what I thought it would help to have the basics rigging done, so I wouldn`t have to redo it everytime for the same puppet. I am with you it is problematic indeed but I`d rather try to make it work than redoing the same thing time after time. I`ve done a couple by now and as you were mentioning when I didn`t have it rigged with headturner upfront, it worked. Now I am trying to find out if there is a way to go about this without having to start from scratch every time if it makes sense? 

Aww you too pupeteer, Keep safe x

Hi Alex.

    Hmmmmm, do you think you might want to start with a less complicated project? I can only speak about my experience with head turning behavior and or swap sets with head turns. I discovered that if I lay down the audio track first and create the visimes, that when I go back over the puppet with head turning or swap sets then it works just  fine. Laying down the audio track after having had put down the head turns, for me, was sometimes problimatic.

     I am confused as to how you managed to get all those visimes at once.

     If you continue to have problems I would suggest scaling back your project and start with fewer head and face objects.

    Keep us posted as you move along.

Be well fellow pupeteer - Platty