The Loop is a weekly video spotlight series produced by the Ohio Department of Transportation. It typically features the talents of hosts Matt Bruning and Erin Fryz, along with David Rose – but for one very special episode, they let their animated doppelgängers steal the show.
TASK: Find an efficient way to lip sync characters and individualistic gestures through a combination of Adobe After Effects and Character Animator.
STEP ONE:
Character Build
In Adobe Illustrator, a flat style avatar was created for each host and all body pieces were separated as layers. Mouth shapes for different phonetics were also included on hidden layers for animation later in the process.
STEP TWO:
IK Rigging
The body artwork was brought into After Effects. Heads were rigged in 2.5D style animation using Joysticks n' Sliders plugin, and body was rigged using Inverse Kinematics through DUIK.
STEP THREE:
Live Recording
Next, the head rig was set up for Character Animator and co-hosts Erin, Matt, and Dave sat down to record their lines. By looking into the webcam while speaking, Character Animator was able to track movements of the eye, eyebrows, and mouth.
STEP SIX:
Combining Footage
The facial tracking and lip sync recordings were exported from Character Animator as MP4s, then each moving part was isolated with a track matte and inserted into the AE character rigs. From here, the remaining body movements were finetuned in AE and exported.
