My final project was more of a technical exploration into rigging my avatar face using iClone and making it speak. As the final, I decided to have my avatar give the final presentation rather than me. I am interested in exploring virtual identities further and looking into the difference between avatars born in virtual space and those that stem from a physical presence/person. I was inspired by Lil Miquela and LaTurbo Avedon. They are both avatars that have existed virtually and will only ever exist virtually. But can new avatars come about that have been inspired by real people? And if they can, can they take the place of a physical being that they represent? These were questions I kept in mind while exploring the technical possibilities of 3d software and rigging today.
I don't really like the sound of my own voice, especially with my avatar. Something feels off about it. So for the presentation I opted to go with the computer generated voice. Heres to embracing nothing being perfect:
(This one was named finalfinalfinalFINAL)
Process:
1. Using Wrap 3 to match the DAZ Genesis female base mesh with my resized 3D scan. In order to prepare my mesh for facial rigging, I had to select polygons (eyeballs and mouth) and non morph targets (eyes, inside of lips, inside nostrils, inside ears), which would then be reimported after my mesh was re-meshed with the DAZ Genesis base.
2. I also cleaned up my texture in photoshop to get rid of the glitches in the texture. Then I Used DAZ Studio to manipulate and shape my 3D mesh:
3. Using 3Dxchange to import my DAZ mesh with the facial expressions that I could then put into iClone. My first attempt didn't go well because the skeleton was off on my mesh with DAZ.
First attempt before I rigged to the shape of my mesh. My eyeballs and facial rigging was off:
4. This was solved by rigging the skeleton to the shape of my mesh:
Second attempt after rigging to the shape of my mesh:
Awkward Hands:
5. Playing around with LIVEFace - Using my facial movements to control my avatar's in real time:
6. Adding voice & editing mouth rigging before & after timeline. Script generated through GPT-2: