New to List - Suggestions for 2D character animation?

[Scott Rossi]

Hi Tom:

Your project sounds like it could work.  Note that in order to play MP3 in
LiveCode, you need to use a player object (which relies on QuickTime being
installed on the user's machine), or use the newly released FranklinAudio
external <http://franklin3d.com/products/franklin-audio>.  The player object
has a "callbacks" property which is a list of time intervals and custom
messages to send once playback has reached the desired times.  I'm guessing
FranklinAudio has something similar.

A more efficient way to set up your assets could be to use a button with all
its basic display properties disabled (name, border, 3D, etc), and change
the button's icon during playback.  You set a button's icon to the ID of any
imported image.  This way you only have one display change to make (change
the button's icon), as opposed to two changes (hide one image, show
another).

Latency/screen redraw speed depends on a few items: the user's graphics
card, processor, the size of the region to be updated, and the frequency of
the updates.  Obviously, updating the entire screen will be a lot more
demanding than updating a 64x64 region -- you should do some tests on a few
systems.

The degree of Godzilla-movie looking-ness probably depends on the range of
facial changes you'll have -- the greater the range, the less chunky the
appearance, but also the more complex your timing routine will have to be.
But even if the result is a little dubbed looking, it might have some charm.
:-)

Regards,

Scott Rossi
Creative Director
Tactile Media, UX Design



Recently, Tom B. wrote:

> Greeting!.
> 
> I'm a Director refugee and new to LiveCode.  Glad to find this lively
> list-serv!
> 
> LiveCode looks promising, but I have a few questions. Hoping you can
> provide answers, clues, pointers or examples...
> 
> I need to do simple 2D character animation. Mostly it is lip sync
> based on changing faces based on a timer (as opposed to a timeline
> animation technique). Anyone doing lip synced characters or timed
> audio sync with onscreen action?
> 
> My idea is to have the different face graphics aligned on a card with
> all but one set to invisible. Then have a handler start the audio
> (mp3), track the milliseconds passing, and toggle the visibility of
> the correct face based on how much time has elapsed. Does that seem
> workable in LIveCode or will this end up looking like lip sync in a
> Godzilla movie?
> 
> Are there significant latency issues with screen redraw or audio that
> will be a problem? Is there a better way?
> 
> Thanks,
> Tom Bodine
> 
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