Make facial expressions to add to your derivations! Yay!
With my free online expression maker you can make expressions and add them to your products. It's all done in Javascript, and should work in most browsers, but is optimised for FireFox. If you don't yet know how to make a derived product, please find out about how to do that first.
You may use this freely for whatever you choose, but if you find it useful, a mention would be nice (but not necessary). Please do not steal my code,
or host this page anywhere else - it is only accessible on my IMVU homepage http://avatars.imvu.com/deliverancenow.
If you have any questions or comments, please post them in the forum thread here.
To make an expression, just follow these 10 ubersimple steps!
(1) Create your expression. Using the sliders below, indicate how much of each facial movement you want in your expression.
You won't be able to see what it looks like all together until you put in into the previewer, but you can always come back and tweak the parametres.
mouth.Tongue
00
mouth.Surprise
00
mouth.Smile
00
mouth.Pucker
00
mouth.Open
00
mouth.Mad
00
mouth.Grin
00
mouth.Pucker
00
right.Eye.Up
00
left.Eye.Up
00
right.Eye.Down
00
left.Eye.Down
00
right.Eye.Right
00
left.Eye.Right
00
right.Eye.Left
00
left.Eye.Left
00
eyebrows.Right.Up
00
eyebrows.Left.Up
00
eyebrow.Right.Down
00
eyebrow.Left.Down
00
eyebrows.Right.Sad
00
eyebrows.Left.Sad
00
eyebrow.Right.Angry
00
eyebrow.Left.Angry
00
blink.Right.Upper
00
blink.Left.Upper
00
blink.Right.Lower
00
blink.Left.Lower
00
(2) Decide how long you want the expression to last.
seconds.
(3) Select
and copy the contents of the box below.
(4) Create a blank document called 'whatever.xpf', and paste the contents in. If you do not know how to create a document with an xpf extension,
the you can download a blank one by right-clicking and saving this. Once you've downloaded it, open it in notepad, and paste in the code. Save the xpf file somewhere that you can find it =)
(5) Open the previewer and derive from something. Why don't you try one of my meshes (hint hint)?
(6) In the previewer, click on the 'Actions' tab. To load the expression you have made:
i. Click on the 'Add' button to add a new animation.
ii. In the box marked 'Trigger', type in the trigger word you would like to use to fire your expression.
iii. Scroll down to the box marked '.xpf', under the heading 'Morph Animation'.
iv. Click on the 'Browse' button next to it, and select your xpf file.
v. At the end, where it says 'Blend in' and 'Out' you may like to put the number 5 in these boxes, so that the expression transitions smoothly.
vi. Hit 'Apply Changes'.
(7) Now to test it! At the top right, click on 'Play Action'.
If all has gone well - you will see you avatar make the expression you have created! Yay! When the product is actually uploaded the animation will
fire with the trigger word.
Remember you can tweak the values above until you are happy! Just bear in mind every time you adjust the sliders, you have to copy the code into
the xpf file, save the file, browse to it again and then hit 'Apply changes'.
(8) Adjust the head and neck. This is optional, but tilting and turning the head can add a lot to the expression. Move the sliders below,
and set the duration (presumably to the same number of seconds you have for the face). Select and copy all the code.
X
0
Y
0
Z
0
Make this neck pose last
seconds.
(9) Create a blank document called 'whatever.xaf', and paste the contents in. Note that the extension this time is 'xaf', not 'xpf'. If you need to you can download a blank one by right-clicking and saving this.
Once you've downloaded it, open it in notepad, paste in the code and save it.
(10) In the previewer, to load the mini-pose you have made:
i. Scroll down to the box marked '.xaf', under the heading 'Skeletal Animation'.
ii. Click on the 'Browse' button next to it, and select your xaf file.
iii. Find the check box marked 'Disable Gaze' and activate it.
iv. Find the drop-down menu labelled 'Composition' and select 'Replace'.
These last two stop the default avatar movements from messing with your neck postion.
v. Click on 'Apply Changes', and then hit 'Play Action' to see the whole composition!
