Animated talking head for Chinese text input

Abstract

As the multimedia technology is widely used in the world, people can use computer to generate 3D animation. Because of this advanced technology, programmers can use the better software to make vivid movies with sound. The project goal is to create a 3D talking head that can speak using Cantonese like human. It is divided into three main processes. First, the user can input the Chinese words in the voice generator. It will generate the corresponding voice and data file. Through the programming technique, the 3D head is lip synchronized with the voice given. Making a 3D head is necessary to use powerful 3D drawing software MAYA 4 as a helping tool. The 3D head is built up in MAYA 4 environment. Through the blend shape function in MAYA 4, the talking head can have different mouth shapes. The lip synchronization of the talking head with the given voice is done by MAYA scripting language “MEL”. In the program, Chinese words get the parameters from the voice generator. The visemes of the Chinese word then find their corresponding mapping codes of mouth shapes. After finishing the mapping process, the program lip synchronizes the mouth shapes with the voice. Finally, an AVI video of the Talking Head can be produced in MAYA 4.