Realistic Talking Animal effect...

[MrDomino]

Hey guys,*

I have a question about how to achieve a talking animal for an upcoming commercial shoot I am planning. What would the best way to go about this be? Would this be a better practical effect achieved during production or can I achieve a realistic looking effect in post-production without too much hassle? I am looking for something similar to what was achieved in Babe, and yes I know they had a large budget and effect team working on it, but I guess I am hoping that there have been enough advancements in the last 21 years in software capabilities, camera or just human ingenuity to make this possible. Anyway, what are your thoughts? And how would you go about it, if you had to? *I'm just trying to figure out where to even start with this as everything I've found so far online either looks unrealistic or deliberately shrouded in mystery on how to achieve this effect.

Thanks guys!

 

[Justin Kuhn]

This might be an easier example to look at emulating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUn-f5t53qc

In any case the most accessible way to pull this off would probably involve use of the Puppet Pin tool in After Effects, I would look at a few tutorials for that.

 

[Dermot]

worked with Neil Scanlon on two projects, i'd just ring him and see what he would charge;

he also did the animatronic's on Babe, and before that the Muppets

 

[clang]

If you only need simple static shots, consider 2D facial animation software like Crazy Talk https://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/default.html

 

[Imamacuser]

The old fashioned way of doing it is to spread a glob of peanut butter on the roof of the animal's mouth (i'm not sure if that's considered cruelty to animals now days or not), of course the lines will almost never be in sync, but at least the animal's mouth should move.