{{tag>igde editor speech animation}}
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[[:start|Start Page]] >> [[:gamedev|Game Development with the Drag[en]gine]] >> [[gamedev:deigde|Drag[en]gine Integrated Game Development Environment]] >> **Speech Animation Editor**
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====== IGDE Speech Animation Editor ======

The speech animation editor allows to edit //Speech Animations// (*.desanim) for your game. This is not an engine resource but game scripts managing an [[gamedev:animators|Animators]]. Speech animators compose of a //Rig// and //Animation// resource, //Phoneme// and //Words//.

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{{ :gamedev:deigde:editors:editor_speechanimation.jpg?direct&400 |Speech animation editor preview}}
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Speech animation is based on the principle of assigning mouth movement to words by knowing what kind of phoneme are present in the word. This is a different approach than using a speech recognition software to obtain mouth movement from voice actor performed lines. Using speech animation actors can speak without any voice actor lines present.
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Phonemes use IPA symbols as their identifier. This allows to use online dictionaries for any language you can think of to get pronunciations of words using their phonetics (written in IPA) to quickly obtain speaking actors without much work.
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The speech animation system supports only single phoneme. In real language double and triple phoneme are known to model the full range of mouth transitions. Double and triple phoneme can though be simulated by using non-IPA identifiers for phoneme.
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The editor window composes of the preview area and the properties panel on the left side.

====== Preview Window ======

The preview window shows the preview of the speech animation. See [[gamedev:deigde:editors:3dviewnavigation|3D-View Navigation]] for how to navigate the view. To see the speech animation you have to assign a **Model Resource** and **Skin Resource** in the view panel.

The preview window can show three different animation previews depending on the selection made in the //View// menu:
  * //Display Active Phoneme//: Shows the selected phoneme
  * //Display Active Word//: Plays back the animation of the selected word in an endless loop with a small pause between each round.

====== Speech Animation ======

{{ :gamedev:deigde:editors:editor_speechanimation_speechanimation.png?nolink|Speech animation panel}}

Defines the **Rig** and **Animation** resource to use for the speech animation. Both the rig and animation resource are required to be present.


//**Speech Animation**//

The **Rig** and **Animation** parameters define the //Rig// and //Animation// resource to use for the animation.

The **Neutral Move** parameter defines the //Animation Move// to use for the neutral mouth state. This is used if no words are spoken.


//**Phoneme**//

Phoneme define the individual mouth positions to use. Phonemes are used in words to figure out how to produce mouth movement throughout a word.

The **IPA Symbol** is the unique identifier of the phoneme. IPA symbols are used so you can use the phonetic writings found in online dictionaries straight away. You can though use any unicode character outside the IPA writing if you want to add special mouth positions.

The **Sample Text** contains a unicode text shown as representative example word to get an idea how the phoneme sounds. The example text is shown in the phoneme selection as hint.

The **Length** defines the time in seconds this phoneme has to be spoken. The speech animation system uses these times to calculate the total word speak time. The [[gamedev:deigde:editors:conversation|Conversation Editor]] and //Conversation System// uses the calculated total word speak time to calculate the total speak time of an actor. In the //Conversation Editor// the words spoken can be individually scaled which will uniformly scale all phoneme inside the word.

The **Move** defines the //Animation Move// to use for this phoneme. The speech animation system blends between following phoneme to produce a final speech animation.


//**Word**//

Words define the individual words the actor can speak. Words compose of a series of phoneme. Using the IPA symbols of the phoneme the word is written using //Phonetics//. This allows to simply copy phonetics from online dictionaries of any language you need.

The **Name** is the unique name of the word. This is used by [[gamedev:deigde:editors:conversation|Conversation Editor]] and //Conversation System// to match actor speak text lines to animation words. This can be any kind of name including special words representing uttering like <wrap hi>*sigh*</wrap> or <wrap hi>*hein?*</wrap>. The choice is up to you. Using something like an asterisk helps avoid regular text lines picking up a special word by accident.

The **Phonetics** is the list of phoneme this word composes off as //Phonetics//. You can add individual phoneme by writing or pasting the IPA symbols into the text field or by using the plus button next to the text field. Pressing the plus button adds the currently selected phoneme from the //Phoneme// panel at the text cursor.
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====== View ======

{{ :gamedev:deigde:editors:editor_speechanimation_view.png?nolink|View panel}}

Preview and simulation parameters can be adjusted in this panel.

The **Display** panel defines the **Model**, **Skin** and **Rig** resource to use to preview the speech animator. Without

The **Camera** panel shows the parameters of the camera in the preview view. The values can be manually edited.

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