Dan Ritchie announces the 2.0d
patch for Project Dogwaffle 2
"Animated Mouth Audio-lip-synching,
RAW file Support, improved
color palettes"
Santa Clarita,
CA - April 8, 2004
- Dan Ritchie, author of the award winning
paint and animation software
"Project Dogwaffle", today announced the
availability of a new patch, named
version 2.0d, available for free
download
to users of Project Dogwaffle 2.
"This patch serves two main
purposes. For one, it consolidates new
plugins and filters
which were introduced in prior
patches 2.0b and 2.0c, so that new users
can bring their initial 2.0
installation up-to-date with the
installation of this
single patch, without cumulative
patching. Perhaps more
importantly,
I'm introducing a new feature for
professional animators doing lip
synching of
their animated characters against
recorded audio (Wave) files: the
Mouth plugin."
- Introducing The
Mouth Plugin:
Lip-Synching for Professional Animators
Also called an "Exposure Sheet", it
shows a visual of the mouth area
and the shape of lips in accordance
with common sounds from the English
alphabet.
A recorded sound track, imported
from a Wave file (such as that of an
animated,
talking cartoon figure) can be
populated with key lip shapes based on
the sounds
found across the audio track. These
are then used as visual aides by
the professional
animators to mimic and recreate the
same or similar lip shapes on their
animated
characters as they paint, draw and
sketch them. Playback displays the
changing
mouth shapes in synch with the
audible sound track. Project Dogwaffle
supports this in
conjunction with Onion Skins (light
table), a feature which displays a
few frames
ahead and a few frames prior to the
current frame along the animation
timeline."
"I hope that this new
tool will allow professional
animators and
colleagues of my
profession as well as students who are
exploring
the art of traditional
cell animation to fully explore
their potential
and easily create the
animations they're thinking of or
working on.",
said Ritchie. "One of
my key concerns I've always had
while developing
Dogwaffle for my own
needs has been productivity. I'm not
developing my
code on the latest
generation high-end PCs, for a few
reasons. By optimizing
my code it runs very
nicely on today's fast machines but
also on
older PCs found in
some cash-deprived school labs. I'm
hoping to contribute
to the tools needed by
young aspiring animators as early
as middle- and high-
school levels who are
too often discouraged to explore
their full potential because
of the cost of systems
and software."
Other new
features of the 2.0d patch
include:
- support for RAW image formats,
both import and export, through the
plugin control panel's
Import and Export tabs. Supports
big-endian and little-
endian formats for
better portability.
- improved sorting of color
palettes. New choices allow more
flexibility and
increase productivity
of artists who make their own custom
color palettes
to work with.
Details about this patch and other
recent releases:
http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/whatsnew
Pricing
This is a free patch for current
users of Dogwaffle 2.0, whether
upgraded or full
installations. Project Dogwaffle
2.0 is priced at US$67. Upgrades from
earlier
versions start at $19. Site
licenses for 4 or more PCs per lab start at
$200.
About Dan
Ritchie and Squirreldome.com
As a professional 3D animator, Dan
Ritchie has always had a need to
produce textures, create uv maps,
and do post work on animation
frames.
2D painting is a rewarding hobby
which he loves to explore with
Dogwaffle.
In addition to enjoying well
optimized VB and C code programming,
Dan is also a writer. He recently
published his first novel, Silver
Squirrel,
and is working on a sequel. For
more details about Dan's work, visit
http://www.squirreldome.com -
the home of Silver Squirrel and Dogwaffle.
About
TheBest3D.com
TheBest3D.com is owned and operated
by Philip Staiger of San Diego,
who is also the sales and marketing
agent for Dan Ritchie's Project
Dogwaffle.
Philip has many years of working
experience in the 3D animation
industry.
Media Contacts
Dan Ritchie: email: dan_ritchie @
hotmail.com web:
www.squirreldome.com
Philip Staiger: email: dogwaffle @
thebest3d.com web:
www.thebest3d.com
Project Dogwaffle Press zone:
http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/presszone
© Copyright Dan Ritchie 2004.
Project Dogwaffle and Silver Squirrel are
trademarks of Dan Ritchie. All
other trademarks are the property
of
their respective owners and only
used for identification purposes.