Mimic 2 Quickstart tutorial

(using Victoria 3)

this tutorial was specificly requested by DAZ 3D is also available on DAZ arcana website

Mimic 2 is the new version of the popular Mimic lip sync software for use in animation projects. what it does is analyze a sound file and assign a series of Phonemes (basically the shape of the mouth when making certain sounds) to best imitate the sound file on an animated Poser figure head. The resulting animation sequence can then be saved as a pz2 Pose file. This pose file can be loaded onto a figure (the figure must have the expression morphs that you created your mimc 2 pose with) which can be then posed through a series of frames to create a full motion animation. This tutorial will take you from preparing the figure in Poser (only necessary with Victoria 3) to saving your pose to Poser for use in your animation project.

STEP 1 PREPARING VICTORIA 3 FOR USE IN MIMIC 2

Step 1 only applies to Victoria 3. All other Millennium figures, as well as those supplied with Poser do not need this step. The reason this step is necessary is that V3 does not come with the phonemes already loaded but must be injected in order to be processed in Mimic 2. while you can load a fully injected V3, this would put unneeded processing burden on Mimic 2 so it is best to create a cr2 specifically for use in mimic.

Once you finish creating your mimic Pz2, you can then apply it to any V3 character, which has the phonemes loaded.
In Poser load Victoria 3 base model (Step 1). Go to your pose library folder "!V3 All Morphs INJ", and Inject the "All Expressions" pz2 (step 2). These will be all the morphs you will need for Mimic 2. Save the resulting figure as V3 Mimic(step 3). close Poser.

2. Get Sound File

Now its time to open Mimic. The first thing you will see is the Session Manager.
OK lets get started, what we want to do is Open or create a sound file. The sound file must be in the Wav format for PC's or AIFF for Macs. There are several ways of getting this sound. For testing you can try one of the provided sounds that have been provided by DAZ. Click on folder Icon (Step 4). what? you don't want to use a stock sound file? OK, the sound can be created in an outside program, and brought in using the folder icon and browsing to the sound on your computer. Don't have an outside program? you do want to make this difficult, don't you? OK good thing Mimic 2 allows you to record your own sound right within Mimic 2, using a Microphone connected to your computer. Simply press the Record button(red dot) (step 5) and record your sound then click on the Stop button (black square) to stop the recording. You should allow your recording to run for a few moments after your speech ends, as it is easy to cut off your sound too early. When your recording is ended you will be prompted to save the file(step 6). a graphic representation of your sound file will be displayed in the white section above your recording buttons.

3 Text file

Next you should type the text of the speech you just recorded into the box provided (step 7). this will help the program to assign the Phonemes as well as give you a visual indicator on the timeline of where each word occurs. For those using the test sounds you will find the matching text files by clicking the folder icon below the word Text. You may save your typed in text by clicking Save (floppy disc icon) next to the file icons.

4. Pick Configuration File

Next you are going to need a configuration file. This file tells Mimic 2 how to assign the Phonemes to the model you are going to load into Mimic 2 these files use a dcm extension. There is one for each of the major millennium figures as well as a standard config file called P3_Standard.dmc. Most figures which have phoneme morphs should be able to use this file including the stock poser figures. Though the millennium figures have a more advanced set of phonemes so it is best to use the ones designed for them. Click on the file icon (step 8) then chose the file appropriate to the model you are using.(step 9) I am using the V3.dmc for obvious reasons. The best rule of thumb is never use a confab file that is designed for a more advanced figure.

5. Load CR2

Next you will need to load your character (cr2) file from your poser library, again click on the file(step 10) then navigate to your Cr2 (step 11) I am using the V3 Mimic.cr2 that I made earlier. And click open. Before you click on OK take a look at the gestures buttons by default they are all set to on, you can click any of the buttons to turn its corresponding automatic gesture off. Gestures are provided to make the characters head more life like by creating subtle head and facial movements. Mimic 2 Pro users will have the opportunely to create custom gesture tracks in the Timeline later (you can refer to the gestures tutorial to learn more about that). and make sure the frames per second (FPS) match the setting of your animation. You have now finished in the session manager and can click on OK (step 12) oh and one more thing if you haven't done it already, Mimic 2 will ask you to locate the core poser program, at this point just go ahead and navigate to it.

6. the Main Window

now the main window will open up with your figure in the display window you can see how your llip sinc worked out by hitting the play button (step 13) you can adjust the figure in the window using the small control buttons on it's side (step 14) just click and hold on the Corresponding button and drag to zoom or pan.
You can find out more about the display by going to the display tutorial.

You can also adjust the timing and duration of the phonemes themselves.(step 15) click and drag the center of the Phoneme box to adjust the timing of the phoneme and click and drag the leading or trailing edge to stretch the phoneme. You can also change the strength of the Phoneme (by right clicking on a PC or control-clicking on a Mac) and selecting edit strength, or just hold ALT key down on you keyboard while clicking on the phoneme, and simply drag the red section up or down to increase or decrease the strength.
You can find out more about the use and adjustments to the phonemes by going to the phonemes tutorial.

7. Save PZ2

the last thing you need to do is save your finished animation pose to your library for use in Poser. Go to file- export pose (pz2) (step 16) and navigate to the folder in your poser pose library which would be appropriate.(step 17) then hit save and you are done with your first mimic project. The resulting pz3 is a standard multi-frame file which can be inserted into any poser animation project.
Oh and one other thing before you go, if by chance you may want to come back and modify your Mimic 2 pz2 you will also want to hit save and save a Project file out, it will have a .dms extension and is mimic 2's format for saving your session.