Talking Head

Original clay models used for generating talking head models.

Talking head is a term referring to characters in Fallout and Fallout 2 with digitized speech and animated heads, rather than just text showing beneath a centered image of the character's sprite.

Background

These heads were typically first created as clay models, digitized using a Faro Space Arm and VertiSketch, touched up in the LightWave (early 3D modelling software), textured with Photoshop, animated, and finally stored as two-dimensional animation frames in the FRM File Format.

The final talking head is composited from these frames and static pre-rendered backgrounds, then overlaid on the screen. The animation is lip-synced to the spoken dialogue on the fly, using .lip files, which match animation frames to phonemes.

This talking head system was abandoned after Fallout 2. In Fallout Tactics, interactions are limited to pre-determined responses accompanied by static portraits. From Fallout 3 onward, characters are voiced and has a 3D model animated in real time.

Fallout

Image	Name	Location
	Aradesh	Shady Sands Entrance
	Butch Harris	Hub Downtown
	Cabbot	Lost Hills bunker (surface)
	Decker	Hub Downtown
	Gizmo	Gizmo's Casino, Junktown
	Harold	See all
	Harry	Watershed, Necropolis
	Jain	Water Merchants, the Hub
	John Maxson	Lost Hills, level 4
	Killian Darkwater	Darkwaters General Store, Junktown
	Laura	Cathedral
	Lieutenant	Mariposa Military Base
	Loxley	Old Town, The Hub
	Master	The Cathedral
	Morpheus	Cathedral
	Nicole	Boneyard Library
	Rhombus	Lost Hills Los
	Set	Hall of the Dead, Necropolis Café of Broken Dreams
	Tandi	Shady Sands Hall of Congress, NCR town Café of Broken Dreams
	Vault 13 Overseer	Vault 13
	Vree	Lost Hills Bunker, Level 3

Fallout 2

Image	Name	Location
	Arroyo Elder	Arroyo Control Station ENCLAVE
	Com Officer	Poseidon Oil Rig
	Dick Richardson	Control Station ENCLAVE
	Enclave gate guard	Navarro Main Base
	Frank Horrigan	Control Station ENCLAVE
	Hakunin	Arroyo The Canyon
	Harold	See all
	Joanne Lynette	Council building, Vault City
	Marcus	See all
	Myron	Stables
	Sergeant Dornan	Navarro
	Sulik	Klamath Downtown
	Tandi	Shady Sands Hall of Congress, NCR town Café of Broken Dreams

Backdrops

Behind the scenes

In the NG GURPS preview article, the developers explained that, "after the team worked out exactly what it was after, a sculptor made a clay head that fit the bill. From there, the artists took the completed head and carefully studied it to see what parts of the face needed to be animated most in order to create a realistic final image. Using a Faro Space Arm and the VertiSketch software, the team digitized the head, and then used theLightWave modeling software to do necessary geometric corrections. Next, texture maps were created in Photoshop and laid onto the modeled head. Finally, the art team began working on the animation."
Talking heads were proposed during the game's development by Leonard Boyarsky. Most of them were painstakingly copied into the digital format from clay models by Scott Rodenhizer. Originally, Fallout was supposed to have 40-50 talking heads, but the average time to do one head, 8 weeks, was too time-consuming and was reduced to just 21.^{[Dev 1]}
On May 7, 2024, Erik Jamison released his personal demo reel on his YouTube channel, which featured several animated Talking Heads that he did while working on Fallout.^{[Dev 2]}

Gallery

Clay Models

Clay head used for Set and Harold, with Scott Rodenhizer in the photo
Clay head used for Gizmo
Various other clay heads
Clay model used for Set and Harold
Process of creating the Morpheus' talking head model, all the way to the final render