Event Recap

Creating a Caricature with Phonemes to be used in a singing face effect:

Step 1: Provide reference photo and us the following prompt:

"Using the attached photo of me as a reference, create a caricature image of me with everything you know about me and my work."

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Gilbert Engineering Garage Sale and meetup! It was great connecting with familiar faces and meeting new members from across the valley.

A special thank you to our gracious hosts Jason and Christina Gilbert for providing the tables, chairs, and classroom space to make the meetup possible.

During the meetup, attendees learned about creating custom models, submodels, and states in xLights, followed by a fun session on AI-generated singing faces. One highlight of the class was creating a caricature of Jason Gilbert and having him “perform” Let It Go from Frozen. Let’s just say the timing and phonemes might need a little more work—but it definitely gave us a few laughs! The ChatGPT prompts used during the class can be found below:

Step 2: Provide the prompt below to get the individual phoneme images on a grid.

"Great now take just the face portion of the caricature and create an image that has a 3 x 3 grid. In each box of the grid place the same caricature face with a variation of the the mouth representing the following 10 Phonemes that are Essential Mouth Shapes for Animation (AI, E, Etc, FV, L, MBP, O, REST, U, WQ). Below are the 10 phonemes and a description of the mouth shape. 1. AI: Open mouth (vowels like "ah", "eye") 2. E: Medium open (vowels like "ee", "eh") Open/medium (Ah, A, E): Jaw dropped medium open, showing teeth. 3. ETC: Tight/flat ("s", "z") Wide/Smile (Ee, I, S, Z): Corners of the mouth pulled back, teeth slightly apart. 4. FV: Top teeth on bottom lip ("f", "v") Lower lip touches upper teeth (labiodental). 5. L: Tongue/Dental (L, Th, D, N, T): Tongue touches behind upper teeth or between teeth. 6. MBP: Closed mouth ("m", "b", "p") Compressed lips, used for bilabial consonants. 7. O: Large O/Rounded (Oh, Oo): Rounded, opened lips. Rounded mouth ("oh", "oo") 8. Rest: Closed mouth (no sound), No sound, or closed lips. 9. U: Small rounded ("oo", "you") Rounded, puckered lips. 10. WQ: Rounded/puckered ("w", "Q")"

Kyle Collier always makes it fun and interesting when he is at GE's annual yard sale! He found this rare Black Hole prop 20 ft wide with well over 6,ooo pixels that he plans to add to his display!

GE's very own Jason Gilbert AI singing Frozen's Let It Go!

Join us Saturday, February 21, 2026, during the Gilbert Engineering Garage Sale (8am–1pm) for a great morning of learning, swap meeting, and connecting with fellow lighting enthusiasts!

We’ll be hosting two classes:

• 9:00am – 10:45am
  Creating & Sequencing Customized Submodels + Using State Effects in xLights. Learn how to take your sequencing to the next level with more control and creativity.
  
  

• 11:00am – 12:45pm
  Creating Custom Faces & AI Images for Unique Singing Face Effects. Explore how to design and implement custom faces to make your show stand out.
  
  

Swap Meet Opportunity!
Have extra props, controllers, or lighting gear collecting dust? Bring them along! You’re welcome to sell, trade, or give away anything you no longer need. If there’s enough interest, we may also organize a swap meet at the Southwest Holiday Lighting Experience Mini on April 18th.

Speaking of the mini…
Don’t forget to register for the Southwest Holiday Lighting Experience Mini at swhle.com!

It’s shaping up to be a great day of learning and networking—hope to see you there!

Location:

Gilbert Engineering USA
6500 E Mitchell Ct, Florence, AZ 85132-7213