How to manage 2 lip sync characters in the same scene?

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mooncaine
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Location: atlanta, ga, usa

How to manage 2 lip sync characters in the same scene?

Post by mooncaine »

I work for a university, where we plan to use Anime Studio so that I can animate an online training cartoon series, to be presented in Flash. I planned the project before Moho became Anime Studio, but it looks like nothing crucial has changed in the program. I'm a total newbie, but I've worked thru most of the tutes in the Help pages.

I see, from the Help pages, how lip sync is done in Moho/AS, but the tutorial only covers a scene with 1 character.

How should I manage this for 2 characters who are having a conversation? Since there's only one soundtrack, I'm confused, but I have a guess:

Should I animate one character, alone, in an AS scene, then animate the other character in her own scene, then combine the two SWFs in Flash [or in AS]?

Or ...

Is it better to do this some other way within a single AS scene [which would seem ideal, since I could see and hear both characters]? If so, how?

So far, I only see one way to add a soundtrack. I saw the FAQ item, "How do I add music/audio?", but it doesn't help me because my destination format must be Flash.

I made a JPG to give an idea what a typical scene would look like, with some text on top to frame my question.

Typical Scene

Thanks for your advice,

Moonie

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heyvern
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Post by heyvern »

I would do each character "separately" in the same AS document.

Each character would be in its own bone or group folder and have its own mouth switch for lip sync.

If the dialog is in one audio file, use Papagayo and create two voices (I just explained this in another thread in this forum).

Import the papagayo DAT files for each voice and the timing is already done.

If you get into more complex situations where the characters interact more, like arms of one character in front and behind another character, that's another story. ;)

You could also just assemble this in Flash if you like. The animation timing would be the same for both since they use the same audio file.

-vern
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mooncaine
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Location: atlanta, ga, usa

Post by mooncaine »

Thanks, Vern. I just saw your other reply, too. I'll try it w/Papagayo first, trying to keep both characters in the same AS scene. You rock, dude.
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