i'm hoping this is a noob question with an easy answer....
i'm working on my first "real" animation project. i got AS last week and did the tutorials, and made some 10 second test files just to make sure i understood... by "real" i mean a 2 min short with 2 characters talking, etc.
i'm doing the lip synch in papagayo, and there were a few words it didn't recognize. when i did the EXPORT VOICE command, it asked me to phonetically input the sounds for those words. i was unsure how at the time, and hit CANCEL. so now, i have this big .dat file that works great, but there are 6 or 7 words with no phonemes assigned to them, because i lamely told it not to assign any. =)
is there a way to add them in after the fact? or am i going to be doing a few words by hand in AS?
thanks.
adding phonemes
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
If you look at the .DAT file (it's just an ascii file) you'll see how it's arranged and, yes, you could easily add in whatever you want. Indeed, it's probably a good idea to get familiar with the concept because you can use a .DAT file approach for things other than just lip sync.
However, I'm not sure it would be any easier than just to add the keys in yourself on the timeline. The only advantage is that the .DAT file can be reloaded easily (in case you screw something else up) -- if you look at the timeline you'll see that loading in a .DAT file simply writes those keys to the timeline.
However, I'm not sure it would be any easier than just to add the keys in yourself on the timeline. The only advantage is that the .DAT file can be reloaded easily (in case you screw something else up) -- if you look at the timeline you'll see that loading in a .DAT file simply writes those keys to the timeline.
The keys are simply "switch" keys.
If you highlight the mouth switch layer wherever you want on the timeline and right-click you can choose whatever mouth position you want. This is true of all switch layers -- just move to the spot on the timeline, right-click and choose the layer you want to change to at that point in time.
You may need to put a "hold" in before you change mouths -- for example, let's say you've determined a person needs to start speaking on frame 100 but before that his mouth needs to stay shut. If you simply go to frame 100 and put a switch key to open his mouth he will then start to open his mouth on frame 1 and finally get it fully opened on frame 100 (this is assuming you have interpolation on between layers -- this is not true if your layers are not interpolated). In that case you would put a mouth close key on frame 99 and then the mouth open on frame 100 (or whatever -- if it needs to open slowly you can put the hold on frame 90).
Once again, this last only applies to interpolated layers (layers in which the same number of points are in the same number of shapes, so that they smoothly transition between the two). For lip sync I *always* use interpolated layers (they look soooo much smoother).
If you highlight the mouth switch layer wherever you want on the timeline and right-click you can choose whatever mouth position you want. This is true of all switch layers -- just move to the spot on the timeline, right-click and choose the layer you want to change to at that point in time.
You may need to put a "hold" in before you change mouths -- for example, let's say you've determined a person needs to start speaking on frame 100 but before that his mouth needs to stay shut. If you simply go to frame 100 and put a switch key to open his mouth he will then start to open his mouth on frame 1 and finally get it fully opened on frame 100 (this is assuming you have interpolation on between layers -- this is not true if your layers are not interpolated). In that case you would put a mouth close key on frame 99 and then the mouth open on frame 100 (or whatever -- if it needs to open slowly you can put the hold on frame 90).
Once again, this last only applies to interpolated layers (layers in which the same number of points are in the same number of shapes, so that they smoothly transition between the two). For lip sync I *always* use interpolated layers (they look soooo much smoother).
got it... thanks.
i'm an old Final Cut Pro user, so i'm pretty familiar with the idea of putting a "hold".
lemme ask you one more question, since you're being so helpful and all. =)
i see there's a "layer opacity" icon that i can add to the timeline. i'm not sure it does what i want.... what i'd like to be able to do is fade opacity higher and lower on a given layer. basically, in one section of my animation it's getting dark, so i created a new image layer that's just a full screen of blackness. my intent was to set its opacity to 0 for it's first frame, and gradually key it up to 100, for a full fade out. then it stays dark for a few seconds and then i want the reverse... for the black layer to gradually DECREASE in opacity from 100 back to 0 as the lights come back up.
doable? or do i have to import my final .mov into iMovie or Final Cut to do a fade that way?
thanks again.
i'm an old Final Cut Pro user, so i'm pretty familiar with the idea of putting a "hold".
lemme ask you one more question, since you're being so helpful and all. =)
i see there's a "layer opacity" icon that i can add to the timeline. i'm not sure it does what i want.... what i'd like to be able to do is fade opacity higher and lower on a given layer. basically, in one section of my animation it's getting dark, so i created a new image layer that's just a full screen of blackness. my intent was to set its opacity to 0 for it's first frame, and gradually key it up to 100, for a full fade out. then it stays dark for a few seconds and then i want the reverse... for the black layer to gradually DECREASE in opacity from 100 back to 0 as the lights come back up.
doable? or do i have to import my final .mov into iMovie or Final Cut to do a fade that way?
thanks again.
No, you can do exactly what you want -- the opacity is animatable, as are many things that aren't immediately apparent (for example, both shadows and shading are also animatable -- sometimes this will bite you on the bottom when you accidentally set them to some value other than on frame 0 and then they just "change" as the animation progresses).
For doing layer effects (where you have one specific layer that needs changing) it's probably easiest to do it in AS, but as a video editor type I always prefer doing whole scene effects like your fade up/down either in After Effects or Premiere (or both :>) because it's easier (for me) to control what I see and play with different things. The timeline in AS is nice but no where near as powerful as those programs.
For doing layer effects (where you have one specific layer that needs changing) it's probably easiest to do it in AS, but as a video editor type I always prefer doing whole scene effects like your fade up/down either in After Effects or Premiere (or both :>) because it's easier (for me) to control what I see and play with different things. The timeline in AS is nice but no where near as powerful as those programs.
could you give me a quick idea of how to do it? i'm adjusting the opacity of the image layer but it's not altering how the image looks at all. i don't see it adding keyframes to anything as i do it, either... so i must be doing something wrong. how do you set the opacity at a given frame?mkelley wrote:No, you can do exactly what you want -- the opacity is animatable, as are many things that aren't immediately apparent
=)
EDIT: nevermind. i see now. it just doesn't fade the opacity out in the workspace, but it does in the full render. duh.
maluba <---- noob =)
