Activating triggers while Twitch streaming? Map hotkeys to inactive CA window in bg?

[Jrsmolik]

I saw there was a discussion in 2017 about this but there was no answer, they were just hoping it'd be something we can do in the future. Well now it's the future haha!

So my question, I have an animated character that I've successfully set up to work with keyboard triggers (character is too complex to do motion-triggers like turning head to side as I am tracking parallax). I've also successfully brought it into my twitch stream using the workflow Character Animator>NDI Output>OBS>Twitch. And this is amazing that I can live perform while gaming, I really love this feature, it's just like 95% complete, it's almost there! Biggest hangup is triggers, they can only be mapped to keyboard keystrokes, and keyboards only work with active windows. So while I'm gaming (active window), my character's lip sync works beautifully and all motion, but can't do a single trigger because they keyboard doesn't effect Character Animator if the window isn't active.

Has anyone found a workaround? Would a USB connector like Stream Deck work to point those custom macro keys to an active window? If I have a gaming keyboard that already has 2 rows of programmable macro keys can those be mapped to INACTIVE windows? In theory it sounds as simple as giving a shortcut a path to the program it's supposed to activate like "C:\Programs\Here\runthis.exe" but more like some kind of script {input [window/Character Animator.exe]} or something (obviously not a real script lol).

Right now the only solution I have is to run a game in windowed mode, move it slightly off-screen, then undock the triggers/behaviors perform panel to the side and stack vertically, but I have to mouse-over and click for every single trigger, which takes me out of the game once every 5 seconds and while it's funny standing still while being attacked, I don't think it'll entertain for very long on Twitch.

I feel like the streaming capabilities for CA are SO CLOSE on this! But aside from using a 2nd computer just for keyboard & add extra lag through outputting over NDI, I'm not sure what else to try. Would a MIDI controller/keyboard override this? Or would the window still need to be active? That way, it shouldn't conflict with the keyboard since it's sending MIDI, but thinking it still comes back to triggers not working while window is inactive/minimized in the background.

[alank99101739 · Accepted solution]

(I was going to suggest MIDI as your best hope as I assume that won't be affected by focus. Keyboard input is controlled by the window focus, so it makes sense you losing that input. But MIDI I think has its own API so I think there is a good chance what you want will work. In a recent Tips and Tricks from oksamurai showed some products you can get which are physical midi devices that work with Character Animator - buttons and sliders etc. But I don't have a midi device hooked up to the computer, so I cannot test and verify.)

[Jrsmolik]

Thanks I'll try this out when I get home & confirm if it works! It'd be great to be able to use a MIDI switchboard

[Jrsmolik]

So I tested with just my full-sized synth last night (has MIDI-out) and yes it does work even while a game is full-screen, so it's a great secondary control! Thinking I might get a pedal switcher to do the main face-swaps. But with buttons I'd still need to take my hands off the keyboard/mouse to activate, which while gaming is tricky, during any other performance or recording that setup is totally fine.

Luckily after a few hours of digging through different scripting programs, I found a few combinations of scripts that kind of swing me around the active window, it's a much more complicated macro with active scripts running, but got me to where I can control the puppet with my hands still on the keyboard/mouse. Then I'll add MIDI for some of the main controls.

Thanks for your help!

[alank99101739]

You left out one detail - what is your twitch channel to see the end result! 😉

[Jrsmolik]

Haha thanks for the interest alank99101739, it's working well so far, lots of kinks to work out still & additional transitional animations, but I'll be building on this every week. The twitch channel is TwitchyToons ( www.twitch.tv/TwitchyToons ), and right now it's just Peter Griffin, but after enough followers/interest I'll build a Homer next, then more characters to come! Basically a character from different shows, ones that have an animation-style I can accurately pick apart & do the voice for haha

But great advice on the MIDI, I will be using MIDI controls for a different project in the future, have a weird plan for that one haha gotta test it before I pitch it though

[oksamurai]

Although I also haven't tried it personally and my MIDI device is in another office today, I believe alank99101739​ is right - MIDI will allow CH to be inactive and still work for triggers.

[KShinabery212]

This is something I want to try eventually.

I was streaming from Wacom Cintiq Companion 2 (art not gaming) and I was scared it would not work on that device.  But now I have the Wacom MobileStudio Pro which is slightly stronger!  So maybe I will try to build a character that would work with it.

But I also multistream.... so I stream to Twitch, Mixer, YouTube and Periscope at the same time.  Of course with a chat browser.  I will never partner with one of them anyways.... so it is ok for me to multistream.