Editing Eye Movement

[Cundina]

So I have a question about the eyes and how they work in character animator.

First a little context in what I know. So when you recorded a performance or sync a price of existing audio a track is created with the broken down shapes that are used to create the mouth movements. And these are pretty good but if you need to be edited you can drag and trim them kind of like you would a scene in adobe premiere. Now when eyes get recorded it looks like a single track is created with what I’m assuming is the data that is recorded from the eye performance

What I want to know is there anyway to edit or trim this data without re-record your performance? Is there some sort of way to get into this eye track and manually go in and fix any unwanted eye movement?

[headTrix Training]

Hello.

This is the Animate forum. What you want is the "Character Animator" forum!

But no, there are no Visemes for eye movement in Character Animator. You can adjust the timeline a bit, but its probably easiest for you to just record over your current scene and ONLY cue the Eyes for recording. Then just have them look straight, blink or whatever you want to happen.

Hope that helps.

cheers!
mark

[alank99101739]

As Mark said - you can record over the top, you can also split a recording and trim (and move) the parts afterwards. Note you can also use the mouse instead of webcam if you need more precise movements.

[alank99101739]

In case helpful, Project Wookie, Episode 20: Recording Eye Movements - YouTube has some examples of the basics.

[headTrix Training]

You might want to check your video Alan, I watched the first few minutes and nothing happens.... just see your puppet the entire time... seems like a lot of it could have been edited out. In the entire 11 minute video, you never showed your screen. On purpose, or error?

[alank99101739]

Sigh. Thx. They are livestreams so I can produce quickly, but with lower quality as a result. It was partly to learn the challenges of doing it. I just don’t have the time to go back and edit them professionally And tighten them up. If useful, great. If too painful, lesson learnt!

There is like a 15 second time lag, so one episode early on I ended and it chopped it off the end. So there is waste at start and end. (I wonder if I can trim livestreams afterwards...)

As a result i wait at start to make sure it’s streaming... but I think I need to invest the time to work out why such a long lag. Or add intro music to make it look on purpose...  I feed adobe audition into character animator and obs whuch is then streamed to YouTube.

My first realization was I could not put the character in the corner the whole recording because I cannot demonstrate CH and use it for streaming st same time! And I cannot use two laptops (stream one into the other with NDI) because I can only run one copy of the software at a time for licensing reasons. Since this is a hobby, I am not going to pay for two licenses Just to stream! So I will probably finish project wookie (got another 5 or so episodes planned) then see if useful to anyone, or just too painful to watch due to all the delays etc. I was going to record replays and hook up to a midi controller to try and add more depth to the character etc - but no point if I have to hide the character when recording!

[headTrix Training]

When doing online training, it could be cute to use a character for sure to engage the learners, but students have to see your screen as you are working, the puppet would take the back seat then.

I use Captivate, or Adobe Presenter Video Express is neat since it records your camera and your screen at the same time. But you could also record your screen, and then export the character as a separate movie, and lay them on top of each other in Premiere (or Captivate, After Effects)

If you have a mac, you can also use Quicktime. I have used Audition to clear up some audio, but I have yet to livestream.

And I know what you mean, I can shoot a video in less then 30 minutes, but editing it and taking away the bleep and bloopers, pauses, umms, and aahs - that can take hours! But when you want to learn something you want it now. Tough to keep peoples attention if its not moving at a good pace. Personally I usually watch YouTube videos at 1.25- 2x the speed to get through all the fluff, and slow talkers. But either way, students want to see the screen, otherwise its pretty tough to follow, and made more for radio.

Hope it helps! Nice to chat with you!

mark

[alank99101739]

Thx Mark. Yes, the record to edit overhead put me off. I don’t have the time.

I was also curious to see if twitch etc popularity ported across. I think “no”. It is not entertaining to watch (unlike a game that is exciting). And I lack the larger-than-life personality to compensate! 🙂

Hmmm. I wonder if taking a set of screen shots would work - more like recording a lecture / PowerPoint. Then can use the CH character for the whole session.

[headTrix Training]

It must just be that one video, I just watched Episode 22 and I can see your screen and everything looks great.

I am having a problem with a simple hand swapset so I wanted to see your sibling idea. But I'm just swapping a hand in a draggable arm. I have restarted my computer, but it still, when I click... I it doesn't hide the default layer!

Good video! Just check the other one about eyes I think, you will see, you never see your computer screen.

cheers,

mark

[alank99101739]

Okay, looks like I need to check all the videos then. I had one situation where OBS showed it okay, but the video got stuck.

I assume the default layer is a member of the swap set? It does need a key bound to it, but I think it needs to be in the swap set to get hidden. That is the only reason I can think of. Feel free to share a screen shot of the trigger rigging. (I am a programmer by trade - when I grew up there used to be the "Teddy Bear" programming model. Sometimes just explaining to someone else (even a Teddy Bear) made the problem clearer. Teddy Bears are generally not very smart, so you had to explain it simply.)

The only other one is holding down the ALT key while pressing the scene refresh button. But that is getting desperate.

[alank99101739]

Err, yeah. So I checked them all and ep 20 is the only one that got completely messed up. I will need to re-record.

[alank99101739 · Accepted solution]

Sigh! I re-recorded episode 20 but the sound quality is bad this time! Project Wookie, Episode 20: Recording Eye Movements - YouTube

[headTrix Training]

You can buy a lavalier clip on mic for $20... makes all the difference!!

Glad you figured out the video! Surprised you don't wstwait before you publish. I figured out swap set with Dave's help. Evidently I was using the same layer twice to swap with a different trigger. Didn't realize all movements have to share the trigger and can't be used twice.  I was trying to organize each swap set with a name that declares the action... in the end I guess it's more organized better this way (left hand or right hand). Learned something new. So that's good!

Thanks for the help and the teddy bear story!