How to import audio into Character Animator?

[nifongjj]

Hi, I am trying to use Character Animator to automate the mouth movement of my stop motion videos.  I figured out how I wanted to set up the mouthes and everything, but I can not seem to import my voice over audio file into the project.  Could you please tell me how to import an audio file into the animator for lip sync?  Is this posible or do you have to record within the app (which is very inconvenient).

Thank you for your time,

Justin nifong

[KJerryK · Accepted solution]

You can import the audio just like you import any file (File/Import)

Then drag it into the scene, select the puppet you want, and go to Object/compute Lip Sync from Scene Audio

[Jeff Almasol]

Also, Character only imports AIFF and WAV audio files at this time.

[nifongjj]

Ahh, This explains everything.  I was trying to import a MP3.  Thanks for your help!

[nifongjj]

Thanks for the help!  It turns out I was trying to import the wrong format.  You have to use either AIFF or WAV.  I was trying to import a MP3

[Dan Ramirez]

Character Animator now supports MP3 import.

[DeeHouk]

I have the updated version and it won't import mp3. Is the something I'm missing. I can import voice but not music

[Jeff Almasol]

Does the version number show as "Version 2.0" or "Version 2.0.1" in the menu bar or in the About screen?

If you're still using the Beta version of Character Animator, the released (non-beta) version is a separate download from the Creative Cloud application.

If you do have Version 2.0 or 2.0.1, does the app show a specific error message when you try to import the .mp3 file?
Do you know which app created the .mp3 file?

[alank99101739]

I was wondering if the sample rate for the audio file was different - 44khz instead of 48khz - that caused issues with cameras recently right? You might need to use say Adobe Audition to change the sample rate of the file if different.

[DeeHouk]

When I was trying to import the files wouldn't show up at all. I took

another look outside of Ch and found that they weren't Mp3... so I am going

to change them in Audition and try it again. Thanks. Sorry for being lame.

On Tue, Mar 26, 2019 at 2:35 PM alank99101739 <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[Jeff Almasol]

No worries. Hopefully a simple transcode will be enough.

[ddd4457147]

where can i find the object thingy? can you reply with a screenshot

[KJerryK]

That was many versions ago, and some things may have changed. So here is how to do it today.

1. Import the audio file into the project panel

2. Drag the audio to the scene where the puppet is located

3. Select the puppet in the scene

4. Make sure lip sync is activated (red dot shows)

5. Click on Timeline/Compute lip sync from scene audio

Let us know if that works for you

[KJerryK]

Here's the screenshot

[MKtheArtist]

This was super helpful I had same issue!

[justin24602907pa14]

Having trouble importing an m4a file, is anyone else having the same issue?

[TheOriginalGC]

Is the program seeing the file? If not, try converting it to a .wav file.

[davidl7576562]

hi guys

sorry I still can't get this to work for me.

Am i dragging and dropping the file into the character animator workspace ? or into the after effects workspace ?

what part of the workspace should it want to drop ? It is a small WAV file that I want to use to lip sync in character animator.

sorry if i have missed something obvious i am new to this.

Thanks

[Jeff Almasol]

Import the file first into the Project panel (via File > Import), then drag the imported audio file from the Project panel into either the Scene or Timeline panel.

[davidl7576562]

wow Jeff that was quick ! thanks

just to be clear I am doing this in After effects or Ca ?

I thought all the lip-sync was done in Ca.

Thanks again.

[davidl7576562]

never mind i sorted in Ca, thanks mate!

[elip20806948]

Timeline > Compute Lip Sync From Scene Audio

Preview 4

[sabrinah68284144]

An update for those having this issue in 2023:

I had the issue of an error message occuring whenever I tried importing audio files, regardless of file type. Whether I dragged and dropped or I selected File->Import, I received the same error. I changed the file types through my computer (I use a Mac), but the error persisted. Updating the software did not help with this issue.

The solution: Open your audio file in Adobe Audition. Then, export, save it as a compatible file type (I chose .wav) and choose a save location. Even when my file started out in .wav format, simply exporting it through Audition (still as a .wav file) did the trick. I'm unsure why this works, or why Character Animator throws errors at me for acceptable file types, but after searching the internet forums for answers that never worked, this is the only solution I've discovered.

If you don't have Adobe Audition, I would recommend any other software that exports to audio files and see if this works. If you have a Mac, iMovie should come preloaded, and you can save your file as audio only from there. I'm not sure what windows has, but hopefully there is a free option as well. I don't know that this will work (like I said, I still don't know why Character Animator didn't accept the files in the first place), but it seems like the same process I used on Audition, just through different applications.

Hope this helps anyone like me who spent half a day trying to find a solution to this problem! (My Character Animator is version 23.1)