Reallusion Forum / CrazyTalk / Hints and Tips

Eyelash distortions...any best way to reduce this ?

graphicsmart — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:36:24 GMT

Hi... I noticed that when I animate the characters eyes that there is alot of distortion in the eyelashes. It distorts really bad when blinking of course... Is there any best work flow to reduce this?

Thanks!

Can I record about 30 seconds of standby motion

lululee — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:11:21 GMT

Hi,
1) Can I record about 30 seconds of standby motion without any audio? I find that my character is very static without adding the emotives. I want my character to be speaking in a very peaceful manner and the emotives are too distorted for her. It seems that without the emotives her head and body no longer have any movement.
cheerio
lululee

Spinning images

psevet — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:23:31 GMT

Hello,

I'd like to display spinning images (i.e frontpages) in my scripts. They should fade in and then rotate on themselves, and then stop.

How can I do that in Crazy Talk 5 with the default sfx, or the Sfx volume 2 that I own ?

Thanks for your help.

Pierre

Facial Movement ... need help

jhughes1 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:13:26 GMT

Good Day ...

I hope all is well.

1. I have CT 5

2. For my model I use:

Human Profile

Profile Strength = 0.4

Motion Strength = 58%

Standby Motion is checked and = General

3. When I play my model w/my script, I get great lip movement but no other movement, like blinking eyes, smiles, nodding, etc.

4. If I play my model w/Elvis or Gump, I get total facial movement.

5. If I play my model with emotives, other than neutral, I also get total facial movement

6. My question ... how can I get more realistic facial movement, e.g., blinking eyes, smile, head movement, etc., with my model using my script ???

Thank you for your time & consideration.

Jim

************************

Export To WEB

ian.lowe — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:24:38 GMT

I am new to this so please forgive any stupid questions.

I have just created my first talking picture and exported it to a WEB page. Previewing in IE it works fine but in Firefox nothing happens, no picture and no error message.

I am using CrazyTa;k 4.0 and FrontPage.

I have checked the obvious Firefox setting but nothing seems out of place. Is there something obvious I am doing wrong?

Lip Synch Q

Blackace — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 20:29:44 GMT

Hi.

Just purchased this after playing around with the demo.

Is there any way I can just import a section of audio instead of having to import the whole thing ?

I have several files of me talking to get the basic mouth movements but need to stitch them all together on a 4 minute track.

I could shuffle them around in sony sound forge but it would be a lot simpler to do it in CT.

CrazyTalk SFX Pack V2 modifications without the cool stuff

bamdelco — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:32:49 GMT

I just purchased the CrazyTalk SFX pack V2 enthusiastically ready to put some of those cool effects into my projects.

Hmm, a bit of a let down to discover that those graphics such as newscaster microphones and TV news frames and just about everytrhing else shown in the advertizing video, weren't a part of the package. I can do without the dead bear and the spilled honey jar, but some of that other stuff is the main reason I bought the package.

This wasn't mentioned in the advertizing at all. And come to find out, the cool effects shown in the ad videos aren't even possible until one creates their own stuff in a separate graphics program. Bummer!

Well, okay. I can do that, I suppose. My question is:

What are the best sizes and resolutions for creating graphics such as those newscaster TV subtitle bars? Or what resolutions and sizes should other things be so that they don't have any stretching or shrinkage problems in CrazyTalk?

Creating Custom Teeth In CrazyTalk 5

Rainman — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 01:03:57 GMT

One of the many new wonderful features included in the latest upgrade in CrazyTalk 5 is enabling the user to create their own custom teeth on the character to add an authentic touch, and offers more realism if needed. The teeth templates included can accommodate most situations, however some people may have a unique, or famous smile that can be better presented naturally using their actual teeth.

Below is an example of such an instance. Instead of "Jack" Clone, I used Jack Nicholson :) You can refer to the CT5 help files for more information.

[img]http://www.coolclones.net/ct5teeth.jpg[/img]

[url=http://www.coolclones.net/jackdemo.html]CLICK HERE[/url] to view a quick demo I exported showing the end result using the new flv export option in CT5 which includes a standby motion option upon exporting.

AVI export with alpha channel?

tk — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 09:14:16 GMT

Does anyone know whether it's possible to export a CT .avi file with an alpha channel? It seems that although CT can handle alpha channels internally, when it comes to media export the codec strips out any alpha information. I am trying to export a CT sequence into Flash CS3 with a transparent background. It works fine if I export/import as a .tga sequence, but not as an embedded .avi video.

Fitting Tools wireframe and Hair

stargazer424 — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:01:25 GMT

What is the best way to set the wireframe with someone with a lot of hair? Do you put the outer wireframe around just the face or around the entire head (hair included)? If i put it just around the face, it seems the hair doesn't move. But if i put it around the entire head, the characters mouth movements are really exaggerated.

Delete information on Crazy talk Player

cactus.images — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:56:21 GMT

I would like to know how to obtain a Crasytalk web player without information on the right click:doze:

Crazytalk with VB

bwd2 — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:33:59 GMT

Has anyone found a way to get CrazyTalk to read text in a textbox in VB6.0? I'm guessing that one would convert the TTS to wave and then to CTS. If anyone one knows how to do this I would appreciate the help. I'm not even sure if it can be done.

I'm lost?>?

majon322 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:50:19 GMT

My name is mark and i have a 1 mo. old boy my third child and when i found this program i had a blast making him rant like Dennis Leary on speed. sent it to my family who haven't seen him yet as they live across the widest part of the state them on the eastern border me on the western of WI. an excellent way to present the new addition. But today is the first time i've been to this media of communication and it took me hours just to find where to post. So can someone clue me into how to download the bonus content that i think comes with the 149$ purchase/let me know if i've registered as a premium member correctly to access it. LOL.....

Thanx from the ignorant, majon322

[Archive] .swf

ForumArchive — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:57:09 GMT

Is there any way I can save as .swf file?
My tech guy who looks after my server is not so happy about allowing the file extensions needed to run the image and speech.
Until now I am exporting in video but the is killing my bandwidth.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
gary

4.0 Web Player

Visconti — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 23:35:26 GMT

Category: CT_Hints & Tips_Web Player

Version: CrazyTalk 4.5

Date: 2004.06.11

If your web service (or your web hosting provider) is running on MS Server 2003, the default setting will only allow your sites to show some standard format such as .htm, .asp, .jpg, etc.

There're two way to avoid this problem:

1) if you are using a web hosting service which does not allow to change the settings, you can convert the output of CrazyTalk to WMV format.

2) if you are hosting the site yourself, you can change the setting as following:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326965

more info:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/iis/6/all/proddocs/en-us/wsa_mimemapcfg.mspx

IIS setting> HTTP Headers> MIME Map file types
and then set two New type of associations-
associated extension Content type
.ctm application/octet-stream
.cts application/octet-stream

Crazytalk Player Interaction controlled by ActionScript

roqueta — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 06:03:48 GMT

Is it possible to control the Crazytalk webplayer interaction if embedded in a Flash movie by using actionscript?

I would like to create a interactive Flash movie (SWF) using an animated model with responses triggered by interaction by the user in other areas of the movie. As an example, an animated guide describing items clicked on by the user or a talking FAQ or an animated survey, etc...

[Archive] Timeline

ForumArchive — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:43:36 GMT

Hi All. I have been searching for days for the answer to this question.

When i add a wav file or a text to speech LONGER then 30 seconds it cuts it off to 30 seconds. i cant make my move longer then 30 seconds.

anyone a idea? maybe i am just missing a simple button but i just cant understand PLZZZZ help!!!

tnx alot
greeetzzzz

[Archive] inanimate talking Some excuses please

ForumArchive — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:41:25 GMT

Thanks for that. I had thought of cartooning it. I expect to start the project in the next day or so.

I am sorry that I have not been on the forum to answer your helpful threads. We have been in the middle of a natural disaster, floods, storms, no power and all that goes with that. We live in a retirement village and as we are ex nurses and "young" (like 71 and 75!) compared to the other residents, we have been flat out in a new found "carer" role. Great fun but exhausting. Power came back 3 hours ago.

Give it a try

[Archive] Exporting .wmv video in Vista

ForumArchive — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:40:43 GMT

One of the great things about Crazytalk 4.6 and Vista is that I have found exporting to wmv format now works great without the need for Windows Media Encoder and the results have been outstanding.

I have always preferred wmv format over avi but often chose the latter because prior to v4.6 and Vista, the export attempts were not always trouble free because of the need to use WM Encoder. Now all that has changed I'm pleased to say.

It is also worth mentioning that Crazytalk 4.6 runs great in Vista with super performance and stability so no one should fear making the switch to Microsoft's new OS.

Peter Edwards (movicomuk)
Moderator

[Archive] Having trouble exporting

ForumArchive — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:38:55 GMT

I'm new to this so forgive me if i'm being a bit thick. I've been trying to export my Crazy Talk thingy in avi format (I downloaded the codec to do it it wmv but it still won't do it). When I play it back though the colour is really bad and you can't really see that much movement.

I want to be able to export it so that it looks just like it did when it was open in crazytalk 4. am I doing something wrong?

[Archive] Newb Help

ForumArchive — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:37:42 GMT

Hi guys

I have just started to use Crazy Talk. I want to just make the characters eyes blink, i do not want the head moving or lips or anything else, just literally the eyes blinking.

Any ideas or tips

Thanks

Ollie

[Archive] transparency for export to AVI

ForumArchive — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:36:09 GMT

I seem to have come to grips with creation of the talking choc bar. I am quite comfortable with the results in CT but need to export it to full uncompressed AVI... with transparent background.

I have tried (in Photoshop CS 2) to create a transparent background for my image in jpg (I have discovered that jpg does not support transparency!) and tga. I import this into CT do the animation then export it to Premiere pro 2 (my nle). The problem is that when i put it on to the timeline over a still of the fridge shelf, it is not transparent.

What i want is the talking bar laying on the empty space i have created for it on the fridge shelf and have recorded this on a still.

The exporting goes fine and PP2 accepts the avi. It plays well, just that the background is not transparent.

Give it a try

[Archive] Automating facial expressions

ForumArchive — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:32:32 GMT

Hi all,

Sometimes, when I put a script to a picture, it determines what face icons are appropriate to use (that correspond to the lip syncing). Problem is, it only does it sometimes. How do I turn this functionality on?

[Archive] V mouth - more dots please?

ForumArchive — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:30:41 GMT

I would like to be able to add a number of extra "location dots" on the mouth. I know about the the multi dot choices via the visual menu at the top left of the screen. But even with these I ended up with a "V" mouth instead of following the lips.

I can guess why this happened as the shot, whilst being full faced, is from a high angle, therefore the face is foreshortened. This has resulted in a very upward curved mouth at the end points, plus the fact that the girl is smiling. Her lower lip is accentuated too.

Is there a way to add more dots so that I can fine tune the perimeters of the mouth better?

Give it a try

CrazyTalk API

roqueta — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 15:56:59 GMT

I'm new to CrazyTalk and would like to control the speach of my Avatar dynamically. In reviewing past posts, it looks like javascript can be used to control the player. Is there any documentation on the API calls available for the player or examples of dynamic control?

Alex

Creating animated SFX

salliem — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 11:10:34 GMT

I read the tutorial on creating sfx and bringing it into crazy talk, can you do this with animations also? And what is a good size for the sfx images? Also , does anyone know where I can get premade sfx for CT? Thanks

SFX

Visconti — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 04:01:56 GMT

Picture with Spectacles

Category: CT_Hints & Tips_SFX

Version: CrazyTalk 4.5

Date: 2007.2.27

Q: I would like to use a talking head photo of someone who wears spectacles/glasses. Does anyone please have a hint on using CrazyTalk to enable expressions while keeping the glasses frames unwrapped - or at least to optimize eye and eyebrow movement while minimizing distortion to the glasses frames.

If you import the head photo with glasses directly to CrazyTalk, I'm afraid that it cannot make the good outcome. I suggest that you should remove the glasses in your photo first and import it to CrazyTalk. Then, photograph your glasses only to make it as SFX material (it means to make a custom SFX). Finally, put the glasses on the SFX track in Timeline to make another layer for the talking head. I think it will be better to solve the problem.

Fitting

Visconti — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 01:33:59 GMT

Inanimate "Talking"

Category: CT_Hints & Tips_Fitting

Version: CrazyTalk 4.5

Date: 2007.06.07

Q: Can anybody help me to make a Bar of Chocolate talk please? It will be used for a conversation between the bar of chocolate in the fridge and a Fat lady, longing for "him". Fat lady will be real life (My Wife!!).

I have no idea how to start as I do not have photo/face to start with. I am a newbie to CrazyTalk and got this "almost" only to do this job. Now i have it I can see so much more to do with it. Great program. I am very much into video, have done a little animation (Stop Motion)

Hmmmm, not so sure I should help you, as this sounds somewhat cruel (are you trying to taunt your wife, teach her a lesson, or merely have fun at her expense? In any case, even if she SAYS she is okay with this, I would never do this as no matter what she professes deep down inside she will be hurt).

But assuming for a moment you are going to use a picture of Jackie Gleason as the fat person (dead public figures are always fair game :>) then you have a couple of issues. First, as you've surmised, is you need an image of a bar of chocolate. If you're going to use a real image of a person, chances are you need a realistic chocolate bar, so go take a picture of one (I'm sure you have a digital camera) or Google Image until you find something suitable.

With Crazy Talk that's almost all you need, as you can let CT substitute it's own eyes for your non-existent ones, as well as teeth (if you so desire). When you bring up the image of the bar you won't have any visual anchors to use, so be creative and just put the eye and mouth dots where you want eyes and a mouth. Then go in to Advanced Facial Features and uncheck use eyes and pick the eyes you want (same for teeth if you want 'em -- a chocolate bar with teeth is a little too ironic for my tastes :>).

Here's what I did with a yogurt container image I found on the web:

[img]http://forum.reallusion.com/image/2007.08.28_501.jpg[/img]

And it looks good if somewhat unsettling. Anyway, the bar/inanimate object is the easy part. Much harder to do is to have two characters talking on the screen at the same time (search this forum for answers, some of them posted by me).

No, it wont be my wife, she is cuddly (as we are both) but not fat. I have a lady in mind that does movies for me, not an actor but incredibly talented.

Thank you for that tutorial. That will really give me a kick start. The one question I need to ask is (It is very late down under (Australia) and i do not want to open CT now or i will be very tired in the morning).

Do I presume that just mouse clicks will give me the original eye and mouth position or do I have to click a function button first

When you bring an image into CT the first thing it does is show you a screen to crop and/or adjust it -- I always use Photoshop first so I just blow by this one, but if you want to use the (very) limited tools in CT go ahead and do so.

After that you are given a screen to place four dots -- one at each outer corner of the eyes, and one at each corner of the mouth. That's it -- CT will then attempt to find features within those parameters.

In the case of the yogurt container (or your chocolate bar) it didn't find any features so just made a guess. That's what you then go into edit. As it turns out, nearly every CT figure needs to be edited anyway to look best, so I don't deem this to be any big deal. Editing only consists of moving around the little points on the various features and is about as simple as anything you'll ever do in software (about the only "catch" is there is a simple and a detailed mode of editing -- you'll nearly always want to use the detailed mode).

Even with a complicated character it shouldn't take more than a minute to fully make it come to life.

Ah, That solves it. i did not realize that the dots appear on everything. I thought that they only appeared on faces!

Yep, Photoshop is a standard tool for me. All my photos go there first.

I will be green screening the chocolate bar as it has a few travels to make before its final demise!.

Thank you for this, my first contact with the CT Forums. It has been a very good experience.

Today i heard that school kids wizz around this program as if it were joined to their finger tips. It does not do that for me who is well into the other end of the age spectrum! I have another question that i will put on a separate thread.

Its a great fun program, isn’t it? Loving it.

Hey, I'm probably the oldest guy on this forum (at least I seem to be the only one who's retired :>). I can see a lot here that would attract kids, because it's the easiest way I've ever seen to do facial animation.

Biggest problem with CT is it's so very good it gets you wanting more and the basic limitations are going to be hard to overcome (after all, it's really only 2D animation and that's not going to change). iClone is an effort to do for 3D what CT does for 2D, and while it's amazing for the cost it has a long way to go before it will ever be as slick as CT is in terms of the final image quality.

TTS

Visconti — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 01:31:36 GMT

TTS engine

Category: CT_Hints & Tips_TTS

Version: CrazyTalk 4.5

Date: 2007.02.09

Q: Can you please show me how to change the language from English to French in CT 4? I've downloaded and installed the French TTS engine from Microsoft.com, but the image still does only talk in English

When you click on "Edit", "Script" (at the top), and then click on the "T" icon (underneath the model, just to the left of the musical note icon), are you given the option to choose a Speech Engine and then a voice? Look for one of the French voices. An Italian voice, for example, is working well on my PC.

You can visit here first
http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/ct_tts.asp

and find FAQ
2) How can I use a language other than English?
A: Most TTS engines provide language add-on. Please visit their website to find more. For example, Microsoft provides more than 10 languages for SAPI4 - http://www.microsoft.com/msagent/downloads/user.asp
Visit it, of course

Then, find a topic named "Text-to-speech engines"
You will also find a menu "Select a TTS engine" below the headline.
Choose France engine and click "Download selected engine" to get it.

Also, you can download some pay engine I've mentioned in
http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/ct_tts.asp

Maybe download the free trial first to see if it meets your needs.

After Installation and setting of the engine, follow the instruction above, you will find TTS for France finally.

Lip-sync

Visconti — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:55:11 GMT

Better Lip-sync

Category: CT_Hints & Tips_Lip-sync

Version: CrazyTalk 4.5

Date: 2007.9.29

Q: I've recently been using crazy talk to try and so some lip-syncing with my faces but they look no where as near as good as the examples of the ones in the project files of iClone - am I missing a trick ? Any views at all would be greatly appreciated !

I use a method where I delete all default phonetic tabs and then replace them by actually sounding out the .wav file itself in front of a mirror. This allows me to see the proper mouth shape transitions that I then match using a combination of the phonetics and the emotive expressions. By simply placing a phonetic tab on the lip timeline alone will only grant you so much variety in animation, but adding the proper emotive for that specific word or phrase can make all the difference. You may also create your own custom emotives and then save them to you library, building more and more combinations as you go that you can then refer back to and use in future projects. You can add emotives or phonetics by double clicking on the corresponding track on the timeline. Then choosing the sound or style, and amount of expression. Same rule applies to the head, eyes, shoulders, and special effects. Using a healthy mix of custom keyframed animation for all tracks, from scratch, will give you the highest quality facial animation in the real-time production industry. Don't forget that sometimes using a different sound than what your character is actually saying will give you a more perfect match to the proper mouth shape. This can be varied a great deal with the addition of individual emotives placed directly over every 5 to 10 phonetic tabs, or closer depending on the amount of work you wish to get out of the fitting rig. Play around with this method and I'm sure it will provide you with a more photo real lip sync.