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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Rampa,
I've revisited your comments in that other thread because I think I *could* use a webcam emulator instead of loading a sequence -- most specifically, I think it might allow me to import the audio at the same time and record it (it might not, but I want to try).
But as I said in that other thread, I've yet to find a "free" (and I mean "free") emulator, and none of the links you provide ARE free. They all have watermarks, as far as I can tell, and require a fee of some sort. Now, I'm not against paying money for software, but I just dropped 7 big ones for something that ought to work right, and it's discouraging that I'll need to spend more money just to get the ability to load audio at the same time (and what good a sequence is without audio I have zero idea -- while you can manually try lining it up, it's almost impossible to get true sync and even then you have the issue of not being able to generate lips.
So I'll ask here (anyone) again: are there are free emulators out there? Ones people have actually used? Don't just do a web search, because you will be lied to.
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Oh, and let me go through a few of the ones Rampa listed, just to show I was right the first time:
1) Webcamoid doesn't work. No real surprise, as it hasn't been developed in five years, but it constantly just crashed on my system.
2) Splitcamera works (and frustratingly, since it proves the concept of what I want) but it won't do 60fps (no way to even choose framerate for broadcasting) as well as ads (i could live with the ads, though).
3) Manycam (which is listed twice): payware. It will show a watermark (I didn't even install it to try it, but I may to see if it's worth what they want -- however, I'm skeptical it will do 60fps).
Again, what I want is software *like* these, but with the ability to do 60fps and preferably free (at this point I may well pay a reasonable fee for something that works, but I'm convinced there is nothing free out there that will).
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Let me update this a bit further.
I downloaded and installed Manycam. It's supposedly the best, and has an annual fee for any version to use HD. Luckily HD is NOT what I want here. Just using the free version I was able to set it to 60fps and my first pass at using it with iClone and the FW plugin as a webcam source was... bleh. It couldn't keep up with the frame rate, so the capture didn't look very good.
I had optimization turned on (that turns things down to 640x320) but my experience with loading in 60fps sequences told me that this doesn't work well, and you are better off resizing your stuff prior to importing. So I did that, brought my video into Premiere and resized it to 640x320 (but kept the frame rate at 60) and used that instead. Voila!
The advantage of doing this (using a virtual webcam instead of importing a sequence) is you can select the audio from the virtual webcam and thus have it synced as well as record the lip visemes. So win-win (plus it's a lot easier to control in terms of starting and stopping -- I was able to freeze frame the video source to get my reference shot). It does bring up my biggest gripe with iClone the way it works with FW, though -- when you do the lip viseme thing (so that it records audio at the same time) it lays down the audio track with no way other than a manual delete to get rid of that track if you want to re-record it (a PITA IMHO -- just like there is a checkbox on "blend" there ought to be a "keep previous audio" or some such when you checkmark the "record audio for viseme").
This workflow is *really* important to me, and I'm glad I was able to get it functioning, even if I did have to install every single one on Rampa's list (so thanks, I guess, Rampa :>). My talent will, by and large, not be in studio, so being able to get the video into FW along with audio is very important (just for the full workflow, I don't intend to use the audio from the video track in most cases, as my talent will be using higher quality microphones attached to recording devices, but I'll sync this up automatically with the audio from iClone using Premiere tools for this).
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By Rampa - 8 Years Ago
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Good thing you stuck with it to figure it out. :)
I have been using Splitcam, but only get about 24 FPS throughput in FW. Webcamoid crashed sometimes/ran sometimes for me. Not quite a good enough success rate to keep it.
I'll have to play with Manycam some more, I guess.
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Splitcam max is 30fps, so you won't get much more than what you're doing.
I can consistently get 59-60fps after resizing the video, so I'm happy (and I don't have to pay for it -- although I'm not sure where the "watermark" is supposed to be, or if it will pop up sometime down the road. I'm hoping either it only shows when you are using an actual webcam, or actually broadcasting, but even if it does eventually show it might not interfere with the FW process. Or I'll have to bite the bullet and pay the $20 per year to get rid of it).
I'm pretty persistent -- the funny thing is I had already uninstalled Manycam once, after being unable to get to 60. And then I remembered the problems I had had with an image sequence, so I reinstalled and tried again. While in general I have a lot of patience the fact that I'm running out of time in my life causes me to lose it sometimes, and not want to waste too much time that I had when I was so much younger.
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By EddieChristian - 8 Years Ago
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I just tried all the emulators I could find and none of them truly worked well. And so far my record button has remained greyed out since the start...
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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You tried Manycam? It worked fine for me, once I resampled the video down to 640x320. I got 60fps in Faceware AND iClone, and everything recorded just fine.
Where are you experiencing issues? Tell me *exactly* how you are proceeding (you did start Manycam first before you started anything else, and loaded up your video file) and what is going wrong.
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Oh, just one more (well, two more) things:
1) The free version of Manycam IS watermarked. Silly me -- I never noticed it. It's in the lower right corner, and it doesn't interfere at all with the capture process (so no need to buy anything).
2) Splitcam is pernicious. Even after you uninstall it it will remain installed and a service running in the background. Make sure you completely delete the directory out of your Programs.
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By Skuzzlebutt - 8 Years Ago
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using a smartphone isnt hard, change a setting and download a app
2 sec google search.
plus you can also use the flashlight at the same time and get even lighting
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By Rampa - 8 Years Ago
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A phone is a great capture device. If you have a phone with a bit of oomph, you can record 60 FPS. I have a no-name phone that is reasonably powerful that I use just as a small tablet, because it is obsolete 3G. But it is a perfect carry-with-you facial capture device. Just load the video to your computer and use Manycam to send it through Faceware.
Use this awesome app. It is open-source, and so add-free. It can record up to 120 FPS, so it'll do the trick.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera&hl=en
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By paulg625 - 8 Years Ago
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Thanks for all the hard work guys it will prove invaluable when I start working with Faceware...
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By Skuzzlebutt - 8 Years Ago
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Rampa (9/25/2017)
A phone is a great capture device. If you have a phone with a bit of oomph, you can record 60 FPS. I have a no-name phone that is reasonably powerful that I use just as a small tablet, because it is obsolete 3G. But it is a perfect carry-with-you facial capture device. Just load the video to your computer and use Manycam to send it through Faceware. Use this awesome app. It is open-source, and so add-free. It can record up to 120 FPS, so it'll do the trick. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera&hl=en
a little more on this:
even a old phone without service will work,
(we have a drawer full here)
but you can buy a pretty nice android smartphone from a dollar store for 25.00
last night we built 2 head rigs using "selfie-sticks" so all this is mobile
and no distraction with monitors, so the user(s) can focus on performance
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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chewi (9/25/2017)
Why though?
Why have cheap capture devices? Why not?
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By SeanMac - 8 Years Ago
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That discovery of the Open Camera App on Google Play Store is excellent. @budbundy: kudos!
3Dtest says 640X480 resolution is fine for Faceware. This App allows Frame Rate settings up to 120 fps.
3Dtest in his Faceware tutorials says the crucial control for Faceware is fps and that a high Frame Rate is more important than the resolution.
Home Built in Coolermaster ATX case with GigabyteGA-Z170X-GAMING 7 MoBo, i7-6700 @ 3.4 Ghz, Asus GeForce GTX 970 Graphics Card, 32GbDDR4 RAM, 4K & HD monitors, Huion H610 Pro Graphics Tablet, Kinect v2, Logitech920 Webcam, Win 10 64 Bit OS
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Yeah, I've found that 640x320 works just fine in tracking.
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By TheOldBuffer - 8 Years Ago
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@Kelleytoons
Is faceware living up to expectations ?
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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I wish I could tell you for sure -- just haven't had enough time to really play with it (hopefully in the next two days I will be able to experiment a lot more -- no tennis and no major chores, although I still need to clean the pool a bit after Irma).
I have something in mind to test it out, though, so perhaps after I try that I can give a better report. My initial impressions are it's about what I expected.
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By TheOldBuffer - 8 Years Ago
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Kelleytoons (9/26/2017)
I wish I could tell you for sure -- just haven't had enough time to really play with it (hopefully in the next two days I will be able to experiment a lot more -- no tennis and no major chores, although I still need to clean the pool a bit after Irma).
I have something in mind to test it out, though, so perhaps after I try that I can give a better report. My initial impressions are it's about what I expected.
Thanks. I'll keep an eye out for your report.
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By theschemer - 8 Years Ago
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budbundy (9/25/2017)
Rampa (9/25/2017)
A phone is a great capture device. If you have a phone with a bit of oomph, you can record 60 FPS. I have a no-name phone that is reasonably powerful that I use just as a small tablet, because it is obsolete 3G. But it is a perfect carry-with-you facial capture device. Just load the video to your computer and use Manycam to send it through Faceware. Use this awesome app. It is open-source, and so add-free. It can record up to 120 FPS, so it'll do the trick. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera&hl=en a little more on this: even a old phone without service will work, (we have a drawer full here) but you can buy a pretty nice android smartphone from a dollar store for 25.00 last night we built 2 head rigs using "selfie-sticks" so all this is mobile and no distraction with monitors, so the user(s) can focus on performance
Dumb question but here goes...I am really liking the option of using Manycam and dropping a video and having it track that. It works great. But I have never made a video of myself before and need some tips. I did download the Open Camera app onto my cell phone and also my Asus tablet but am having a hard time holding the tablet/phone steady and my eyes seem to not know where to look so the video doesn't turn out. Do you buy/make a holder to hold the device and what angle is best? Straight at it or tilted left/right? Never did any video of myself so I am a noob at the moment. :unsure:
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By Skuzzlebutt - 8 Years Ago
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we built something along these lines,
but stuff like this can be bought for under 20.00
head mount
we face the screens away from the actors and slightly tilt down
so they can act and not be distracted too much.
trying to do this while sitting in front of a computer staring at yourself isnt going yield very good results
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By theschemer - 8 Years Ago
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budbundy (9/26/2017)
we built something along these lines, but stuff like this can be bought for under 20.00 head mountwe face the screens away from the actors and slightly tilt down so they can act and not be distracted too much. trying to do this while sitting in front of a computer staring at yourself isnt going yield very good results
Ohhh, I see now. So I guess using a tablet isn't going to work so well unless I build a little stand and aim it at a chair that I sit in and get it all adjusted. The cell phone is the answer! Sounds good to me. Thanks for the info.
TS
edit: I just ordered 2 of those off of ebay for $10.99 each.
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By theschemer - 8 Years Ago
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Arrrgghhhh! I just tracked my head gear for my camera and they shipped it with DHL. I hate when people use DHL as you could order direct from China and it would get here just as fast. :crazy:
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By hj - 8 Years Ago
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Hi
ManyCam is a great Tool to work together with Faceware for iClone. Now i can use every viedeo an can calibrate it well.
mote in the german Sector of the forum.
Here my Testclip roduced with Manycam with picture in piture
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By animagic - 8 Years Ago
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I'm going to rival Kelley by asking a dumb question (and showing MY age...:unsure: ).
I'm playing with Manycam and it all works, but I can't find any way to rewind/replay a loaded video...:crazy:
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By Rampa - 8 Years Ago
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animagic (11/2/2017)
I'm going to rival Kelley by asking a dumb question (and showing MY age...:unsure: ).
I'm playing with Manycam and it all works, but I can't find any way to rewind/replay a loaded video...:crazy:
That is a completely annoying and non-intuitive problem with the UI. You need to click on the "Playlist". I wish it would just stay, but it disappears whenever you select the video adjustments in the right-hand column.
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By animagic - 8 Years Ago
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Thanks, Rampa. Unfortunately, Manycam didn't like me using that and immediately crashed after doing a rewind. Nothing is ever easy...
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By Kelleytoons - 8 Years Ago
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Yeah, when you click on that playlist button it should show you the video controls on the right (where you can rewind, pause, set to repeat, etc).
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By argus1000 - 7 Years Ago
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[b]The advantage of doing this (using a virtual webcam instead of importing a sequence) is you can select the audio from the virtual webcam and thus have it synced as well as record the lip visemes. So win-win (plus it's a lot easier to control in terms of starting and stopping -- I was able to freeze frame the video source to get my reference shot). .
Also, when you record the sound from a virtual webcam, instead of a sequence clip, you now have access to the "Lip options" function, which you didn't have before.. I found those options very useful to smooth out lip movements after recording.
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By jasonjbrown - 5 Years Ago
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Thank you guys for posting about ManyCam.... thanks for doing the dirty work, you've saved everyone a few days of trial and aggravation.
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