I've Got a Secret

[Rodney]

This is just a placemarker and a reminder for me to investigate the TaoA:M exercise(s) that deal with Lipsync.

 

At the core of my exploration is a desire to determine what effect having the complete dialogue as one audio file might have on the experience.

 

The dialogue is:

"I've got a secret. Can you keep a secret? Didn't think so."

 

The problem:

The dialogue length is set. There is no way (in A:M) to adjust the timing/pacing or to adjust the delivery of the performance for the character in the sequence due to the audio file's fixed length.

 

Questions:

Could separating the one audio file into three separate audio files resolve the issue?

Is there anything in A:M already that can address the issue? (i.e. referencing the same audio file three times and/or cropping the audio) If so, how user-friendly?

Can the exercise be updated to focus enhance understanding of timing/pacing/phrasing in animation (but still using the example of lipsync)?

[robcat2075]

Is there anything in A:M already that can address the issue? (i.e. referencing the same audio file three times and/or cropping the audio) If so, how user-friendly?

 

You can put several copies of the same WAV in the chor and use the crop handles to limit each to a certain portion.

[Rodney]

You can put several copies of the same WAV in the chor and use the crop handles to limit each to a certain portion.

 

This is the process that I believe I will have to pursue.

There is a video out there that briefly covers cropping of audio. (I so need to organize my tutorials... I can't find anything these days!)

Perhaps that was something you produced?

[robcat2075]

It's part of the NLE functionality that came in during... TWO?

 

Click on the WAV in the chor timeline and use the handles at each end to crop it.

[Rodney]

It's part of the NLE functionality that came in during... TWO?

 

Click on the WAV in the chor timeline and use the handles at each end to crop it.

 

Thanks. I've messed around with it a little, primarily before it was fully operational.

I stepped away from it after it was temporarily broken during an update and haven't returned to it.

At the time I was interested in the Frame properties for animating images but knew I'd have to also deal with the audio.

[Rodney]

It's part of the NLE functionality that came in during... TWO?

 

Click on the WAV in the chor timeline and use the handles at each end to crop it.

 

Thanks. I've messed around with it a little, primarily before it was fully operational.

I stepped away from it after it was temporarily broken during an update and haven't returned to it.

At the time I was interested in the Frame properties for animating images but knew I'd have to also deal with the audio.

[largento]

For Stalled Trek, since I was doing almost all of the voices, it seemed wise to record all of one character's dialogue in one session so that I could maintain as much consistency with the voice as I could. I recorded each block of dialogue as an individual file. These were generally single lines of dialogue, but could be multiple lines if it was a long speech.

 

While editing the audio, I would remove all of the time before and after the dialogue and then process it to get the sound I wanted.

 

I named them sequentially like so: "Spott_003_insist" ...this way I could find the dialogue in order and still have a clue as to what the line was. I saved my high quality files as aif files and my low quality versions (for use in A:M) as wav files. This did require me having to replace the sound files in Premiere, but it was fairly easy to match them up to their wave pattern in Premiere's timeline.

 

I could have saved the high quality files as wav files, too, but by making them different, I was less likely to confuse them.

 

Having individual tracks allowed me to put them in and adjust the timing between them. In most cases, a single track was all a shot required, but it was trickier when a shot contained several lines between two or more characters.

 

I used Robert's method a couple of times where I decided I needed to trim some pauses between dialogue (within sentences, even.)

 

I do it this way: It's not very intuitive, but it makes sense. Drop your sound file into your cho and you can visually see the waveform. By scrubbing, you can see that say a pause starts on frame 60 and goes until frame 120. Simply go to the properties panel for the sound (in the cho) and change the Crop end frame to 60. Then bring in another copy of the sound. Have it start on frame 70 and set the Crop start to 120 and bingo, you've trimmed the pause.

 

Note: that in my case, I have to refresh the screen to see the change in the waveform. I usually go up and down with my scroll wheel on my mouse.

[NancyGormezano]

Not sure why this thread is in a private forum? It's a good topic, with valuable question and information for everyone.

 

(Mod: Agreed!)

[markw]

I've just found that A:M only supports 16bit WAV files and not 32bit ones. This was after 10min of head scratch as to why it kept telling me I was trying to load an invalid file!

I wonder are there technical reasons for A:M not handling any other depths or formats of sound files?

[Rodney]

are there technical reasons for A:M not handling any other depths or formats of sound files?

 

Here's my take...

I'd say there are both technical and practical reasons that exist for focusing on 16bit support of sound files.

A case could be made for other additions and enhancements but ultimately A:M is not a dedicated editors as there are thousands available that fully focus on sounds.

 

File Size

Sound files (even 16bit) can grow to large size very quickly and often require considerable compression.

In animation this can be especially processor intensive as the files must be encoded and decoded on the fly.

 

Realtime Playback

In order focus on animation with as much realtime playback as possible the straightforward approach might be to have two versions of a sound file, using the 16bit as your proxy in A:M and then replacing it with the original at a later time.

 

This is similar to methods for using non-standard graphics (gif animation files) where the files used are temporary (proxies) and then exchanged at the appropriate time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a write up from the Tech Ref/Help File for general information. I believe all of this still applies:

About Sound Objects

Dialog and lip-sync are of paramount importance to character animation. Your characters need to be able to talk, yell, sing, laugh, and cry. With powerful commercial and shareware sound editing software and low cost sound cards and speakers, it is possible for you to create soundtracks and sound effects for your own stories. Animation:Master allows you to import your sound files and sync them with actions for your characters. From the sound of a bouncing rubber ball, to the burning of a dragon breathing fire, or a line of dialog for one of your actors, Animation:Master will easily import and work with audio files. Sounds are audio sample files that can be loaded and placed in actions to help create lip sync actions. You can also load sampled music to use as timing reference when animating to a song. You can scrub through animation will sound on the timeline, and create final animation with sounds saved in the animation file.

 

Once a sound file is added to a choreography, rendering an AVI or Movie file will automatically embed the added sound in the file.

 

Audio Formats Supported

Animation:Master supports standard, uncompressed PCM WAV files on both the PowerMac and PC. As long as the uncompressed PCM format is used, audio files of any frequency can be used, regardless of whether they are stereo or mono. Several shareware and freeware programs are available for converting sound files from other formats to the WAV format.

 

Using Sounds in An Animation

Once a sound file has been added to a project, it can be used by simply dragging and dropping the sound onto any Action or Choreography. This creates a Sound Shortcut. The shortcut will be visible in the timeline and can be moved to the desired starting time. Also the start and end play positions can be cropped as desired. Most often, the action will be for the model to which the audio belongs. For example, a hero in a story has a line of dialog such as “Look Out!” A new action is created for the hero model, and the sound is dropped into that action. Now, as you step through the frames, the audio will play frame by frame (called “scrubbing”), allowing you to create key frames to match the audio.

Selecting the Sound Shortcut in the “Actions” folder of the Project Workspace tree allows you to make changes to the Sound Shortcut properties.

 

Sound Tips

When working with sounds, the Timeline will come in handy for reference when changes are made to start or end times of a particular sound clip. Remember to always use PCM Wave data.

[markw]

Humm, proxy sound files you say…

Will have to experiment with that sometime and see what the effect on real-time playback is like.

 

Just did a quick experiment and A:M will accept 8, 16 & 24bit WAV files. It's just the 32bit ones it refuses.

A small detail perhaps to include in an update of the TechRef when that day comes?

 

I must confess apart from "Keep a Secret" and some experimenting, I've not done much lip-sync. Apart from dialog, which has to be in there before animating, most any other sound I've always added later to the rendered movie in a video editing app.

[Rodney]

Just did a quick experiment and A:M will accept 8, 16 & 24bit WAV files. It's just the 32bit ones it refuses.

A small detail perhaps to include in an update of the TechRef when that day comes?

 

Mark,

If you've got a could case study that you can push toward A:M Reports that may be just what is needed to push that into 32bit.

I haven't investigated enough to know if some 32bit audio is PCM compliant. You never know, it may be that it's not that tough a change in the over all scheme of things. Adding it to A:M Reports helps to get it documented and prioritized.

[markw]

And another thing...

I'm on a Mac here and A:M will not Embed nor Consolidate any sound file's that are used in a project. Can others confirm this?

Is this normal?

Should I A:M report this as well?

[Rodney]

We can't Embed any external files such as Images and Audio. Embedding is limited to A:M files that are text.

Consolidation on the other hand was created to overcome this issue of external files not being collected and shared.

Consolidation collects all the various external assets and combines them with the Project, which may or may not have files embedded in them. It should work but there may be some aspects of zipping up files on a Mac that don't allow consolidation. It sounds like an A:M Reportable thing however if someone can confirm that audio files don't Consolidate.

 

Should we assume that Macs don't zip files but rather use Stuffit or some equivalent?

 

Ref:

A:M Reports: [bug]6237[/bug] : 32bit WAV Files Not Accepted

[markw]

Thanks yet again Rodney. Another quick reply!

Just found it is consolidating them.

But it confused me a bit with how it dose it. When you consolidate A:M makes both a zip file and a folder where you tell it to. The folder is full of other empty folders and sub folders relating to where your assets were. Now the zip, when you open it makes another folder with the same name as the first folder but with everything in it.

I had a 50/50 chance of going to the right folder and lost!

Still, might ask Steffen if A:M really needs to make that other empty folder...

As for ziping, Macs by default use something built in called 'Archive Utility' unless you want to use something else.

[Rodney]

Still, might ask Steffen if A:M really needs to make that other empty folder...

Consolidate is suppose to recreate your current folder structure so that when unzipped the files go back where they belong.

I'm not sure what to make of any empty folders if they are not in some way related to your current directory structure.

 

and a folder where you tell it to. The folder is full of other empty folders and sub folders relating to where your assets were.

 

If I understand what you are saying...

 

That is not creating a folder of where they were but rather it IS a folder of where they ARE.

Consolidation does not remove any files it merely copies them, and their location into an archival file.

Upon consolidate you then have your original files and the archive.

 

I can't speak to any extra folders except to say that A:M attempt to recreate the structure of where your files are residing as instructions for the archive so that when the files are extracted they go to the place specified.