:::::::::::::ASD 6 review, tips, and bugs::::::::::::

[windstormer]

Is there an echo in here?

[mkelley]

Another brilliant new feature i'm sure everyone will use. ASPro has an Auto lipsincing function based on an audio file and written text.D.K

One of the things I've always hated about auto lipsyncing programs (and I've used quite a few over the years) was that they tend not to track audio very well. Also, for multiple characters they are extremely limited (usually what happens is you need to prepare multiple audio files, which is an incredible PITA). And, finally, you can't use them for, say, audio which is part of background sound (like a singer singing a song).

Leaving aside the last, can you give me your impressions D.K. on the first two issues. Specifically, have you developed any techniques for dealing with multiple characters? One possible approach, it seems to me, is to generate a "master" lipsync file for all characters in the scene, copy this to each character's timeline, and then (somehow) turn it on and off depending on who's talking at the time. Since Mike implemented auto lipsync he surely must have thought about this and provided some sort of mechanism (like visibility) where you can turn a track on and off at the desired point, right?

Otherwise trying to put in phonemes there (rest phonemes) might be even more work than using Papagayo is now (Vern may well suggest some sort of scripting solution to this and I'm all for being able to program something if I can imagine what the heck it might be).

I can test how well the lip sync works myself -- it's the multiple character issue I'm far more concerned with. With our series (with almost any American animation series) having many characters talking during a scene is not only common, it's practically the ONLY thing that happens. If this isn't addressed in some ways having auto lipsync is basically just a trick or toy of little value to most.

[DK]

Actually no. I had someone ask me to do a set of Papayago compatible mouths. The real reason I bought this one up is I am writing an audio program at the moment that will be cross compatible with AS but I will say a bit more about that in the comming weeks. Right now it's ASpro6 that is important.

Cheers
D.K

[windstormer]

Someone may have mentioned this before, but the tracking feature is a strong and very useful feature. Great job in adding that!

[DK]

Sorry about te late reply mkelley. Did'nt recieve a notice that you responded to this thread and only just saw it there then.

I used to do all of my audio compositing in Pemier Pro. Each character would have an audio track assigned. Simply muting all tracks except the particular character you wanted to use for lipsinc was not hard and fast to do. Then I generated the switch layer dialogue by hand as I generally don't like auto lipsinc programs either but playing with AS's new feature it looks like a faster way to generate a proxy track of keyframes for each audio file and do a clean up afterwards. Working on your series should be a lot easier with this feature I should imagine.

Cheers
D.K

[uddhava]

I was wondering if anyone tried the improved Illustrator and EPS import on AS Debut? How much has it improved? It is disabled on the demo. Thanks.

Udd

[mkelley]

DK,

Thanks for the reply. I tried the autosync and it really doesn't operate very well for any serious lipsync work (lots of missed and/or incorrect phonemes) -- for folks just fooling around or those not seeking a professional quality to their animations it may be worth a look.

But that's okay -- PG works fine for our needs (I just wish it worked a little quicker -- the sluggishness of it for long dialog sequences really kills me at time even on a very quick dual CPU machine).

[mkelley]

Oh, I should add it's not Mike's fault -- auto lip syncing is something I've tried in a whole lot of pro applications and it always ends up being more of a PITA than it's worth, even as a quick read of the track. In that regard Papagayo is actually a pretty amazing piece of programming (too bad no one is developing it anymore).

There's a good reason all animated films and series employ a team of folks JUST to do the lip sync. It's that important and that time-consuming to do right.

[aRh]

I found, it's really difficult to make a sketch drawing using pencil/ add points in preview mode since the red line path not longer available for this new version..

[synthsin75]

I actually like seeing the vector points while using the freehand tool. It is king of odd that the min/max line width was replaced with a percentage though.

It seems like some things were changed that I never read any requests for.

[aRh]

sometimes i use freehand tools in preview mode (not in high mode), it's really clean and more quickly to made some tumbnail sketches frame by frame.. in this new version, i'm not able to use that..

[synthsin75]

Yeah, that is odd. You can't get any feedback while you draw with it unless you have 'paths' enabled. And why are construction curves now called 'paths'?

[realsnake]

I'm having crashing problem every after 2 or 3 min in AS6 demo <_<

[mkelley]

What kind of file do you have open? What, exactly, are you doing?

[realsnake]

it crashes every after 2 min. specially when i try to use new blend morph feature.
While i was downloading the demo, my pc turned of somehow and after restarting it i tried to resume the file and during the installation it showed some files have been corrupted but those were only jpg or mov files...should i re-download it ?