Moho Animation Forum

I used Papagayo to speed up about 19 seconds of speaking. I exported a 'satisfactory' Papagayo file but I first noticed there was no interpolation in the animation. I then found that a lot of keys on the timeline did not show up when I right-clicked the switch folder. I had to sync the whole switch layer by hand. Is it possible that I need to reinstall something?
(What will I do when I have 3 minutes of speech!)

Do it by hand - that's still pretty fast.

Do the shapes in each layer have the EXACT amount of points? If not then interpolate will not work.

slowtiger, Thanks. That makes sense. Hearing from an expert helps. I actually prefer the results from doing it by hand.
sbtamu, glad to hear from you! I thought you left us for the music band. It interpolates only after I make my own. keys.

(I offered to create and animate a single character for my brother. He likes to talk.)

Let's be clear on terminology.

What do you mean exactly by "interpolates"? Do you mean smooth interpolation from one switch key to the next where the points move to the next layer position? Or do you simply mean that the keys aren't being placed at all?

The DAT file import process is very very simple. It puts in switch keys. That's all. There is no linking to the DAT file. The DAT file doesn't do anything except place a key to change the switch at a specific key frame. After it runs the file is just like doing it by hand. There is nothing in the DAT import that would cause "smooth interpolation" to not work in a switch layer.

However, if the DAT or switch has phonemes with names that don't match then the imported DAT won't place those keys. If you named a switch layer for lip sync, "o" instead of "O" or the name was different in any way it won't be keyed by the imported file. If you think there are "gaps" or missing keys in the switch, make sure the layer names match the phonemes in papagayo.

heyvern, I mean smooth transitions. (I just saw this; Some keys registered and others did not.) I saved the 'Preston Blair' standard into the "Library". I modified it to 'include and then eliminate' expressions so there may be errors. I'll double check it tonight. I want smiles and other expressions so I need two switch layers.

3deeguy wrote:slowtiger, Thanks. That makes sense. Hearing from an expert helps. I actually prefer the results from doing it by hand.
sbtamu, glad to hear from you! I thought you left us for the music band. It interpolates only after I make my own. keys.

(I offered to create and animate a single character for my brother. He likes to talk.)

I am still around and read the forums but not as active. I have moved more towards doing promotional work for bands like filming them and designing logos and all that neat stuff. I recently had the honor of filming Red Lamb; it is a band formed by former Anthrax lead guitarist Dan Spitz to help promote awareness of autism. I am also busy sitting in as drummer for my nephews band until they can find a replacement.

Any who, I hope you find the solution to your problem.

you can have just one switch layer with Preston Blair phoneme set plus smiles etc. If you do the papagayo pass first, then hand key in the smiles etc that should work (I do that "all the time").

Vern has pointed out that you must have an exact match for sub-layer names with the names that papagayo produces... "rest" and "etc" are lower case, others are upper case.

the .DAT is just a text file with lines containing frame number and sub-layer name. If you want a script to unload switches into a .DAT format there's one in http://www.kelleytown.com/forum/animato ... IC_ID=1894 It's also a breeze to edit the .DAT file manually, so no need to re-run papagayo if things are just a bit "out".

Hope you sort it out!

hayasidist, (I didn't get an email notification!) Thanks for the tip. I'm not clear on how to how to include smiles in one switch layer but it's a great idea. It sounds like I would insert the 'smiles' after I used Papagayo.

The smiles are just "extra" layers in the regular phoneme switch layer. When you import the DAT file for the lip sync it will key ONLY the phonemes. After that you go through and add keys for the smiles. The DAT file will ignore the smile layers since they are named something that isn't in the standard phoneme list.

heyvern, that's great news. Thanks. I've finished the current lip sync by hand. My next project will be to become competent with Papagayo.