Getting Started with Crazy Talk 6

Transcription

1 Getting Started with Crazy Talk 6 Crazy Talk 6 is an application that generates talking characters from an image or photo, as well as facial animation for video. Importing an Image Launch Crazy Talk and click on the New Project icon, which will remove the default demo, then click the Model Tab. New Project Model Tab A new screen will open with a selection of function icons on the right hand side. Select the import image icon. Import Image Forward/back

2 A dialog box will open where you can locate the image you require for your project. Click on the image file followed by Open. Crazy Talk will automatically load your image and launch a Face Fitting Wizard.

3 The tool bar on the right hand side gives you options to crop, rotate, mirror and colour adjust your image. Once you are happy with the appearance of the image click Next. The Wizard will take you to a Face Fitting screen. Zoom tool Reset Set the outer blue boundary box around the area of your image. Rolling the mouse over the box edges will turn the box green enabling it to be dragged. Equally the corners also turn green so the box can be stretched out. The four numbered circles need to be positioned at the exact corners of the eyes and mouth. Use the zoom tool to enable more accurate positioning. The reset button can be useful! Click Process

4 The Face Orientation screen appears. Strength Adjuster Profile Options Select the closest matching profile option to your image. If your image is not looking straight ahead, you can adjust the middle of the blue guide to compensate for this, by offsetting the centre of the guide in the opposite direction. Adjust the strength of movement using the slider. To preview the motion, select the preview button and drag your mouse around the model screen behind. You will see the image moving in the mouse direction. One you are happy click OK. At this point Crazy Talk takes you back to the Model screen. Here, further detailed adjustments can be made to your image including eyes, teeth and mood.

5 Detailed facial mode Script Tab Eyes Teeth Mood To use the extra animation feature tools, it is necessary to set the animation points using the detailed facial mode. Here you will be presented with many more marker points, so that if eyes and teeth are used, the appropriate animation occurs on the correct part of the image. Clicking on each the lower function button opens up various options and adjustment panes for experimenting, and fine tuning eyes, teeth and mood. The upper buttons take you back to the Face Fitting Wizard pages. When you are happy with all the settings select the Script tab. Don t forget to save work as you go.

6 Adding Audio Click the Script Tab which will open up a new window. The tool bar on the left hand side will allow you to either: import an audio file, record directly into Crazy Talk or use the text to speech editor. Import audio Record Text to speech To record directly into Crazy Talk you will need to have a microphone connected to the computer unless there is a built-in microphone. Click the red icon and the Crazy Talk sound recorder window will open. Play head Timeline

7 Click Record to begin your voice-over. Once complete click stop. The play button will enable you to review the recording. Either click cancel to re-record or click ok. Once you have clicked ok, a New Script rectangle will appear on the Character area of the timeline. To add more recorded dialog, double click on the time line to move the red play head to where you would like the recording to begin, and repeat the recording process. Each recording will appear on the Character area of the timeline and can be dragged left or right to adjust the timing of the recorded voice-overs. Text to speech works in a very similar way but instead of recording your dialog it can be typed in. There are a variety of voice options depending on the text to speech programme already in the computer. Further Animations There are several ways to add further animation to the character. To begin with a useful tool is Emotives. Click on the recording in the timeline to highlight it blue and select the Emotives tab.

8 A new window will open with a selection of emotions to choose from for that section of your recorded dialog. Play button The play button will allow you to review the animation at any point in the Script Window or Model Window. Sometimes the mouth and eyes may not work how you would expect. This can be corrected by returning to the Model Page and setting more accurate marker points using the facial marker tool or the detailed facial mode. Output tab Marker tools Model motions

9 The Model Motions function will allow further animation to be set whilst the character in not speaking. Export Select the Output Tab Export Here the settings can be adjusted to export the animation as a media file. Once the required settings have been made click Export. This will open up a dialog box where the file can be saved on the computer in the usual way.