Syncing voice to lips & exporting as movie

[desiderata76]

OK, I will try to keep this as short as possible! I'm trying to sync a voice with a face I have created. Currently, I have created the face as a movie clip. During creation within the movie clip, I used the wav of the voice as a guide in a separate layer. I set the sync of the voice to stream. At the end of making the lips sync, I deleted the voice wav layer and inserted the movie clip into a layer on my main scene. I then had the voice wav in the main scene as a separate layer. The reason for this, is that if the movie clip contains the wav, the quality of the sound seems to decrease. (has some distortion)

First of all, is that procedure correct? Is it recommended that the movie clip doesn't contain the wav? Secondly, which settings should be on stream? ie: 1.the wav layer? 2. the movie clip layer? etc etc etc

The problem that I've been experiencing, is when I create my movie clip of the syncing, and replay it within the movie clip, it's synched (how do u spell that word anyway???) beautifully with the voice. Later, when I export the movie, the animation lags behind the audio. Please tell me what I am doing wrong!! I've tried experimenting with all sorts of different sync settings, but it still isn't running right. By the way, I'm using Flash 4. Please answer asap, as this is due as an assignment on Monday, and it's just "not quite right" with the sync off beat!

[Danny Tuppeny]

I'm having exactly the same problem at http://www.logosunlimited.co.uk, it won't match. I managed to get it to work (altering it frame by frame, exporting, repeating...) until it worked fine on my pc. However, I then noticed that if my PC has other applications opem the animation still lags... It seems that when the processor can't handle it, it slows down the animation, but keeps the sound going.

I've asked many people and can't seem to figure it out... Surely there's gotta be a way...

Also, I've got a sound loop playing about 3 times, and then I want another loop to carry straight on. The only way I can find, is by putting the second sound in another frame, but of course when the animation lags, the sound starts late, causing a gap...

Someone must have had (and solved) this problem before!?

[desiderata76]

Danny, my friend, it's nice to know that I'm not alone in my quest for the answer!! I've noted your email, and if I find out the solution, I'll be sure to let you know!! Let me ask you a question: How many times have you considered taking your pc out onto the road, and letting a truck run over it?? LOL

I've gotta tell ya, I've ripped my hair out over this one, and on one hand, I'm praying there's a simple solution, but on the other- I think I'm going to feel very stupid when I hear it!!

[Danny Tuppeny]

I don't think you'll feel supid when you figure it out. I've asked loads of people, and nobody knows... It's terrible!

I feel bad, cos this guy's paid me to do his intro, he really liked it, and no he's realised the problems... I feel bad... I gotta fix it...

I'll let you know if I figure anything out...

Danny

[Danny Tuppeny]

I think I found the answer to our question, but it's not good.

Read the first reply to someone's quetsion at:

http://board.flashkit.com/board/show...threadid=87823

[desiderata76]

Well, the good news is that: no, I don't think that they're talking about our problem. The reason why I think this is, the reply refers to sounds created on the original computer etc etc... well i'm having problems with two different wavs. One is some music (don't worry it's only for a project- not ripping off someone's artistry!) and the other wav is of my voice which I recorded on this very computer. I am having identical problems with them, so I don't think that the origin of the sound in my case is relevant. Let's just hope that there is a solution though!

You know, the really amusing part of all of this, is that I decided I wanted to do this character animation with my little guy singing and dancing etc etc,,, and then, when I run into problems, I come to Flash Kit, and read someone's post that says that Flash isn't very good for using sound in and that many professionals have turned away from it due to this... (NOW I KNOW!!) LOL

[Danny Tuppeny]

Sounds the same to me. He's saying that the sound will be synced on the computer it's written on, as mine is, but when it's run on other computers, the animation doesn't run at exactly the same speed as the one it was created on, therefore it'll only sync on your computer... (eg. if you exported it over and over again, tweaking it till it matched up, as soon as you view it on another pc, it won't sync...)

Danny

[desiderata76]

Well yes, I have tried playing my animation on another computer and the problem is WORSE... but... the thing is, that I have the problem on MY computer on which I created the original... what I mean is, I created the lips to sync in a movie clip and then inserted the movie clip into the scene (minus the sound). The sound I inserted in its own layer in the same scene. When I play the animation just within the movie clip (with the sound present for that purpose), it works fine. But when I export it, and just play the final piece of work through Flash Player, it's all out of sync. Do you know what I mean?

Anyway, I checked out your link to the website from your previous post... very cool. I think I see what you mean about the gap in the middle of the audio. Hey, I really liked the stereo effect you used! Consequently, I checked out the whole site, and am looking to order a mobile phone cover!!! lol

[Danny Tuppeny]

Go to:
http://board.flashkit.com/board/show...057#post387631

You should be able to break up your sound...? I can't so I'm gonna try streaming.. Apparently it will drop frames to keep up... sounds good...

Danny

[desiderata76]

Well, there you go. Maybe this could be the solution. As you could see in my very first post, I've already tried experimenting with stream and event settings. I'm already in 12fps, so I don't think that area will help. I HAVEN'T tried the breaking up bizzo though... I will try that right now, and get back to you....

[Danny Tuppeny]

I'm sure it'll solve my problem, so I wish you the best.

Let me know how it comes out.

Danny

[SwishY]

Thanks for letting me know about this thread

I didn't read the entire thread but it seems that you are trying to sync the moving of lips to the sound of speech. If that's not correct then simply let me know.

Now here's your answer. If you are trying to make one of those old time "Chinese to English dubbed movies" then you are fine, because that's how it will look Flash is not able to sync anything other than short button sounds. Now about streaming...

In theory streaming is supposed to be the answer, but in reality it probably wont work. It will all depend on your audio file. If it is long, it will not work. If the file size is big, it will not work.

You see flash is microprocessor dependant. That is the problem with it's design! It works differently on a big computer than a smaller one. The bigger the difference, the bigger the gap in your syncing. Maybe one day macromedia will get their act together, but so far it is a joke when it comes to syncing sound. It 'may' be possible with their Director program, but the last time I looked it was around $1000.00. You could download the trial version to test it out, but be aware that it is VERY hard to use.

[Danny Tuppeny]

Streaming works fine for me.

I've tried Director before, it's pants... Real crappy. Don't bother with it!

I'll let you know when it's up so ya can see it

Danny

[Danny Tuppeny]

It worked amazingly!
It increased my files to about 500kb, so I began cutting stuff out. I cut out the preloader... ACE! It streams perfect for me on a 56k modem, so the preloader just caused waiting for no reason! It laods fast enough to play fine with no jumps!!

It's not on the site yet, but you can see where I tested it at:

http://www.tuppeny.f2s.com/logosunlimited/intro.htm

Yippee! Now I don't deel like I let them down!

Yahoo!

Danny

[JohnnySix]

Here's an example using streaming...:

http://homepages.go.com/~lost_johnny/crunch.html

It's a film I never got around to finishing,
[*] In the first part it has the sound in a movie clip, but the recording was on a dictaphone to begin with, so the quaility is bad anyway.[*] the second scene it's animated all on the main stage, and both ways seem to work.

I used a set of about 10 graphic symbols for the mouth, and stuck to the most common mouth shapes.. Though it's hard to figure out, as cats don't normally talk.


I've got another one here, which again has poor sound quality, simply because of the way it was recorded, as this was a coversation ad-libbed around a friends place, with a 1970's dictaphone.


http://www.sabbathcat.co.uk/animation/ljs/shrooms.html

In the film I've drawn all the lips in by hand frame by frame, not the most efficient way, but I like the rough, random look...

I used a mirror to get the mouth shapes, and using streaming sound , I animated the mouth sound by sound..!

One useful tip I discovered was sticking to a low frame rate, I kept it at twelve in the end, as although the animation was a bit clunky, it stayed smoothly with the voices..

Ah well..

Hope that's been some help!!

CHEERS!!

John

[CoolMoves]

Originally posted by Danny Tuppeny
I cut out the preloader... ACE! It streams perfect for me on a 56k modem, so the preloader just caused waiting for no reason!

I am also on a 56K and you might want to add that preloader back in It was as choppy as onion soup...

If you are trying to sync it did not work from what I saw.

[The Next Step]

Originally posted by ThundaChunk
Here's an example using streaming...:

Why don't you have the mouth moving when he is speaking? This looks silly.

[JohnnySix]

Huh..? The mouth does move!!!

[The Next Step]

Originally posted by ThundaChunk
Huh..? The mouth does move!!!

Yeah but NOT when the sound plays. IT'S OUT OF SYNC !

[JohnnySix]

I never tested the first film on the net, and as Danny Tuppeny said, it will tun at different speed on different machines, as (mentioned earlier in this thread) Flash is processor dependant, meaning, if you have a faster or slower speed machine than mine, it won't sync quite the same.

There is a way to solve it, and people have said the second film works fine on their machines, but it's still a bit hit and miss I guess, especially on the slower machines that can't keep up with the frame rate, like I said before, part of the solution seems to lie in a slower frame rate, giving the slower machines time to catch up.

Cheers!!

John