Is it possible to have Characters talk?

May 20, 2012

Hi guys,

I was just wondering if it was possible to have a character that talks, and if possible have a caption or bubble pop up every few seconds with text.

Many Thanks

35 Replies
Brett Rockwood

If you mean animating the mouth to match words I'd say no. But if you want speech bubbles to pop up in sync with your audio then sure, that should be no problem. Just set up markers on the time line where you want the bubbles to change. Then create the bubbles and have them appear and disappear on the timeline in coordination with the audio. Should be pretty straight forward..

Eric Nalian

Hi Belen,

Belen Casado said:

Well, I don't think it's necessary to have them move their mouths if states change with what the character is saying.

For example, at first a character is looking to the user, and then with a list of bullets, it turns to the left and has a pointer.

Is it possible to do this?


This is possible.  To create this, you will set up the character with the pointer in different positions as the different states, and then set triggers to change the states when you want them changed.  When I use this type of interaction, I create squares off frame that end when I want the character to move.

Trigger: Change state of Character to [Pointer 1] when timeline [Rectangle 1] ends.

Montse

Belen Casado said:

Well, I don't think it's necessary to have them move their mouths if states change with what the character is saying.

For example, at first a character is looking to the user, and then with a list of bullets, it turns to the left and has a pointer.

Is it possible to do this?


Hi Belen,

I created a quick scenario for you using the characters the way you described. 

View the Published version

Here is the Storyline source

You can also see Tom's Screenr on changing characters using states and triggers. 

I hope this helps you.  Please let me know if you have any questions!

M

Belen Casado

Eric Nalian said:

@ Belen, check this post out: http://community.articulate.com/forums/t/13139.aspx


@ Eric, thanks for this, I finally used squares off frame to set triggers related to what the character is saying.

@ Montse, thank you very much for the quick scenario you prepared! I also saw Tom's Screenr.

I think this is what I needed, thanks all!

B

Belen Casado

David Anderson said:

Using Storyline's timeline layers, you can include a talking mouth video under your main character to create a talking avatar:

Talking characters (Conan O'Brien style)


As for the talking Avatar... For me it's not really a good result. You can see a still picture moving a mouth that 'doesn't belong' to it.

I think we should focus in learning and instructional facts more than in characters moving. Moving characters in Storyline may not be worth it: extra work and users feeling weird with those characters that only move their mouths. What do you think?

Frank McConnell

Nick Russell said:

I've done a bit of work on lip syncing a couple of the Storyline characters.

example

I drew eight vicemes (pictures of main mouth/lip configurations) of each character  and created flash file with audio.

The flash movies play on top of character layers.

It's fiddly to get flash movie to exact size and position of character illustration, but I think it works.


The example is great Nick! Would you be able to provide a tutorial on how you accomplished your example?

Thanks.

Steve Flowers

Similar to Linda's suggestion, Anime Studio Debut also supports lip sync (chug in your audio and line up your phonemes and the program does the rest). I picked it up for $39 on the Apple App Store. You can find it cheap boxed on Amazon.

http://anime.smithmicro.com/

A few quick, dirty, and silent videos of this in action:

//www.screenr.com/user/xpconcept

Steve Flowers

Hey, Nick - 

iClone exports to a variety of movie formats. So you'd basically export to something like WMV or AVI and import into SL. iClone is really keen if you have the patience for the learning curve and don't mind purchasing extra content. It's essentially a game engine. You can even control your avatars using standard WASD game keyboard controls.

The latest version is pretty cool. With the addition of Kinect support you can even use it like a poor man's motion capture studio.

Steve Flowers

If you have a relatively modern machine, it'll work. They are using DirectX, so most modern GPU's should do the trick. They sell some software toolkits for converting objects. Access to the Google SketchUp Warehouse and ability to use Sketchup to build out environments really expands the opportunities offered by the tool. 

Michael Case

Hi Vahid,

I've never had good results in creating talking avatars, and I don't think it may even be worth the work.  After all, how seriously is your audience going to take a talking drawing?  

Focusing more on informative aspects of the course, you can use animated characters sparingly to highlight important points in the material through bubbles.  Most would recommend this as a best practice.  

There are a lot of eLearning vendors that supply the resources for creating effective storylines and courses with relatable characters, live or animated.  The best I've encountered is elearningstock.com.  Everything there is high-quality and royalty-free. You can even get a freebie once a week on their blog. I highly suggest checking it out!

Best!

Mike

Isa David

My team and I regularly insert talking avatars in our Storyline content using AlterEgo http://www.alteregos.com/. License costs 50$ and the software allows you to choose from a variety of avatars and import a recorded narration or use text to speech. You can sync the lips with a simple click or two.  You can output to different video formats then import to Storyline slide. Ta-daaa!

Nadine Lacelle

Montse Posner Anderson said:

Belen Casado said:

Well, I don't think it's necessary to have them move their mouths if states change with what the character is saying.

For example, at first a character is looking to the user, and then with a list of bullets, it turns to the left and has a pointer.

Is it possible to do this?


Hi Belen,

I created a quick scenario for you using the characters the way you described. 

View the Published version

Here is the Storyline source

You can also see Tom's Screenr on changing characters using states and triggers. 

I hope this helps you.  Please let me know if you have any questions!

M


I can not seem to get the Storyline Source working from your post above.

Nadine Lacelle

Isa David said:

My team and I regularly insert talking avatars in our Storyline content using AlterEgo http://www.alteregos.com/. License costs 50$ and the software allows you to choose from a variety of avatars and import a recorded narration or use text to speech. You can sync the lips with a simple click or two.  You can output to different video formats then import to Storyline slide. Ta-daaa!


Hi Isa

Can you tell me more about Alteregos????

thx

N

Ian Simms

I have used Flash and a little bit of ActionScript 3 programming to turn several of Storyline's illustrated characters into animated versions. The ActionScript automatically synchs the mouth movements based on the volume of the audio file being played (spoken). I export the Flash movie as a QuicktIme file and then import that into Storyline. The result works well, and is quick and easy to do (once I had built the library of characters), and the output works on IOS devices, despite being built in Flash

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