After installing Storyline on my system at work, I began working with the static image characters. They're very easy to use but I wish Articulate had come out with a way to make these characters come to life. I managed to use a couple of cost effective programs to convert these static characters to animated characters. After several attempts at using different applications, I managed to simplify the process and now I can animate all the Storyline characters with ease.
Wow, Paul! I can't wait to learn more about this. I'm not a designer or graphic artist, but I think it looked great. Looking forward to hearing/seeing more.
Yes, I use it all of the time, but what you get is a video file (still usable in storyline, though); when you put a video in a slide, it takes a part of the screen, and it's not an object with a transparent background that you put whatever you like....
Furthermore, each video produced by Dell Avatar Creator must be edited to join different character poses like in Paul's example;
I think Paul's solution is flash based, so it's even transparent and very usable in object states, like Bruce suggested!
Just wanted to reply back and answer some of your questions.
Stefano is right. I did use a flash based solution which made the animated character video background transparent which gives me the ability to place the object (characters head) on top of the existing static character.
Nancy is also right. I used CrazyTalk Animator to create the voice sync, eye and head movement. I was thinking of animating the characters full body but this would take more time to create. Most of the projects I work on are time sensitive and the quickest way was to just animate the head of the character.
Just a quick update before I release the tutorial. I used several software applications such as Photoshop to crop and clean up the static characters head and eyes. CrazyTalk Animator for lip sync, head and eye movement and finally Adobe After Effects to make the background transparent.
Once I cropped and cleaned all the static characters head in Photoshop, I used CrazyTalk Animator to line up all the facial features and saved each character for future use. This took a bit of time but now that I have all the characters saved in CrazyTalk Animator, I'm able to add any audio files and add them to Storyline very quickly.
Just in the process of finalizing the step-by-step tutorial.
www.presentermedia.com is a good place to get animated characters. They work , I tested them out. In fact all of the animated powerpoint presentations and HD video backgrounds worked.
Thanks, Gregory, but do they work with CrazyTalk and is there still a background that is generated? We are still holding out hope that Paul will share how he works his magic...
Hi guys, just wondering if there was any news on this? Tutorials or even a demo link? My company and I are interested in animating the character and im unsure if loading up flash cs6 is the answer!
Mike, CrazyTalk 7 is out, by now, and it's IMPRESSIVE !!! It can output transparent flash animations, so ... I'm buying it as soon as I'm ready for new projects!
Thanks Stefano, I used the trail version to see if it was any good but didnt have time to use it fully due to other projects (doh!) can you simply bring in articulate characters and animate their mouths / body parts? I dont want to over do the animation though so nothing crazy!
Stefano - please update this forum and share your output once you create something in CrazyTalk 7. I'll be interested to see the output. Do you know if Animator will output transparent Flash animations as well?
As for Animator, yes, Reallusion current version products export to transparent alpha video and images sequence; I understand they export to flash, too. We'll see....
I produced it using the Crazytalk 7 trial version, so it is watermarked.
Crazytalk 7 output, though, still need post-production work to be used in Storyline.
You should use a video tool to produce a alpha-transparent video or animation to insert into our Storyline Project.
Once you have done an alpha-transparent (please read "background-transparent" video) you can easily use it for character states.
Check out this very simple example: I used the Dell Avatar Creator (an old free software by Reallusion, not rich in quality and in image/ivdeo size, while Crazytalk Pro does this work perfectly, with multiple files) to show how to use a "transparent" video.
Please keep in mind that alpha transparent video do work in flash and Articulate Mobile iPad APP, but they DO NOT work in Html5 because those videos are converted into .mp4 files ... not transparent!
47 Replies
Wow, Paul! I can't wait to learn more about this. I'm not a designer or graphic artist, but I think it looked great. Looking forward to hearing/seeing more.
Hi Paul
I think this is a perfect addition, before, for example, using the built-in state changes.
Great idea - well done
Bruce
Great job Paul, I can't wait for your tutorial!
Really well done, Paul. Looking forward to learning how you did this.
Great job, Paul! I'm looking forward to watch your tutorial! All this is very, very important!
Great!
But I think this can be achieved with Tom Kuhlmann Blog on creating animated mouth with delll avatar.Check the blog post here http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/you-may-already-own-the-tools-to-create-simple-e-learning-avatars/ . I will tried the dell avatar in storyline
Yes, I use it all of the time, but what you get is a video file (still usable in storyline, though); when you put a video in a slide, it takes a part of the screen, and it's not an object with a transparent background that you put whatever you like....
Furthermore, each video produced by Dell Avatar Creator must be edited to join different character poses like in Paul's example;
I think Paul's solution is flash based, so it's even transparent and very usable in object states, like Bruce suggested!
Let's see!
Hey Paul - love it. Just curious, did you use Crazy Talk Animator for this?
Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to reply back and answer some of your questions.
Stefano is right. I did use a flash based solution which made the animated character video background transparent which gives me the ability to place the object (characters head) on top of the existing static character.
Nancy is also right. I used CrazyTalk Animator to create the voice sync, eye and head movement. I was thinking of animating the characters full body but this would take more time to create. Most of the projects I work on are time sensitive and the quickest way was to just animate the head of the character.
Just a quick update before I release the tutorial. I used several software applications such as Photoshop to crop and clean up the static characters head and eyes. CrazyTalk Animator for lip sync, head and eye movement and finally Adobe After Effects to make the background transparent.
Once I cropped and cleaned all the static characters head in Photoshop, I used CrazyTalk Animator to line up all the facial features and saved each character for future use. This took a bit of time but now that I have all the characters saved in CrazyTalk Animator, I'm able to add any audio files and add them to Storyline very quickly.
Just in the process of finalizing the step-by-step tutorial.
Thanks.
Paul
Waw! Really nice Paul! Can't wait to see the tutorial!
This is exciting to me - can't wait for the tutorial!
Loved what you did Paul. Please could you provide tutorial?
Thanks for sharing Paul
Cant wait for the tut
Jilo
Very nice..
Paul, I too am eager to see your tutorial! How fun! -k
www.presentermedia.com is a good place to get animated characters. They work , I tested them out. In fact all of the animated powerpoint presentations and HD video backgrounds worked.
Thanks, Gregory, but do they work with CrazyTalk and is there still a background that is generated? We are still holding out hope that Paul will share how he works his magic...
Paul,
I wanted to view your animation buy the file is no longer there, Did you eventually create a tutorial?
Hi guys, just wondering if there was any news on this? Tutorials or even a demo link? My company and I are interested in animating the character and im unsure if loading up flash cs6 is the answer!
Mike, CrazyTalk 7 is out, by now, and it's IMPRESSIVE !!! It can output transparent flash animations, so ... I'm buying it as soon as I'm ready for new projects!
Thanks Stefano, I used the trail version to see if it was any good but didnt have time to use it fully due to other projects (doh!) can you simply bring in articulate characters and animate their mouths / body parts? I dont want to over do the animation though so nothing crazy!
Crazytalk 7 is for face/head animation, good for lipsyncing...
CrazyTalk Animator makes possible to rig body parts and animate them, too!
You should investigate on www.reallusion.com website to see what product is best for you.
Stefano - please update this forum and share your output once you create something in CrazyTalk 7. I'll be interested to see the output. Do you know if Animator will output transparent Flash animations as well?
I will, Absolutely.
As for Animator, yes, Reallusion current version products export to transparent alpha video and images sequence; I understand they export to flash, too. We'll see....
Hello there, here are a few updates:
crazytalk 7 is really easy to use and produces very good quality output;
You can take a look at a test movie (mp4) here
I produced it using the Crazytalk 7 trial version, so it is watermarked.
Crazytalk 7 output, though, still need post-production work to be used in Storyline.
You should use a video tool to produce a alpha-transparent video or animation to insert into our Storyline Project.
Once you have done an alpha-transparent (please read "background-transparent" video) you can easily use it for character states.
Check out this very simple example: I used the Dell Avatar Creator (an old free software by Reallusion, not rich in quality and in image/ivdeo size, while Crazytalk Pro does this work perfectly, with multiple files) to show how to use a "transparent" video.
Please keep in mind that alpha transparent video do work in flash and Articulate Mobile iPad APP, but they DO NOT work in Html5 because those videos are converted into .mp4 files ... not transparent!
www.projitmultimedia.com/storylinesample/avatar/story.html
you can download the .story project here: www.projitmultimedia.com/storylinesample/avatar/Avatar_Test.story
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