I'm excited to buy the karaoke annimator. I've played with the trial and it's great. Can you tell me how to center the text before I import karaoke? If I change the character box I can change the font size but whenever I import the karaoke it's always off to the side. Maybe my comp is the wrong size. Can you advise? Thanks Paul!
Looks like a great plugin. I am considering buying it, but I need a few info. I want to do karaoke videos with blocks of two lines of text (one for the current phrase, and one for the following one ex: [1)"Help" 2)"I Need somebody Help"] and then next block [2) "I Need somebody Help" 3)"Not just anybody"]) . I tried your demo but I cannot change the style of the animation on After Effects 2017, do dou know why?
I would like also to do transition between one block of two lines and another one, just like on the app Sing Karaoke. The first block of two lines moves to the top and is replaced by the next block which appears under it. Do you know if I can do this kind of animation with your plugin ?
Last thing, do you know if I can convert easily .lrc file to .ass to use it with your plugin ?
Hi Sébastian, Apologies for the slow reply. What do you mean when you say you can't change the animation style in AE 2017? Perhaps you could open a support ticket and give me a bit more detail so I can look into it.
It doesn't have built-in support for those kinds of transitions. You can create your own Animation Presets which can do all kinds of things, but it would take some experimentation to see if something like that could be achieved.
I was using the plugin and everything was going fine. Now it seems every time I wan't to import new karaoke file it doesn't work. I choose my file and everything then it acts like its loading and nothing appears. I'm using Karafun files in AE2017.
Hi Hassan, is it now not even working for files you've previously imported successfully? Did you switch versions / update AE before it stopped working? It would be best if you open a support ticket for this so you can send me more details along with a copy of one of your Karafun files.
Hello Paul. I bought pt_SSAKaraokeAnimator yesterday, and installed the script so that I could use it in After Effects (AE) CC 2018. I then created a subtitled (.ass) file via Aegisub, v3.2.2. I then created a new project file in AE, opened the pt_SSAKaraokeAnimator.jsx dialog and did the following steps: selected "Fast Color Wipe" from the "Choose Preset Animation" box, then imported my .ass file into the project via the "Import Karaoke" button. The script then imported the .ass file. However, when it finished, the script returned an "alert" saying "No karaoke timings were found in the imported file". I don't know the reason for that message; my .ass file has start and end times for each subtitle line. Anyway, the subtitle text loaded into my AE project. When I scrub the project timeline, the subtitles appear in the frame at the times when they should, so in that way, the script appears to have worked. However, the Fast Color Wipe effect is not working. The subtitles remain static in color...
Hello again, Paul. Does this app provide any text box capability for the text? That is, can I put a background layer on the text, like a solid color background or some opaque style of background, something that would cleanly separate the text from whatever layer it appears over?
Hi Kirk, pt_ImportSubtitles allows you to put a box around text but I'm afraid that's not something I've implemented for KaraokeAnimator.
Depending on the subtitle format you're using, it may be possible to convert it to srt format so you could do an additional pass through ImportSubtitles for the box creation.
Another option might be to take the result of a plain import without any highlight animation and apply a combination of Shift Channels (Alpha Full On, RGB From Alpha), Blur, then Levels to boost the result, then Mosaic and Threshold which if you tweak it all right should get you a box.
Once you have a box in some form then it's easy enough to use it as a track matte on some other footage layer if you don't just want a solid color.
Hi, I just bought a KFN file from karaoke-version.com and when I try to import it into pt_SSAKaraokeAnimator I receive a Script Alert that "No subtitles were found". What is the best resource for purchasing these types of files?
Hi, unfortunately the KFN files typically available for purchase are protected versions of KFN files which can't be read by KaraokeAnimator. You can tell the difference by opening it in a text editor and checking the end of the file where non-protected files have viewable lyrics and timings, which is what KaraokeAnimator reads.
I'm not aware of anywhere you can purchase Karaoke subtitles in a format that KaraokeAnimator can import. The other typically used format is CDG where lyrics are stored as low-res bitmap files (i.e. images, not text data). I imagine there's software out there that can extract these files and create video files of just the subtitles on black / wth alpha which you could then put over a background, but this wouldn't offer you any ability to alter the text or karaoke animation style.
I believe people typically generates their own subtitle files using software like Aegisub (for .ass/.ssa files) or Karafun Editor (for .kfn). There's a bit of a learning curve initially but it wouldn't take much practice before you could create subtitles for any track you want fairly quickly. One happy user recently sent me a video showing their workflow for generating a full set of animated karaoke subtitles from start to finish in about 20 mins.
Hi Christof, I replied to your support ticket but just for anyone else reading, if you want to use the Point Control effect to link a positional control in an animation preset effect to the center of each word/syllable, ensure the Point Control is the first effect in the Effect Controls panel and also ensure that the expression link is on the effect you want positional control over, linking that property to the Point Control effect.
After the Adobe creative cloud desktop app updated After Effects on my machine to version 16.1.0, the pt_SSAKaraokeAnimator_v3.21 script stopped working. When I try to execute it, I get an error message: "Unable to execute script at line 23. undefined is not an object". I tried re-installing the script in the After Effects "Support Files" folder, but that didn't make a difference. Please help.
Hi Kirk, Please download the latest version. v3.21 had a bug that could cause launch failure so I issued v3.22 shortly after that addressed this. If you're still having problems, please open a support ticket.
Hi Paul, just started working with the Karaoke Animator - have a simple question for a new user. There are many great presets avaialble, however I only need to have each word simply change colour (and remain that colour) plus a bouncing ball. Could you please advise the optimal preset for this? Many thanks in advance
Hi, to get that animation behaviour, the easiest thing would be to select the 'Fast Color Wipe' preset then switch the Animation Style to 'Block'.
Hi Paul, many thanks for the quick reply, very much appreciated!
Hi Paul - the script imported the Aegisub (v322) test file perfectly and worked great with the bouncing ball!
However, the generated new text layer and ball were vertically centred within the HD composition rather than taking the position of the original text layer which was at the bottom of the screen just on title safe. When I moved the layer down it messed up the bouncing ball values - is there a way of getting the text layer to be positioned lower? I can precomp the new text and ball to solve this but thought I would ask.
Also, the fade out was set for 8 frames before and after (assuming this would work for each line?) however, it only seemed to occur on the first line, once mid verse and on the last line. Am assuming if there is not enough time available to perform in and out fades per line, the script will keep the lines on screen in these instances?
Any feedback would be great, many thanks in advance.
Hi, If you parent the bouncing ball to the text layer you can then reposition the text layer and the ball will follow, but yes, precomping would be my recommended solution. It does have an option to align with title safe, but you're right it won't retain any transforms / animation from an initially selected layer. It needs a predictable default transform to calculate all the various things like the box and bouncing ball, so the only thing it retains is the text style.
For the fade issue, if you're seeing behaviour that you don't think is correct, please open a support ticket, attaching your subtitle file and the resulting project showing the issue and I'll be happy to take a look.
I just realised I was thinking of some features in pt_ImportSubtitles, like aligning with title safe and the text box! But the reasoning for not being able to retain transforms from an existing layer so things can be calculated properly still applies.
Hi, If you parent the bouncing ball to the text layer you can then reposition the text layer and the ball will follow, but yes, precomping would be my recommended solution. It does have an option to align with title safe, but you're right it won't retain any transforms / animation from an initially selected layer. It needs a predictable default transform to calculate all the various things like the box and bouncing ball, so the only thing it retains is the text style.
For the fade issue, if you're seeing behaviour that you don't think is correct, please open a support ticket, attaching your subtitle file and the resulting project showing the issue and I'll be happy to take a look.
Many thanks Paul - I have pre-comped to resolve issue one which works fine and can apply the necessary style.
Regards fades, I am seeing odd behaviour as some lines are remaining on screen while the ball travels back to the start of the next line and the highlighted colour also resets just before the next line so there appears to be enough time to fade out and in. Will raise a ticket now and send the test AegiSub file and AEP.
Many thanks for the continued support, its very much appreciated.
Script is working really well and very happy with the results and overall speed and performance.
Is there any way to control the way that lines are aligned to a top or bottom baseline? The script seems to centre everything vertically so both single lines and double lines are all aligned vertically centred on screen, rather than single lines being placed at the same height as the bottom of a double (or triple) line lyric.
Any help or suggestions on this would be great, many thanks.
No it isn't possible to set vertical alignment currently. It is an option in pt_ImportSubtitles, so there's a chance that if you converted the SSA to an SRT and imported with that, you could then copy/paste the keyframes controlling the vertical offset over to your karaoke subtitles, but I haven't tried so I'm just speculating here.
I certainly will consider adding it as an option for the next version but I wouldn't expect that any time soon.
"Unable to execute script at line 557. undefined is not an object"
^ Pop-up when starting script, UI is just blank, cannot interact with in any way. Paid, pasted into AE ScriptUI Panels and input license. Restarted everything, not sure why it's not working
Hi Andre, Can you open a support ticket and attach a copy of your karaoke file along with a project showing the results you get. And also confirm which version of KaraokeAnimator you're using. I'll be happy to take a look.
Hi Harold, The underscore function is part of the KFN spec so only applicable with those files. As mentioned in the help [ ? ] the tag for a line break in SSA/ASS is /N or \n. The Karafun Editor has been discontinued although I imagine it can still be found in some places on the internet, sorry I can't help with that.
Hey Paul, I'm hoping you can help. I'm trying to create multi-line karaoke using the Aegisub - *.ass format. Much like you have 3 seconds into your demo with the words "And this is a demo of [line break] SSA Karaoke Animator" and your Hit me baby [line break] One more time preview. - How does one set that up for it to create line breaks, and the bouncing ball to follow suit?
I just downloaded the demo and it seems to work as advertised, but...
Why an underscore as the page delimiter for karafun files?
I have existing karafun files which have an empty blank line separating paragraphs, if I change the blank lines to underscores it throws off all of the timing for all lyrics afterwards as an underscore is treated as a word, therefore karafun is expecting a beat for each underscore.
If I were to use the underscore as a page separator I would not only have to replace all blank lines with underscores, but also edit the timeline to add a sync point for each hidden underscore.
Why cant this plugin treat blank lines as page separators?
In the kfn file it would look like:
Text0=This is a line
Text1=This is another line
Text2=After this line I want a page break
Text3=
Text4=This is a new page
Text5=I want another page break after this
Text6=
Text7=This is the third page
Text8=
Text9=This is the fourth page
Text10=etc...
And this would not affect the actual kfn file as adding underscores would end up doing.
Hi Matt, I did this a decade ago so have had to look over old emails to find the answer. I think this was given as an option to allow more flexibility in layout when combined with the 'lines per page' option. I guess it would allow situations where you wanted multiple lines on a page but some of which were separated by a blank line.
I could certainly look into adding an option that just strictly treated all blank lines as page breaks.
Please open a support ticket so we can have a more in depth discussion about this.
I think this was given as an option to allow more flexibility in layout when combined with the 'lines per page' option. I guess it would allow situations where you wanted multiple lines on a page but some of which were separated by a blank line.
Ah yes, that makes sense.
I could certainly look into adding an option that just strictly treated all blank lines as page breaks. Please open a support ticket so we can have a more in depth discussion about this.
I will, I think right now this is the only think stopping me from purchasing, and it shouldn't be too much of a burden to implement I would think.
Hey Paul, I'm really looking forward to purchase this as the having used the trial - it seems really useful. Before I do though, are you still working on developing features for this? Or is the current upload version the final one? Would this continue to work for future AE versions in the future or will it break at some point? Regardless, thanks so much for providing this one of a kind tool, there's nothing quite like it and it is exactly what I was looking for - for the type of content I plan to make in the future. Will certainly buy soon
Hi Romeo, There is a new (free) update in progress with some tweaks based on the previous comments. All my tools remain supported and I will continue to do whatever I can to ensure they keep working.
Why is there always defaul animator and highlightlight animator. I don't want to appear these 2 animators. because some animator doesn't work because there are 2 naimate above. How do I not have it?
Hi Thuan, I think the Default Animator is used when you select one of the lower Animation Preset options, as each word is on a separate layer and needs all the other characters set to 0% Opacity.
Please open a support ticket explaining in detail the issue you're having and I'll see if I can help.
Hello Paul. I am interested in learning more about using and customizing the "text crawl" option for a karaoke video. I am using Aegisub to create the subtitles file. In the After Effects karaoke video, I would like the words to scroll down, with each word showing some kind of highlight or effect as it is being said (I haven't decided which type of highlight/effect yet.) The complicating factor is that I want to show 2 sets of the lyrics, each in a different language, interlaced. So, I want the scrolling highlight/effect to operate on both the interlaced lines of lyrics simultaneously. Can you recommend any tutorials or instructions for how to do this with the text crawl option?
Hi Kirk, That's an interesting thing you're trying to do. I've not heard about interlacing two different languages like that, so I'm not aware of any tutorials. As for the interlacing part, I imagine you could import each subtitle in separate comps, place both in another comp set to double the frame rate, offset one of them by 1 frame, create some opacity keyframes on the top layer to turn it on/off on each alternate frame, then in the render settings set it to render at the original frame rate but with interlacing turned on.
As for creating the highlight timings of two languages in something like Aegisub I'm not sure. Perhaps it would be as simple as doing it for the language used in the audio, then replacing the text with the other language, but I suspect it may be trickier than that to get good parity between the languages. You may also need to adjust the text crawl position keyframes after import.
Please open a support ticket if you'd like to discuss this further as that's a better place for a one on one discussion.
I was wondering where you were getting your KFN files from. I tried downloading a KFN file from a website, but when I try to load it in it says 'missing subtitles'. So I was hoping you could point me to a place to download these files.
Mike
Looks like a great plugin. I am considering buying it, but I need a few info. I want to do karaoke videos with blocks of two lines of text (one for the current phrase, and one for the following one ex: [1)"Help" 2)"I Need somebody Help"] and then next block [2) "I Need somebody Help" 3)"Not just anybody"]) . I tried your demo but I cannot change the style of the animation on After Effects 2017, do dou know why?
I would like also to do transition between one block of two lines and another one, just like on the app Sing Karaoke. The first block of two lines moves to the top and is replaced by the next block which appears under it. Do you know if I can do this kind of animation with your plugin ?
Last thing, do you know if I can convert easily .lrc file to .ass to use it with your plugin ?
All the best,
Sébastian
I choose my file and everything then it acts like its loading and nothing appears.
I'm using Karafun files in AE2017.
Hi, unfortunately the KFN files typically available for purchase are protected versions of KFN files which can't be read by KaraokeAnimator. You can tell the difference by opening it in a text editor and checking the end of the file where non-protected files have viewable lyrics and timings, which is what KaraokeAnimator reads.
I'm not aware of anywhere you can purchase Karaoke subtitles in a format that KaraokeAnimator can import. The other typically used format is CDG where lyrics are stored as low-res bitmap files (i.e. images, not text data). I imagine there's software out there that can extract these files and create video files of just the subtitles on black / wth alpha which you could then put over a background, but this wouldn't offer you any ability to alter the text or karaoke animation style.
I believe people typically generates their own subtitle files using software like Aegisub (for .ass/.ssa files) or Karafun Editor (for .kfn). There's a bit of a learning curve initially but it wouldn't take much practice before you could create subtitles for any track you want fairly quickly. One happy user recently sent me a video showing their workflow for generating a full set of animated karaoke subtitles from start to finish in about 20 mins.
I will creat particular at time of syl
I'm trying to create multi-line karaoke using the Aegisub - *.ass format.
Much like you have 3 seconds into your demo with the words "And this is a demo of [line break] SSA Karaoke Animator" and your Hit me baby [line break] One more time preview.
- How does one set that up for it to create line breaks, and the bouncing ball to follow suit?
I think this was given as an option to allow more flexibility in layout when combined with the 'lines per page' option. I guess it would allow situations where you wanted multiple lines on a page but some of which were separated by a blank line.
Ah yes, that makes sense.
I could certainly look into adding an option that just strictly treated all blank lines as page breaks. Please open a support ticket so we can have a more in depth discussion about this.
I will, I think right now this is the only think stopping me from purchasing, and it shouldn't be too much of a burden to implement I would think.
Thanks for the quick response!
Hi Thuan, I think the Default Animator is used when you select one of the lower Animation Preset options, as each word is on a separate layer and needs all the other characters set to 0% Opacity.
Please open a support ticket explaining in detail the issue you're having and I'll see if I can help.