I have a question about v1.5 of your Talking Head. When I select 3 mouths (smallest to largest) and select "Mouth" with Open checked, the Jaw is the only thing moving. I'm not sure why the jaw moves and none of the mouths that I selected. Have you seen this? Maybe you can tell me what I'm doing wrong?
This happens to me a lot, when I'm in photoshop I'll have all the mouths turned off except the one I'm working on. Then when I bring it into AE and run the script I'll have a moment of panic because it appears broken...
In my experience, it's always because the eyeball is off for the mouth layers. Make sure all the mouth layers have the eyeball turned on. The script uses the opacity channel to control which mouth is visible. if the eyeball is off nothing will show up.
Thanks for replying. I've made a short video of me working so you can see what I'm doing wrong. Could it be that I created my talking head in Ae? You'll see in the video that eyeballs are turned on for each mouth. Also, after selecting the mount I notice that each mouth in the time line ends up with the same name. I this normal?
I was out of town all week on a job. I'm back home now so it will be easier to dig into this for you. I took a look at the video you posted. I noticed a few things in there I would like to investigate farther. This link will take you to the page to open a new support ticket:
I started over with a new comp and I was able to get it to work for the most part. I just have one hang up that you maybe able to answer right away. If not, I will open a ticket.
This is what I did:
1. I created each layer and named them exactly as you have them
Eyebrow Left - Pupil Left - Eye Left and so on...
2. I started with the Face and worked my way up
3. Selected the correct order you said in your video for the mouth/s.
Like I said, it's working now, the problem I have now is the "Closed Mouth". When play back the Jaw and Open Mouth moves correctly, but the Closed Mouth never shows up when the talking head is not saying anything.
I don't want to draw a closed mouth on the face because it will always be there.
Hi Ryan this is a great script, thanks. Or at least the first version is. V1.5 however is giving me trouble with the closed mouth shapes, in that it's simply not showing them. My psd file has all the eyeballs tuned on for each layer when I save it. I've restarted AE and all the usual turn it off/on again stuff, but no joy. When I use version 1 though, everything is fine. When do you think you are going to fix this please?
It could possibly be a naming issue. Check if there are any duplicate names among the open mouth layers, and also make sure that none of them are already named "Mouth Closed"
Another thing to check, is "Link Mouth Shape to Volume" the option is checked by default, try unchecking it.
If none of these work, open up a new trouble ticket and upload your project.
your suggestion worked: I renamed my mouth shapes "o1-o3" and "c1-c3" and that solved the problem, thanks!
I have another question, unrelated, more a request for advice/new feature really:
I want to use an expression that triggers a group of key frames on a layer at each of that layers' layer markers. However all the controls in your script are combined on the "Talking Head Controls" layer.
Is there a way to get each of those controls on its own layer. or am i going to be better off (i.e. less headaches), just key framing each control from the start to end?
Glad to hear it's working. Probably the best way to get the controls on different layers is to make a new layer with the control you want on it, and then link the corresponding control on the main "Talking Head Controls" layer to the new layer. Once they are linked, you can move any keyframes from the old control to the new one you just created.
i downloaded a trial version the other day to check things out, and i was wondering if i can somehow change my mouth positions (i have one closed and 2 open mouth shapes) without using an audio file?
i downloaded a trial version the other day to check things out, and i was wondering if i can somehow change my mouth positions (i have one closed and 2 open mouth shapes) without using an audio file?
Do you know how to offset the timing of the blinking? I have four characters in my composition. I know that I can put them all into seperate comps and offset them in time in the comp above. But is there an easier way to do that? Without time offsetting? I am assuming that it should be possible to add a little number inside the eye layers scale expression. So that each characters blinking happens at different times. I tried some things already, but I can't figure it out.
Otherwise that feature in future version would be nice.
You can offset the blinking by adjusting the "Blink Interval" slider. This will adjust the time between blinks. To offset two character's blinking, set the blink intervals to slightly different values.
You can also offset the blinking by setting one of the character's blink interval to a very high value (1000) with a keyframe at the beginning of the composition. This will prevent the character from blinking right away. Then set another keyframe at a lower value (75-100) when you want the character to begin blinking at a normal pace.
I'm interested in your Talking Head AE script. Can you tell me if I could be able to make my own characters and how easy (or how hard is it)? Is there a manual or instruction guide for making custom characters?
I never got the Face_template.png when I bought this script, and I now I can't open the script at all. Nothing comes up when I click on it. Help me please?
The script needs to be copied to the ScriptUI folder and opened through the window menu of after effects. Double clicking the .jsxbin or opening it through the file->scripts menu of after effects will not work.
This video covers how to install a scriptUI panel:
I have the same issue and just figured out how to debug it :
This particular line is made to get the number of the mouth layer (get the string between the index of the last " " character and the overall number of characters) and it looks like AE doesn't use this anymore.
I have the same issue and just figured out how to debug it :
This particular line is made to get the number of the mouth layer (get the string between the index of the last " " character and the overall number of characters) and it looks like AE doesn't use this anymore.
Change it in every opacity expression that have the problem
With the Link Mouth to Shape Volume button activated it should work fine !
EDIT :
Be careful of not deleting the "if" statement at the end of this line for the mouth closed !
Hi David many thanks for your response, it help me a lot but this expression is working find with the closed mouths, but when I paste it in the open mouth another error comes out,
Error: Undifined value used in expression (could be an out of range array, subscript?)
Installed it and went through the tutorial with the associated psd file and immediately got a script error. When I link open mouth, it tells me that:
Error at line 10 in property 'Opacity' of layer 14 ('Mouth Open 01') in comp 'Ghazi_Front_02'/ Expected: :, an expression was disable as a result of an error.
This is the line it says the error is in:
linkShapeAudio?(aa>=t && mShape == thisShape)?100:0:((thisShape != count && aa >= v_min && aa < v_max) || (thisShape == count && aa >= v_min))?100:0;?
Hi James, the script has not been updated in quite awhile. Feel free to test out the free trial to see if it works for you. I do need to make an official update for 2024 though.
Hello Ryan.
Is V1.5 a free upgrade for existing owners, and if so, how does one do it?
Cheers, Ace.
I have a question about v1.5 of your Talking Head. When I select 3 mouths (smallest to largest) and select "Mouth" with Open checked, the Jaw is the only thing moving. I'm not sure why the jaw moves and none of the mouths that I selected. Have you seen this? Maybe you can tell me what I'm doing wrong?
this is a great script, thanks. Or at least the first version is. V1.5 however is giving me trouble with the closed mouth shapes, in that it's simply not showing them. My psd file has all the eyeballs tuned on for each layer when I save it. I've restarted AE and all the usual turn it off/on again stuff, but no joy. When I use version 1 though, everything is fine. When do you think you are going to fix this please?
Many thanks Nick
Please provide more details or it will be impossible to help you. The more details including screenshots please. You can also open a support ticket.
Hi
Do you know how to offset the timing of the blinking?
I have four characters in my composition.
I know that I can put them all into seperate comps and offset them in time in the comp above.
But is there an easier way to do that? Without time offsetting?
I am assuming that it should be possible to add a little number inside the eye layers scale expression. So that each characters blinking happens at different times. I tried some things already, but I can't figure it out.
Otherwise that feature in future version would be nice.
I'm interested in your Talking Head AE script. Can you tell me if I could be able to make my own characters and how easy (or how hard is it)? Is there a manual or instruction guide for making custom characters?
The face template png is not included in the download ?
Suggestion ?
Thank You