Auto Sequence Singing Faces feature documentation

[BrianBruderer]

In the S5 Beta released June 29, 2019 there is a new "Auto Sequence Singing Faces" feature in SuperStar. To access the feature bring up the "Image" dialog box and click on the "Auto Sequence Singing Faces" button in the lower right of the Image dialog box.

Here is a video tutorial on the "Auto Sequence Singing Faces" feature:

 

 

Here also is some documentation:

 

Auto Sequence Singing Faces

 

This feature can automatically move the mouth of a singing face to match the singing in a song! To access this feature:

 

Click on the “Tools” menu and select “Auto Sequencce Singing Faces…” or

 

Click on the “Image Setup” button on the toolbar

In the “Image Setup” dialog box click on the “Auto Sequence Singing Faces…” button in the lower right of the dialog box

 

Singing Faces on Pixel Matrix

In the “Singing Faces” dialog box there are settings for five mouth positions, closed, ¼ open, ½ open, ¾ open, and Full Open. The first time you launch the “Singing Face” dialog box default images will load and those images will appear in the mouth image settings. The images will default to a position at the top half of a 16x50 pixel matrix.

 

There is a field that shows the “Audio File to Use to Auto Sequence the Singing Face.” This will default to the audio file that is loaded for the sequence you are making. If the words to the song are prominent then you can use this song. Merely click on “Auto Sequence the Singing Face” and it will create image effects at the top of the image layers for the singing face.  Click on the “Play All” button in the toolbar to play the effects that were created

But normally to get the best results you will want to record the words using your own voice.

 

Recording your own voice

For best results, make a recording of your own voice by doing the following:

                Plug in some earphones into your computer

                Plug in a microphone into your computer

                Click on “Start Voice Record”

                While listening to the song in the headphones sing or speak the words of the song into the microphone

                When the song reaches the end the recording will stop. The recording will automatically become the “Audio File to Use to Auto Sequence the Singing Face”

                Click on “Auto Sequence the Singing Face”

                Click on the “Play All” button in the toolbar to play the sequence

 

More Singing Faces

At the top of the “Singing Faces” dialog box is a setting labeled “Which Singing Face?” To sequence a second singing face set this setting to “2”

The default images for face 2 will appear in the images for each mouth

You can record your voice using words to a different singer in the song

Click on “Auto Sequence the Singing Face” and effects will appear on the time layers. The effects for Face 2 will appear below the effects for Face 1.

Click on the “Play All” button to play both faces

 

To use the default images for more than two faces, click on the “Tools” button and select “Layout.” Set the number of ribbons to 32.

You can now do sequencing for face 3 and face 4

If you want to use 6 singing faces using the default images then set the number of ribbons to 48

 

Standard Singing Faces

Standard singing faces have a face with four channels for the mouth. One channel is for the closed mouth, another channel for the half open mouth, another channel for a full open mouth, and a channel for an “O” mouth.

 

How to use the S5 Sequencer to set up an S5 Preview of one or more Standard Singing Faces

In Preview Design, click on the “Add Item” button

In the list of items, select “Light-O-Rama Props (online)”

Select one or more of the singing trees and click on “Import Checked Items”

There should be a group for each tree. For example, there should be an “Elden the Tree (RGB)” group

Double click on “Elden the Tree (RGB)” make sure “Vertical Stack” is selected for the “Arrangement,” click on “Save”

If you have more than one singing tree, you can make a group containg all the trees. Click on “Add Item” and select “Create a new GROUP from existing props and groups”

In the “Preview Group Definition” dialog box select each tree group. Then set “Horizontal Stack Align Bottoms” for the “Arrangement,” name the group something like “Singing Trees,” click on “Save”

In the “Preview Design” dialog box click on “Save”

In the main screen of the “Sequencer” find the “Singing Trees” group, expand it so you can see the motion effects row.

Right click on the motion effects row and click on “Select,” then click on “Row”

Right click on the motion effects row again and select “Insert SuperStar Effect”

SuperStar will launch

 

Sequencing Standard Singing Faces in SuperStar

After creating a Preview in the S5 Sequencer and you have launched SuperStar do the following:

Bring up the “Image Setup” dialog box and click on “Auto Sequence Singing Faces”

Click on the “Load Single Pixel Images for 4 Standard Singing Faces” button.

Sixteen images will load and be placed at the bottom of the Image List. Scroll to the end of the Image List and the last four images should be:

Mouth-4 Closed

Mouth-4 1/2 Open

Mouth-4 Full Open

Mouth-4 O

 

Scroll the list up until you see the four images that start with “Mouth-1”

Select “Mouth-1 Closed” and then click on the top “Set” button in the “Singing Faces” dialog box

Select “Mouth-1 1/2 Open” and then click on the second “Set” button in the “Singing Faces” dialog box

Keep “Mouth-1 1/2 Open” selected and click on the third “Set” button in the “Singing Faces” dialog box

Select “Mouth-1 Full Open” and click on the fourth “Set” button in the “Singing Faces” dialog box

Keep “Mouth-1 Full Open” selected and click on the fourth “Set” button in the “Singing Faces” dialog box

We will not be using “Mouth-1 O” because the O is intended for “oooo” sounds and the SuperStar code has nothing in it that detects “oooo” sounds. So it works best to not use it

Your screen should look like this

 

 

 

At this point if you want to see what is generated using the audio file you can click on “Auto Sequence the Singing Face” and effects will appear in the time layers. Click on the “Play All” button to play the sequence

If the voices in the song are prominent you may be happy with using what you see. But for best results you should record only the words of the song using your own voice using these steps:

                Plug in some earphones into your computer

                Plug in a microphone into your computer

                Click on “Start Voice Record”

                While listening to the song in the headphones sing or speak the words of the song into the microphone

                When the song reaches the end the recording will stop. The recording will automatically become the “Audio File to Use to Auto Sequence the Singing Face”

 

The Singing Faces dialog box should look like this:

 

                Click on “Auto Sequence the Singing Face”

                Effects should appear in the first 5 layers of the time layers

                Click on the “Play All” button in the toolbar to play the effects that have been created for the singing face

 

If the mouth is not responding well to the voice, you can increase the sensitivity or increase the number of Freqs selected but normally you can leave Sensitivity set at 5, and Freqs 8-16 selected.

 

Set Images for the next Singing Face

In the Singing Faces dialog box set “Which Singing Face?” to “2”

Using the same steps you used for Tree 1, you can add images to the image list for Tree 2 and set them into the “Singing Faces” dialog box.

You can record your voice again and this time you can speak words that match a different singer in the song.

Click on “Auto Sequence the Singing Face” and effects will appear on the time layers for Tree 2. The effects for Tree 2 will be below the effects for Tree 1

Click on the “Play All” button on the toolbar and both singing faces will play

 

You can do the same for tree 3 and tree 4

 

 

 

Also, here is a zip file that contains the two default image files which are "SingingFacesImages.scb" and "SingingFacesSinglePixelImages.scb"

Unzip the two files into   c:/ (your lightorama folder) / SuperStar / Clipboards / System

SingingFacesImageFiles.zip

[Paul Masterson]

Thanks Brian, this sounds really cool. Any potential to make this available for the prior version (v4 (4.4.4))? There are many of us not ready to make the leap yet that would love to have this option.

 

Thanks

[BrianBruderer]

The SSEdit.exe will work with S4 or S5. You can download S5 on a different computer and copy the SSEdit.exe to your S4 computer. 

You can find SSEdit.exe at:

c:/ Program Files (x86) / LightORama / SSEdit.exe

 

Or you can email me at brian@superstarlights.com and I can get the SSEdit.exe to you

[dougd]

Is there anyway to use this with images that have the different face movements. I can send you some as references if you like.

[BrianBruderer]

The default images are just default images. You can modify the default images or add new images and set them in the "singing faces" dialog box.

Also note that there is now an "Auto Sequence Singing Faces" video tutorial. You can find it by going to the lightorama main page and then click on "tutorials and pdfs" and then scroll down, the superstar tutorials are near the bottom. The "Auto Sequence Singing Faces" video tutorial is the bottom one in the superstar group.

Or, here is the video tutorial here:

 

[Paul Masterson]

Thanks for this Brian, super helpful. I tried the LOR singing faces steps and I receive and error in SS when trying to load the 4 faces. I am receiving an error trying to open SingingFacesSinglePixelImages.scb. I looked the the directory (Light-o-ramam\Superstar\Clipboard\System and it is not there. Can you tell me how to download it or can you send it to me at Mastersonp24@gmail.com

 

Thank you

[james morris]

I also face  need for S4 hotrod54ford@yahoo.com have ss but need face file

Edited July 10, 2019 by james morris

[BrianBruderer]

I have added a zip to the bottom of the original post. The zip file contains the two default image files. Unzip them into:

c:/ (your lightorama folder) / Superstar / Clipboards / System

[ukoberon]

Hi Brian -  Thanks for the video which i have watched the video and got the basics - but now how do i make this work with the ChromaBulb 30" Standing - i can import the item but i cant do any of the vertical stacks onwards - does this need me to have a specific s5 prop file rather than just adding the Boscoyo Studios item which shows as just one piece? Many Thanks. Rob.

[james morris]

Finished my first auto face sequence Aerosmith Angle turned out great will be finishing the rest of it I did mine with out vis

[james morris]

I'm using S4.44 not 5

[BrianBruderer]

I actually have not worked much with the Boscoyo Previews. But there should be a way to get the Preview to be a vertical stack or a horizontal stack. Send me an email at brian@superstarlights.com and we can set up a time for me to remote into your computer.

 -Brian Bruderer

[BrianBruderer]

James, how did you do it without a visualization?

[james morris]

I first made a 5 channel face save as sup file open ss faces open sup file set all 5 face channels then  did auto-Sequence the Singing Faces after I Exported to Sequence open my sequence the lcc file has 16 channel pixel and all my standard channels in it i then copy and past the exported file i then run  animation  my animation has 2 faces 16 channel roof eves 3 channels 10 channels tombstones 8 channels that is 12 foot tall hexgon then 16 channel pixel tree all this in my animation file it works

Edited July 11, 2019 by james morris

[BrianBruderer]

when you say "I first made a 5 channel face, save as sup file," how did you make the 5 channel face?

[Dennis Laff]

Brian does the auto sequencing singing faces work with a 12 string ccr tree?   Thanks Dennis

[james morris]

It works you set it up at start I can load any faces to sing from gif files and use them I have a skull singing angle by aerosmith you have five places to load different parts in 1 one straight mouth part 2 aa part 3 o part 4 mid mouth part 5 full mouth I dont load vis file I need to talk to you to explane call me 1-214-404-1197 Texas James

[ukoberon]

20 hours ago, BrianBruderer said:

I actually have not worked much with the Boscoyo Previews. But there should be a way to get the Preview to be a vertical stack or a horizontal stack. Send me an email at brian@superstarlights.com and we can set up a time for me to remote into your computer.

 -Brian Bruderer

Thanks Brian i will do - In the UK so time difference could be more of a challenge.

 

[Mike Anderson]

On 7/11/2019 at 12:13 PM, james morris said:

It works you set it up at start I can load any faces to sing from gif files and use them I have a skull singing angle by aerosmith you have five places to load different parts in 1 one straight mouth part 2 aa part 3 o part 4 mid mouth part 5 full mouth I dont load vis file I need to talk to you to explane call me 1-214-404-1197 Texas James

I can not figure out how to get this to work with my v 4.4.2.  What am I missing?  I have downloaded the new SSedit file and it worked properly, but I can not figure out how to add the faces or sequence.

[BrianBruderer]

To get the default images download the zip file that is at the bottom of the initial posting. Look for the text that says:

Also, here is a zip file that contains the two default image files which are "SingingFacesImages.scb" and "SingingFacesSinglePixelImages.scb"

Unzip the two files into   c:/ (your lightorama folder) / SuperStar / Clipboards / System

The zip file is just below the text. If you still have problems let me know.