facial expression continuity

I'm having problems maintaining facial expression continuity when I add dialogue. Is there a technique, perhaps adding all dialogue before expressions are applied to a character?

I created a character with a mean look on his face, as soon as I applied the dialogue, his expression became blank.

I'm missing a little detail again, I think. Any advice?
Thanks for all your help.

I haven't noticed that at all with my characters. I kind of have the opposite problem, they keep their moods even when I want them to change. So I tend to minimize all improvisation. However, what did you choose on the character sheet for your characters facial expressions? I have found that whatever mood you choose on the character sheet, the puppet will keep it through the scene.

Thanks lucindamc123, I'll try that. I just added some dialog to a walking actor that has a camera on him; after the audio was added, the camera went nuts, it seemed to have completely new keyframes, only the 1st remained the same... and, as I mentioned, the expression went blank, but now it's happened again... any one else have this problem?

I'm having the same problem too. I want a character to have an excited look on his face while he talks, but he doesn't. He has the look on his face before he speaks, but once he opens his mouth, his expression goes blank.

CPT Destroyer wrote:

I'm having the same problem too. I want a character to have an excited look on his face while he talks, but he doesn't. He has the look on his face before he speaks, but once he opens his mouth, his expression goes blank.

YES, I'm glad I'm not the only one.
Are you running the software as I am, a bit below specifications (my graphics card is out-dated, but runs the software)? I wonder if that's the problem, as Lucindamc123 said she hasn't experienced this...?

Have you added dialog to an actor that has a target camera animating around him/her? When I do it, the camera keyframe go nuts, and I have to re-do all the camera keyframes.

I'm running it on he highest settings, as I have a high-end PC. I haven't tried animating the camera, I was using a stationary camera locked on to someone.

<gets long sharp stick>

hey, QA team, does this ring any bells?

official comment?

I few things I have noticed is that with some gestures/facial expressions that use the head and combined with dialogue, is that the lip sync tool takes priority and you "lose" the gesture, which QA know about already.

I've found if I put the sliders up to the max on the character sheet and turn improvisation off that the facial expression with lip sync remains. For the gestures that use facial expressions, you can prolong these by extending them on the gesture window (drag out the blue timeline) or if they have a follow on option (also on the gesture window, bottom left) is that some of them are looped.

Michelle wrote:

I've found if I put the sliders up to the max on the character sheet and turn improvisation off that the facial expression with lip sync remains. For the gestures that use facial expressions, you can prolong these by extending them on the gesture window (drag out the blue timeline) or if they have a follow on option (also on the gesture window, bottom left) is that some of them are looped.

Thanks so much. I'll try that tonight, cheers

Well this probably sounds like a stupid question, I saw the improvisations options checkbox somewhere, but I can't find it... would it not be here, is there a glitch in my system? Where do you find it?

In the Gestures popup window, I can't select the improvisation option, does it work for you?
Maybe it is a problem with my install...?

Did you mod that stripey face B'man?

The improvisations tick in the gesturiser should probably be taken out, as it is disabled (and I dont recall it ever working).

If you want to stop characters from improvising, turn down their Melodrama and Expressiveness to zero on their character sheet. [Bongoman has them both set to max in his screenshot.]

I suspect the sliders being refered to in 'if i put the sliders up to max' would only be the ones controling the facial expressions.

Thanks for the advice. I'll try to find a balance in the Performance settings I guess. Michelle mentioned setting them high, and I must admit I've been inclined to set them that way from the outset, so I'll test them out some more. Problem is, I like how the actor looks with full disgust on.

KKffoo, I edited the face texture, I found them here: C:\Program Files\Moviestorm-Beta-2\AddOn\Base\Data\Puppets\Male01\Heads\Euro\Textures now I'm stuck with him that way, I forgot to make a copy, lol
I found that they wisely blended the body skin tex with the face tex, unlike other programs where there's a cut line dividing them. His blue face blends nicely to skin colour on his neck.

Melodrama and Expressiveness are completely separate to the facial sliders. They affect which improvisations are played. I think expressiveness is a mesure of how often they play, and different animations have different settings for how melodramatic they are (low melodrama leaves less choice).

NOTHING I do seems to make much difference.

Facial expressions still go blank whenever the puppet talks.

I GUESS this is my system, as I don't see a lot of other people complaining about it... the only thing I can think of to check is the version of Java I'm running...?

Some advice from the devs would be useful about now... thanks, please?