Auto Sequence Singing Faces

<< Click to Display Table of Contents >>

Navigation:  The Light-O-Rama Software Package > SuperStar Sequencer > Custom Sequences >

Auto Sequence Singing Faces

This feature can automatically move the mouth of a singing face to match the singing in a song! It will also blink the eyes every 2-4 seconds, and make the ribbon/bow light up whenever the face is singing.

 

To access this feature, either:

 

1.From the “Tools” menu, select “Auto Sequence Singing Faces…”; or

2.Click on the “Image Setup” button on the toolbar. In the “Image Setup” dialog box click on the “Launch Auto Sequence Singing Faces Dialog Box” button in the lower left corner.

 

If it is the first time you have launched “Auto Sequence Singing Faces” for this sequence then the “Load Default Singing Face Images” dialog box will appear. It will have the following options:

 

Load Single Pixel Images for 1-4 Light-O-Rama Singing Faces – If you are using 1-4 of the Light-O-Rama singing faces such as Elden, Felix, Ralphie, or Zuzu then you can use this option to load default images.
 
There are also three options when you select “Load Single Pixel Images for 1-4 Light-O-Rama Singing Faces.” To determine which of the three options to select, count the number of green squares in the vertical direction of the grid. It will be 14 or 8. Then click on the bottom square in the green grid. The “Tree Body” or the “Star” will light up in the Preview in superstar.
 

o14 Elements, Star Element at Bottom of Grid – If you are using the new Light-O-Rama singing faces that were released in the Fall of 2022 then you should select this option. The new singing faces have 10 mouth elements and 4 other elements for a total of 14 elements.

o8 Elements, Star Element at Bottom of Grid – If you are using the Light-O-Rama singing face that was in use prior to the fall of 2022 and you downloaded your Prop after the Fall of 2022 then use this option.

o8 Elements, Body Element at Bottom of Grid – If you are using the Light-O-Rama singing face that was in use prior to the fall of 2022 and you downloaded your Prop before the Fall of 2022 then use this option.

 

Load Matrix Images for 4 Standard Singing Faces – If you have a matrix of pixels that is at least 12 pixels wide and 25 pixels tall then you can use this option to load default face images for the matrix

 

Load Coro Type Default Face Elements – If you have a coro type face such as those from Boscoyo or Gilbert Engineering then you can use this option to load the predefined face elements. You may need to use copy/paste to combine face elements to get the different mouth images such as “Mouth ½ Open.”

 

Singing Faces on a Pixel Matrix

 

In the “Singing Faces” dialog box there are settings for “Body or Outline,” “Star or Bow,” “Eyes Open,” “Eyes Closed,” and the five mouth positions, “Mouth Closed,” “1/4 Open,” “1/2 Open,” “3/4 Open,” and “Mouth 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

If it is difficult to say the words in the song you can just say “blah, blah, blah” in place of the words and it will still make the mouth move to the words of the song.

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.

 

 

Setting up the Preview for 1-4 Light-O-Rama Singing Faces

 

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

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

If you have the new singing trees that were released after the fall of 2022, then choose one of trees that has “V2” in the name

If you have the singing trees purchased before the fall of 2022, then choose one of trees that does NOT have “V2” in the name

Select one of the singing trees and click on “Add Prop”

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

 

 

Auto Sequencing the Light-O-Rama Singing Faces in SuperStar

 

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

 

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

Click on the “Load Single Pixel Images for 1-4 Light-O-Rama Singing Faces” button.

32 images will load and be placed at the bottom of the Image List. Scroll to the end of the Image List and the last 8 images should be:

Zuzu(4) Mouth Closed

Zuzu(4) 1.2 Open

Zuzu(4) Mouth Full Open

Zuzu(4) Eyes Closed

Zuzu(4) Eyes Open

Zuzu(4) Body

Zuzu(4) Bow

 

Scroll the list up until you see the images that start with “Elden(1) Mouth Closed”. The images for Elden will have already been automatically set in the “Singing Faces” dialog box.

Click on “Elden(1) Mouth Closed” image in the image list. To make the mouth elements easier to see click on the “View” menu and select “Floating Windows”

Your screen should now look like this:

 

AutoSingingFaces1

 

 

If you want the singing faces to be larger you can click and drag on an edge of the singing face window.

 

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

If it is difficult to say the words in the song you can just say “blah, blah, blah” in place of the words and it will still make the mouth move to the words of the song.

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:

 

AutoSingingFaces2

 

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 use the images that were automatically set or you set 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

 

There are online software products that will extract the voice from a song. They charge a fee but it may be worth it. If the files they create are not .wav files then you must convert them to .wav files. In the “Singing Faces” dialog box you can click on the “…” button below the text that says “Audio File to Use to Auto Sequence the Singing Face”and select the audio file.