Facial Clips and Keys

There are tracks relevant to the facial features of a character, including tracks of clips and tracks of keys. You may need to know how to use them when you wish to use the timeline for authoring animations.
( Watch Tutorial - Lip Sync Basics )

ClosedVoice Clip and Lip Keys

When you apply voices to characters, the lip and mouth animation will be generated automatically by Cartoon Animator. Any lip synching keys set manually before will be kept because of the Clip and Key Priority.

  1. Select a character. Go to a time frame and click the Lips Editor button on the timeline to open the Lips Editor.
  2. Double-click on a viseme icon to set a lip synching key for the character.
  3. A new clip will be automatically generated on the Voice Clip track.
  4. Go to some frames ahead, click the Create Script button.
    Click on one of the buttons to add a voice to the character.
  5. The voice will be presented in a clip form inside the Voice Clip track. When the clip encounters lip-synching keys, it will be overridden by the lip viseme shapes.
ClosedFacial Clips and Head, Face, Eye Keys

Facial expressions can be produced by two different data types: Facial Expression Clips and Facial Expression Keys.

If you have already applied a facial expression clip to your character, Facial Expression Keys may override the expressions from the Facial Clip. Refer to the Clip and Key Priority section.

  1. Record a facial expression clip for a character by using the Face Puppet Editor. The facial expression keys will be automatically generated on the relevant tracks: Head, Face and Eye.
  2. Double click on the time frame (with facial expression key) to add a special facial expression key by using the Face Key Editor. The original expressions from the Facial Clip will be overridden by the subsequently added facial keys.