Making faces talk with After Effects – quick and easy
Create your document in Photoshop
File/new/photo/ (size) 4x6 - but make it 72 DPI
Find a face you like that’s looking straight or ¾ into the camera.
Add it to your document and position it to your liking.
Duplicate the layer by selecting the layer/duplicate layer. Label one layer as “face” the other as “lip”
On the face layer black out the area beneath the lower lip. You can use the brush tool or the polygonal lasso tool to do a more precise job. (You could have it empty and put teeth behind the mouth as another layer also)
On the lip layer, using the polygonal lasso tool remove the lower lip and a bit of flesh below it away from the image.
When done you should have 2 layers:
Face – a full face with a blacked out area below the lip (maybe add some upper teeth)
Lip - just a disembodied lip.
Test out the animation by selecting the lip layer and moving it around a bit.
Save as Photoshop document.
Create your “voice” with Garage Band
Record your voice with the DR05 or grabbing a sample off the net. Bring the audio file in garage band for editing a short piece - 15 seconds max. Once edited share (save) it as a WAV file (MP3’s are ok so long as they are short). If you want music as well as a voice that’s fine, just be sure to save 2 versions - 1 with the music and 1 without. Note the length in time of your finished piece.
Prep the composition in After Effects
Open After effects and drag your Photoshop document into the Project Area of the workspace – this is the left side of the work area.
A dialogue box comes up:
Set import kind to “composition”.
Set Layer options to – “Merge layer styles into footage”.
Click OK
A composition file and a folder should appear in the Project area.
Drag-in you MP3 or wave files to the Project area in the same way.
Now, Drag the folder down to the area to the right of the timeline - another dialoged box will open:
Set duration to the total time of your audio file. Don’t worry about this to much as you can change the duration of your animation at any time by going to Composition/Composition settings/Duration
You should now have 3 layers in your timeline:
1 – A disembodied lower lip
2 – The Face you are animating – with the area below the lip blacked out
3 – A sound file of just a voice
Making the mouth move
Open the waveform viewer for the audio layer by clicking the layer then pressing the L key 2x.
Click the RAM preview button in the preview controls (on the right side of the screen) to hear the audio play pack. If you can see and hear audio – then proceed.
Open the transform tools in the mouth layer by clicking the little triangle in the layer - next to the purple box. Click transform. We’re going focus on altering the position of the mouth, specifically the vertical position. To the right of the word “position” vertical position is represented in the second of the 2 numbers separated by a comma.
Position the timeline indicator so that its just before where you see the voice starting, as indicated in the waveform.
Click the little alarm clock – a key frame will appear.
Move down the timeline a little where the mouth would start moving and adjust the vertical position by clicking on the second number, holding and dragging to the right a bit.
Another key frame will appear.
Repeat this process – remember you can cut and paste key frames.
When finished render the composition by clicking file/export/add to render que. Output to “desktop” – then click the render button on the right.
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temp = thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider") * 10;
[position[0], position[1], + temp]
x = 0;
l = thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider");
y = linear (1,2,20,0,15)
value+[x,y]