Can I make my own face in a matrix

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everettdale

Apprentice elf
Joined
Nov 18, 2022
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I haven't really looked too deeply into how this is done, but I see that you can put a singing face on a matrix. All I see are pre-made faces to download. Is there a way to create my own?

And a second question. I can have 2 different "characters" singing at different time on the same matrix right. Like have a Frankenstein face sing one verse, then Dracula sing the next?
 
1. Yep absolutely. You just need the appropriate image files; one for each of the phonemes; and create a new face definition.
2. Easiest to do that would be to submodel the matrix into two I believe.
 
I have a couple of songs where I have multiple faces all singing on the matrix at the same time.
Each face has it's own lyric/phoneme track and each face is assigned an area on the layer settings>buffer. Each face that is singing at the same time also needs a layer on the matrix.
Depending on whether you have 1 face singing, 2 or more than 2 you can have them full screen and alternating or part of a screen for each.
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I'm not sure where to go with this question now. I went into the Layout section and created a Matrix model and figured out how to set the parameters to get a 25X25 matrix with a single string of pixels. When I go into the Sequencer and drop an effect on to the Matrix it behaves as I would expect. So that's all working.

So when I drop the Faces effect onto the Matrix I get the "default" face. because I haven't added an image into the "Faces" section in the Matrix layout. When I do Add an image into the "faces" section I can download a face or I can load my own images for each mouth shape. This all makes sense so far.

What I cant figure out is how to make the images I want to load into the mouth shapes and get them to look right. I want them to be basically like the line drawings that the "default" are, but of my own designs.

in the regular Face Model (not on a matrix) you do this with a grid that looks like a spreadsheet. What am I missing?
 
If you have the mechanics down but it's a quality issue, maybe start with an image that is close to what you want, or at least has the eyes and mouth in the right spots. Then do the eyes and multiple mouths as layers on top of that (using photoshop or gimp or something that supports layers), and then exporting images of just the layers you want.
 
What MOC said. xLights does not let you edit the image files directly. You need to produce the independently and then load them in as appropriate.
In essence you need to create 20 image files one for each of the 10 phonemes with eyes open, and again with the eyes closed.

Alternatively, you _can_ do it similar to a custom prop - by changing the definition type from "Matrix" to "Node Ranges" and explicitly defining the pixel numbers, but that wont be portable between the halves of the matrix or across different matrix sizes.
 
Skymaster said:
What MOC said. xLights does not let you edit the image files directly. You need to produce the independently and then load them in as appropriate.
In essence you need to create 20 image files one for each of the 10 phonemes with eyes open, and again with the eyes closed.

Alternatively, you _can_ do it similar to a custom prop - by changing the definition type from "Matrix" to "Node Ranges" and explicitly defining the pixel numbers, but that wont be portable between the halves of the matrix or across different matrix sizes.
Click to expand...
I think the Node Ranges thing is what I want to do. I'll mess around with that and see.
 
Does anyone have additional (for a lack of better words” “faces” for sale that could be imported?

I want to do the same thing with the custome P5 matrix panel I am building.
 
everettdale said:
I think the Node Ranges thing is what I want to do. I'll mess around with that and see.
Click to expand...
If you mean how to submodel the matrix it is easy. Select your Matrix, on the properties menu go to SubModels. Add a new submodel, select the SubBuffer tab under the model name, right click on the buffer i mage and go down to Quarters and select one of the options. This allows you to easily devide the matrix into 4 corners. Just do this for each corner.

MatrixBuffers.png
 
sackboy said:
Thanks mate!

Is there a particular folder I am meant to put these in so I can select a different Face Definition?
Click to expand...
I have a faces folder in my "per year" folder. After putting them in a folder you need to go to the faces section and add the images. Xlights will auto populate a lot of the image links if they are in the typical format of xxx AI.png, xxx E.png etc.
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