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Tutorial
In this page you will find the tutorial of the ACT project.
At the end of the tutorial, you will be able to create new expressions, change the avatar's parameters, perform a Wizard of Oz experiment, record and export a video for a serie of expression.
Be sure to follow the Installation guide first.
When launching the program you will have to click on the Configuration button. In doing so, you will end up on a different interface that will ask you to chose between the General Editor or Action Editor.
This interface is used if you want to modify some of the avatar behaviors.
Between each of Lou's expressions, the program smoothly transitions from the last frame of the current expression to the first frame of the next expression. This parameter allows you to change the duration of this transition.
When toggled on, each expression will be played entirely before transitionning to the next expression. So if you record and export a video off 2 expressions for example, the length should be : duration expression 1 + transition duration + duration expression 2 = 0.5s + 0.25s + 0. 5s = 1.25s.
When toggled off, the program will calculate the timing where the expression stops and starts depending on the transition duration. If we take the same example as before, the length should now be : duration expression 1 cut early + transition duration + duration expression 2 started late = 0.375s + 0.25s + 0.375s = 1.0s.
Since most avatar are made in Blender, i had this little correction offset because Blender's axis are not workly the same as Unity's axis. It's meant to correct the orientation of the neck and the head of each avatar.
It shouldn't be changed if you use Lou as an avatar but if you change it, feel free to change it.
This interface is used if you want to modify, create or remove any expression that the avatar will be able to play in the record or the Woz interface.
If you click on an expression you should see many different parameters.
The name that will be displayed on the button in the control interface when you try to record a clip or to perform a woz experiment.
An intensity is an expression that contains a CSV like Open Face's outputs with 1 line is equivalent to a frame and each frame contains values for different Action Units.
An intensity may also contains a .wav file that is the audio corresponding to the CSV file.
It is not mandatory to have a .wav file related to a .csv file. However you can't add a .wav file and not the corresponding .csv file. It is mandatory to fill the intensities in the order from 1 to 5.
When launching the program you will have to click on the **Record **button. In doing so, you will end up on a different interface with Lou on the right corner and the control panel on the left side.
This part contains every action you created in the interface previously mentionned. If you want to add any of those expressions into the queue, just click on it !
As soon as you click on it, you will have to chose which intensity you want to play. All you have to do is to click again on the intensity you want to play.
Now that you have clicked on an expression in the control panel, th is expression is now in the queue. Expressions execute sequentially, one after the other. On each expression you can see his intensity, the name of the expression, its order in the queue and finally a button if you want to remove this expression from the queue.
Now that your queue is complete you can play with it using the state buttons.
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The left one is a back button. If you are at expression 2, you can press this one to go to expression 1. It's important to notice that this button will always start the sequence from the expression you are at. Why ? Because in a wizard of oz experiment or in a video, you don't want your avatar to freeze or it would ruin the experiment.
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The middle left one is the record button. If your avatar is not already in play mode and at the expression 1, pressing will hide the interface and play the expressions sequentially. At the end of the expressions, a video in a MP4 format would be exported to your folders : Root\Users\user\Documents\RockVR\Video Its name would be the timing at which you launched your video, for example : 2023-07-28-14-34-32-2991Q is a video recorded the 28th of August 2023 at 2:34:32 PM and 2991Q is a unique ID
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The middle right one is the play button. If you press it, your avatar will play each expression in the queue sequentially until there is not any left. You can press it again to stop the sequence.
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The right one is the skip button. If you are at expression 1, you can press this one to go to expression 2. Note that as the back button, it also starts the sequence from the expression you are at.
It's important to know that the back button is also accessible with the F5 key, the play button with F6 key and the skip button with F7 key. Finally, you can hide the whole interface by pressing H
Lou's parameter is a runtime interface, which means you will modify the neck and head rotation correction of Lou but only locally : when you left this interface or exit the program, it won't be saved.
It also allows you to reset Lou's pose and expression to neutral. It will most likely be used when you want to record a clip but you moved Lou's face already.
When launching the program you will have to click on the Wizard of Oz button. In doing so, you will end up on a different interface with a list of the available roomsn like a "lobby".
To create your own room, click on the top right nut, a new interface will be shown.
The name of the room you want to create. Watch out, you can't create two rooms that have the same name.
Any password you want for other users to access your room. There is no particular constraint.
Input the same password as the password input field.
If a room has been created, it will pop in the list of rooms. You can see the name of the room and input the password of that room. You can chose to join the room as and Admin or as a User, dpeending of what you want to do in that room.
If you join the Admin side, the interface will be similar to the record room on the left side and on the top right side, the little nut allows you to modify the room's parameters.
Room Open : toggle the availability of the room for users, even if they have the right password.
Password modification : change the password of the room.
Disconnect : disconnect of the room.
The main difference with the record room is that each of the action you make Lou do, is sent to every user that are in the same room.
If you join the User side, the interface will almost be empty despite the little nut on the top right corner that allows you to disonnect from the room.
You know everything you need to know to use the ACT project. Enjoy ! 😄