FaceFX Support

FaceFX Documentation and support

File Management

Tracking Modifications

FaceFX Studio can track which animations have been hand-edited, and which animations have source audio/text files that were updated since the animation was generated.  For example, in a large project follow these steps to make sure no work is lost when a group of audio source files are updated.

• Use the analyze command (not available in Professional) without specifying -overwriteedits.  This is a “safe” operation that will update animations to the most recent audio & text files.  Animations that have been hand edited will not be overwritten.
• Review hand-edited animations that have new audio or text files with the Animation Finder python plugin.  The goal is to preserve work by finding animations where your hand-edits are still valid.  Make additional changes, then mark the animation as current so it will not be considered to have new source files.  You can also reanalyze the audio & text while preserving your owned-by-user curves by using the -keepusercurves  flag or using the Animation->Reanalyze Audio & Text Files button.
• For the remaining animations, hand edits will be lost.  Use the analyze command and specify -modifiedsourcefilesonly and -overwriteedits flag.  You are giving FaceFX Studio permission to overwrite hand edits, but only on animations that still have outdated audio or text files.

Audio Files

Audio files are referenced by .facefx and .animset files.  The relative and absolute paths to the audio are stored. 

• Clientspec
  • When FaceFX is started for the first time, a warning is displayed that the facefx.clientspec file can’t be found and that a new one was created for you.  The program install directory is the default clientspec root.
  • The facefx.clientspec file is located in the FaceFX Studio program folder inside the user’s documents directory.
  • More detailed information can be found in the .clientspec documentation.
• Relative vs. Absolute File Paths
  • Relative and Absolute file paths are stored for audio files.
  • When a relative filepath can’t be found, the absolute filepath is loaded.  If that is found, the user is prompted to reconcile audio paths.
  • If you have changed the folder where your audio is located, when you update one animation’s audio, all animations in that group whose audio has moved to the same new folder can be updated as well.
• Resampling - FaceFX resamples audio files when it loads them to 16kHz, 16-bit.  For long files, this can take a considerable amount of time, so consider resampling them on disk.  FaceFX keeps recently resampled audio in it’s audio cache. 

Text Files

• Text files contain the text transcription for the audio.  The text files should have the same base filename as the audio file, and be located in the same folder with the “.txt” file extension.
• To override this behavior during batch analysis, use the preloadtext python callback. 

OGRE Files

FaceFX Studio will load an Ogre .MESH or .SCENE file with the name specified by the “Render Asset” in the FaceFX Studio Actor->Change Render Asset menu. Ogre .MESH, .SKELETON, .SCENE, .MATERIAL, and texture files can be located in several locations in order for FaceFX to find them:

• In one of the subfolders off of the program install directory’s Ogre/Resources folder
• In one of the subfolders off of the user directory’s FaceFX Studio 20XX/Ogre/Resources folder
• In the same folder as the .facefx file