Write your dialogue

  • Click the Dialogue icon.

  • Choose the character that is speaking. (The character must be present in the scene.)

  • Type or paste the text that you would like the character to speak. The text can be in any language (including non-Western languages), but the digital voices will only function if the text is compatible with the digital voice language.

  • Select an animation or expression. By default, each character has a “neutral” expression. Click the “neutral” text and then choose an animation from the list. Some of these are facial expressions only; others have accompanying body language, and some even include elaborate hand gestures or body motion. Click the Play button to preview the animation; you can always change the animation to something different.

  • If you want a character to perform an animation (or show a facial expression) without speaking, then simply choose an animation but don’t add any text.

Tip! For the best results, break your text into different Dialogue items (e.g., make each sentence a separate line of dialogue). That way you can have different expressions or emotions to accompany the lines of text. This will make your video more visually interesting, and emphasize your words with empathetic expressions.

 


Record your own voice

You can replace the digital voices with human voices, and Plotagon will automatically synchronize the characters’ lips with the sound of the recorded voice in any language. There are two ways to get dialogue recordings into the application:


1. Record directly into the application:

  • Select the line of dialogue and click the microphone icon.

  • This will launch a recording dialogue box that displays the dialogue text so you can read aloud directly from the screen.

  • Click the red button to start and stop the recording process.

  • To hear your recording, press the play button. If you want to re-record your dialogue, press the red button again.

  • If you want to use the standard digital voice instead, click “Mute recording”.

  • Press the checkmark button to return to the script editor.

The voice recording dialogue box.

2. Import an audio file:

  • Select the line of dialogue and click the microphone icon.

  • Click “Import voice file” and then browse your computer’s hard drive for the correct file.

  • Plotagon Studio can import WAV, AIF, AIFF, AAC, MP3 and M4A audio files with a sample rate below 44.100 kHz.

See this article to learn how to improve the sound quality of your voice recordings.