Would like some help making the children laugh... will share results..

[dkulp]

Last year, I had a vision in my head for my Halloween show where between each of the songs, two of the monster  faces would light up and banter a bit, tell a few stupid jokes, etc... Think about Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets (the two old guys in the balcony).  I wanted the kids to laugh and the parents to walk away shaking their heads.   Unfortunately, I never had time to pursue it.       With the amount of time I've spent on developing xLights 4.x this year, I'm beginning to wonder if the same thing will happen this year.   On the plus side, with the Papagayo support built in, it becomes a bit easier, but it still takes a lot of time. 

I've spent some time breaking down the first MP3 from http://www.markbsplace.net/SubPages/hall-joking-skellys.htm into 8 sections about 60-90 seconds long.   I sequenced the first set.  You can see the result at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wujnVp932LQ

But with all the stuff I have going on, I'm not sure I'll have time to do the other 7.   So this is where I ask you to help me.   :-)   I've uploaded the audio files, my xLights files, and the XML for the first one to my dropbox:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v96q50t7agfeu8b/AAB5o_lCGyazNPStVr-G2jd7a?dl=0

If folks could grab one (post here which one so we don't have multiple people doing the same one) and do the breaking down of the phases/words and such for lyrics tracks, that would be a huge huge help.   I'll keep the results available so everyone that would like them for their Halloween shows can access them.    Feel free to use your own xlights faces setups.  I'm hoping to be able to add the ability to import timing tracks from other xlights sequences into another to capture the lyrics tracks.   

Major thanks in advance to anyone that would help with this.   Not to lay a guilt trip or anything, but folks have asked how they can donate to the development of xLights and a gift of "time" is certainly one of the things I would appreciate most.    Again, thanks!

[kevinp]

I'll work on jokes2 for you.

[logandc99]

I'll have a go at Jokes3. Might be a good way to learn how to use the papagayo stuff.

[arw01]

This is a great calling and I think exposes the REAL power of xlights and that is the easy sharing...

Alan

[kevinp]

Dan,
Here is the xml file for jokes2.  The only word missing from everything is Dracula.  I couldn't figure out a similar word/words to use to break it down into the phonemes.  Let me know if I did everything correctly.  I'm assuming you will go through and fine tune and adjust the timing to your models?

**This is a repost with new file.  The first file was done on a old/slow computer.  What looked good on that computer looked horrible on my home computer.  Timing was pretty awful in most places.  Hopefully it has been corrected and is more useable.

**Fixed the file yet again to include the words Dracula.  Had to remove the plural that is heard in the audio, then it worked.

[kevinp]

I'll work on jokes4 too.

[gerry]

I will work on Jokes 5 today and will see how I go.


Edit:
(I have not watched what Dan has done and have not downloaded as yet)
If I finish this quickly and the other ones have not been taken up , then will come back and take another.

[kevinp]

Here's the file for jokes4.  Hope I'm getting this correct for you versus making more work.  Just let me know if I need to fix anything to help you out some more.

[gerry]

Hello Dan,

Attached is the Jokes5 xml. If any changes are required , do let me know.

P.S - I actually had to look up some of the jokes , cause initially I did not understand some of them cause I misheard the joke --- terrible 
 

[gerry]

I will do jokes6

[logandc99]

Not sure whats going on but every time I start to make the jokes3 sequence and try to save or render anything, Xlights freezes and locks up. I'm not getting a crash report because it never gets to generate one - I just see a never ending spinning beachball and have to force shut the program down. Works ok with my sequence.
I made a new folder with the files from your dropbox and pointed Xlights to that folder for saving the sequence. I can see the models load up in the layout and all looks ok in the setup section but as soon as I try to do anything with regards to sequencing a jokes 3 sequence.... boom.... lockup.
Where am I going wrong here?

[logandc99]

Ok, so I seem to have solved the problem... (not sure exactly how).
I downloaded Gerry's Jokes5 xml file and then loaded in the Jokes3 mp3 into that sequence. Then I started making changes to the sequence to match the jokes MP3 file and it seems to be rendering and saving now so i think I'm on my way. (sorry I will be a bit slower than the others  )

[gerry]

Hi Logan

That's great. It took me a while to do the first one and I rendered , saved , opened , closed etc as I could not get that parrot to appear on the 2nd lyrics timing mark initially , and it took a while to get used to it, but after a while, I slowly got the hang . So its good to do this !

Now that 'hanging' - u sure that that does not occur when you convert the first phrase (or thereabouts) , because there will be several several seconds (on my laptop was > 30 secs I think) whilst it loads the dictionaries (that it looks like it is locked)  - then it is fine for that xl session.

I did one sentence at a time and did once voice , then the other.

Have no idea how Kevin rocketed through his !

For the second one , am a bit faster now.

Just take your time !

Watch Dan's videos again - link on the Wiki under Tutorials


 

[gerry]

This is a great calling and I think exposes the REAL power of xlights and that is the easy sharing...

Alan

Hi Alan ,
As in sharing the workload or sharing the results ? 

[Gilrock]

Yeah the dictionary import is like 12-15 seconds on my desktop which is a fairly fast machine.  I'd like someday to provide better busy status for all of our operations that take a lot time.