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We've had a lot of requests for tips on making still images of objects and animals talk. Not only do they want them to talk, but they want them to talk cheap!

This tutorial isn't meant to produce a high quality talking image. No, not even close to as good as that creepy talking baby on the Quiznos commercials. This is one of those tutorials that you'll refer back to when your client wants you to make a talking dog and they need it in 45 minutes. Fast, cheap or good... pick two. Okay. Fast and cheap.

And who knew that The Statue of Liberty is no American Idol!

*Note: You can use the standard version of After Effects if you have Cycore FX. Download a Free Demo of Cycore FX. Cycore Effects is included on the After Effects Pro installer disk.

Instructions

Import your elements

1. Create a new project in After Effects.
2. Import an audio file (File > Import). For the best results, have only a single voice in your audio file, or if you do have music, make sure you have split channels and your audio is alone on a channel.
3. Import an image that you want to make talk. The best images will have a mouth that is a straight line and not curved. Mine is at the Statue of Liberty and an odd size of 565x424. Make sure your image is large enough to fill your screen or that you have an alpha channel that will work for your project.
4. Both your audio file and image should be in your Project window. Select them both by shift+clicking them and drag them down to the "Create a new Composition" Icon. It is the third from the left.
   
   In the New Composition from Selection dialog box, choose "Single Composition". Under options, you can choose either. I prefer to select my audio from the pulldown menu because it will make the composition the duration that I need. It will make your composition the dimensions of your photo, whether that's the dimension that you need or not.
   
   Change the size or the duration of your composition by opening Composition Settings (command+K/ctrl+K).
5. Scale your image to fit your comp as necessary.
6. Now we'll generate keyframes from the audio. Go to Animation > Keyframe Assistant > Convert audio to keyframes.
   It will take a minute, but a null object will be created called "Audio Amplitude".
   
   In your composition window, the null object will appear as a red outlined box with an anchor point in the upper right corner.
7. Select your image layer. Apply Final Effects Split or CC Split . If you're looking for CC Split , look under Effects > Distort > CC Split 2. If you have Final Effects, it's under FE Distort > FE Split .
8. If you do not see the Effect Controls window, make sure your image layer is selected and tap the E key. This will toggle the effect. Double-click the Split effect.
   
   Click on the cross hairs for Point A and click on your image to the left side of the mouth. Click Point B in your Effect Controls window and click on the right side of the mouth. These can be adjusted any time, just make sure that the Split effect is highlighted in your timeline or in your Effect Controls window.
9. In the timeline, select the Audio Amplitude layer. Click the U key (über key). This will bring up all of the keyframed parameters on sliders on the layer. You'll see keyframes in three places: Left Channel, Right Channel and Both Channels.
10. Select the image layer and tap the E key to bring up the Split effect. Option-click the stopwatch next to Split. This will add an Expression to Split.
    
    See the little swirl on the button next to the Expression? Click and drag that to one of the sliders on the Audio Amplitude layer. Which slider to choose will depend on which audio channel has your voice track. My audio track is mixed so I chose Both Channels.
    
11. Do a quick RAM Preview to see how the movement of the mouth appears. To RAM Preview, click the button to the right side of the Time Controls palette.
    
    Quick tip: In a hurry? To load every other frame, hold down the shift key as you click the RAM Preview button.
12. If you're not seeing much movement on screen, it is because the audio levels are low. This is easy to fix by modifying the Expression. This is how I modified my Expression:

    thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider")*20 

    
    This multiplies the value by 50. Try a few numbers and see what works for you. If it's too much movement, try dividing the value by 2 by adding

    thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider")/2 

    Adjust to taste.
13. RAM Preview again. You may notice that the position of your slit isn't quite right. The easiest way to do this is to go to a point in your timeline where the mouth is wide open. Nudge it into place by moving Point A and Point B.
    
14. To change your background color, which may be showing through the mouth split. Composition > Background Color and pick your hue. I chose a dark green with the eyedropper from a shadow on the statue.
15. To give the mouth a bit of depth, apply Channel Blur. Blur > Channel Blur. Set alpha blurriness to 12 or whatever looks good. If your split shows black though, the Channel Blur is not necessary.
16. If your mouth is too curved to use the Split effect, try Split 2, which gives you two splits. Overlap the two splits to your curved mouth and follow the same technique, pick whipping both Splits to the audio keyframes.