Expressive Character Performances | Runway Academy

Key Takeaways

Welcome to Runway Academy. Today we're going to create expressive character performances using Act 2. From a generative session, you can access Act 2 from the video tab. Then load in or record your driving performance video in the top slot and add a character image or video in the bottom slot. You'll get the best results out of Act 2 if your driving performance video and your character are facing the same general direction and taking up similar screen space. If you're standing too far away or facing the wrong direction, your results may vary. As a pro tip, you can easily correct your character's pose and eyline by quickly running it through references. Before we generate our first video, let's open up the settings. First, we have our facial expressiveness slider, which lets you dial up or down the expressiveness of your character performance output. Lower values will tame the expressiveness, while higher values will amplify it. The gestures toggle, which is on by default, will capture your body gestures, including your hands, for your character performance. If your character input has visible hands, make sure that your hands are also visible in the driving video to achieve the best results. [Laughter] With Act Two, you now have the power of performance on your side, including more support for animated characters and non-human characters, all with a much higher level of consistency and a much more diverse range of styles than was possible in Act One. We can't wait to see what you make with Act 2. If you need some additional support, make sure to check out the help articles or head over to Discord to see how our creative community is using Act 2. If you need to ask us a question directly, you can always use this button on your dashboard at any time. [Music]