Hi Animaze Community! [h3]Today’s release introduces 4 amazing new features: Personas, Backgrounds with Overlays, Lighting Customizations, and 2 forms of audio-based lipsync![/h3] [h3][u][b]Backgrounds with Overlays (and Animations)!:[/b][/u][/h3] Use new backgrounds that include elements both in front of and behind your avatar. Place your avatar in a podcast booth, a streaming setup (with gaming chair and microphone), and more without having to create custom images or setup layers in OBS! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//38657414/5bb5ab5c714cf559d1580afdd0af0865a3fc9261.png[/img] These new backgrounds also support animated elements powered by Live2D, including: [list] [*] Loopable animations integrated into the background [*] Background elements linked to your avatar’s movements [*] Special actions that trigger visual changes in the background [/list] Check out these new backgrounds with overlays to drop your avatar into a variety of scenes with 1 click! We are releasing an update to the Animaze Editor in a few days that allows you to create your very own backgrounds with overlays. More information can be found [url=https://www.animaze.us/faq/animazedesktop/overlaybackgrounds]here[/url]. [h3][u][b]Personas: [/b][/u][/h3]Easily create your very own human avatar within Animaze! Customize your Persona by selecting from a wide variety of facial features like hairstyles, eye shape, skin tone, and clothing! This is our very first release of Personas on PC, so let us know what you think! More information available [url=https://www.animaze.us/faq/animazedesktop/desktoppersonas]here[/url] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//38657414/d7a244c09ab034fee6092b5f9c5b58bd2934ee20.png[/img] [h3][u][b]Lighting Customization:[/b][/u][/h3] Customize the lighting in each one of your backgrounds to give your avatar a unique look that matches their setting! Use one of 7 presets (including Cyberpunk, Hell, or 3 point light), or create your own custom lighting setup with up to 4 lights. Control color and intensity to bring your settings to life! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//38657414/5a15dd3c73d215aaa3b5edd92bdfbc8f021d700e.jpg[/img] [h3][u][b]Audio Based Lip-Sync (Subscriber-only Feature):[/b][/u][/h3] All Plus and VIP subscribers now have access to not one, but two types of audio-based lip sync! Audio based lip sync uses advanced sound processing to animate your avatar’s mouth to match the sound of your speech. Use audio based lip sync in conjunction with your webcam to get even more accurate mouth animations, or on it’s own to animate your avatar’s mouth if you don’t have a webcam! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//38657414/ef1f6a7ecd0e0d5d9b6bed28f25083c0c36f4b49.png[/img] Go to [b]Animaze → Settings → Advanced Tracking Configuration[/b] to enable either audio-based lipsync option (only one can be enabled at a time) [list] [*] Complex: Best for 3D avatars, or 2D avatars with detailed facial rigs. [*] Simple: Best for 2D avatars (uses less resources than complex tracker) [/list] Here’s a list of smaller fixes and updates included in today’s build: [list] [*] Most panels (e.g. Avatar & Prop galleries) are now resizable [*] Added a ‘Headphones’ category for props - you can now use headphones and an additional hat item at the same time! [*] Added new backgrounds, props, and voice effects [*] Added a button in Settings → Video Graphics called ‘Open Advanced Camera Dialog.’ If you have a 60FPS-capable webcam (such as a Logitech c920 series), click this button and disable the ‘low light compensation’ option to unlock 60FPS within Animaze. [*] Default webcam settings will select the highest FPS supported by your webcam [*] Avatar position and rotation are no longer reset after saving customizations [*] Tweaks and improvements to physics [*] Fixed a crash when removing and re-attaching props [*] Fixed crash related to iPhone bridge connection [*] Fixed multiple crashes related to props [*] Lots of under the hood fixes, tweaks, and optimizations! [/list] Let us know what you think about all the new features, and tell us what you’d like to see added to Animaze next! Join our [u][b][url=animaze.tv/discord]Discord server[/url][/b][/u], email us at [u][b]support@animaze.us[/b][/u], or message us on [u][b][url=animaze.tv/twitter]Twitter[/url][/b][/u]! Happy Streaming, The Holotech Team [u]Known Issues:[/u] [list] [*] Audio-based lip sync does not work if you are broadcasting with the virtual camera [b][u]and [/u][/b]you have the Animaze Virtual Microphone installed on your PC (e.g. for voice effects). You do not have the Animaze Virtual Microphone installed unless you have manually navigated to the Animaze\Bin\prerequisites\AnimazeVirtualMicrophone folder and double clicked the install.bat file. This issue will be fixed in a future update. [*] Personas do not support hats and headphones. FYI - we will be adding more clothing options in future updates. [*] Modifying the textures on default hairstyles on personas doesn't get saved. We will be working on a fix in future updates. For now, we have the following work around: change the hairstyle and go back to the default one. After this go change the texture and then go back to the style you wanted. [/list]