I get really frustrated when trying you research tutorials on RUclips. Half the time they spend 90% of it going over stuff that's not at all relevant to the name of the video and I find myself skimming through the video to find what I was looking for. This video was gold! Perfect to a T
Dave, you’re such an asset to the burgeoning Character Animator community. Thank you for making these high quality tutorials, tips vids and generally sharing your experience with us all. 🙌
This is wonderful. It's so helpful to have a top down view of the process from beginning to end. I've watched every video ever released on this channel, made tons of puppets and cartoons and I still get lost at times. These "birds eye view" videos really help especially with the constantly changing ( that is to say "improving " ) features. Thank you Mr Samurai. You're an Okay guy!
Totally useful tutorial!!!! I always roll my eyes whenever there's a video that's really long.... But you just get right into it and get to the points right away... No fluff, no unnecessary chatter... I'm impressed. Every minute is packed with details that count... You demystified it for all of us that always wanted to animate but couldn't deal with some of those other programs. Thank you so much!!!
This is so helpful. Thank you for including and not cutting out when there's glitches and showing how to fix those. I've only watched this one video and I feel like I'm ready to make a whole cartoon series!
Thank you so much for this massive help!! I am using Adobe Character for an e e-learning course which we have to create in university. I am making a course for kids and it's amazing what I am now able to do! I've never thought I would be able to do this, but now my first character is created and she looks like little me which is stunning! I am sure the other course members will be blown away! Without this video I would never ever have been able to do this!
Just started using Adobe Character Animator. Fantastic tutorial about character rigging! Hoping to manipulate one of the pre-designed puppets soon, and create my own animated puppet. Thank you :)
I'm feeling less scared of Illustrator thanks to this video. I need to jump in and get over my Photoshop dependency. Also, I really liked seeing this whole process in real-time. Thanks Dave!
That tutorial is so clear, so you can easily understand how things work tougher. Stuff like this for sb who knows a little something but needs to learn a whole new world to get something out of it. Brilliant channel!
Thank you for the help Dave, your tutorials and quick response blow my mind. Thank you for all your hard work!! (I did have the wrong file after all. I was using the one from your website, not the one under Pro mode on Adobe.) THANKS AGAIN!!!
The Tutorials are some of the best I have seen. PLEASE make your cursor bigger to make it easier for us older folks to follow 🙏🏻. Thanks for everything!
Thank You so much for this tutorial! I was terrified about learning this program but your videos are so to the point and clear it makes it fun and easy! Much appreciated!
My goodness. This information for me is vital. I'm going to began making "animated shorts" about my life adventures. Thank you so much for sharing this information. I have a lot of studying and practicing to do!!! 🔥🔥🔥✊🏾👍🏾👌🏾
your videos are amazing and detailed best by far I have come across, but I simply do not have the patience to learn every aspect of this still subbed though I can tell you genuinely care when putting your videos together
If you change the name of something in Illustrator, it can potentially erase the rigging because CH can't keep track of the new layer anymore. However, you can change a name in CH Rig mode by selecting the layer and pressing enter to rename - that shouldn't mess up anything.
You know, I was absolutely ready to use adobe Animate. I watched hours of tutorials, I don't even have a laptop yet, then, I watched a cartoon called Bob in Space, an amateur made cartoon using character animator and was blown away with the end result and how fast it was made. I'm after watching this tutorial 3 times and many others that you've done and have come to the conclusion that Character animator, using Adobe illustrator is definitely the way to go. You make it look extremely easy to use and break it down into easy to understand steps. Thank you very much for your tutorials. Once I get my laptop I will 100% be using this combo. Amazing. Quick question, I have a lot of my characters already drawn in Adobe illustrator draw (the free app). Can I import these PNG images into illustrator CC and rig them as is, or, will I need to draw them from scratch in Illustrator CC.
For Illustrator, CH is looking for an AI or EPS file, so if you can export like that you should be set (but you'll want to isolate and organize your parts according to the CH tagging hierarchy). Otherwise you could export out PNG parts and piece them together in AI or PS. It's been a while since I've used Draw so I don't remember all the export capabilities it has.
Just checked, it has the option to export directly to AI or PS. That's great news. Saves me a lot of time re drawing characters. Thanks for the quick reply. I hope to see more tutorials from you down the line. As of now, your channel is now my go to for how to. 😊
What are the advantages of creating the puppet on Photoshop over Illustrator? Since Illustrator is vector based, it just seems like a better idea in order to able to resize any character freely.
Love your channel dude! These tutorials are a great resource. Detailed, to the point, with no fluff! (Side Note: Thank God you don't have that annoying "strain to poop" voice like other channels I know 😁)
I have characters that I've drawn myself on paper and want to know if there's a way that I can bring them into Photoshop or Illustrator and make them into a puppet. I've been watching your videos lately but haven't seen a video on that particular feat. Loving the easy instructions and details these videos bring. Really driving me more to get my cartoon off the ground. Thanks!!
@@lindymartin8425 I'm still new with Adobe lingo, so that's probably why it's a bit confusing for me lol but I'm more of a hands on learner, so I'll take your words and try my best. Thanks!
@@lindymartin8425 OMG I just took your advice and looked up the Adobe Capture app and found a video on it! Thank you sososososososo much for your help!! This will make my cartoons 10x better now!!
Do you prefer fresco or illustrator for creating puppets?? And I’ve Been binging your videos while I cram all this knowledge into a week! Thanks for always getting back to me!
You know, it really depends on the style of character I'm going for. I really love the hand drawn look, and for that it's hard to beat Fresco. But when I do more flat, cel-shaded type characters, I go with Illustrator. I have more fun drawing in Fresco, but I love the vector tools of Illustrator.
Walking is possible (see ruclips.net/video/gv_2Upvtm-M/видео.html ) - but because this character is facing forward instead of sideways, it would take a little more work to get them walking (you would need to adjust the facial features, arms, and legs to be facing more towards the sides). A lot of work but not impossible!
Unfortunately my full-time job at Adobe prevents me from taking on outside projects. But I recommend checking out our community Character Animator users page, where hopefully you’ll find someone with the style and skillset you’re looking for: www.adobe.com/go/ch_examples_thirdparty_en
Hi Dave! I am stuck in this situation (I hope I can describe it properly) I have a puppet which I want her head to be moving (e.g. rotatable). She has a long hair, so this is the layer I made: (by order) 1. Head (everything but the back hair) 2. Body 3. Back Hair If I apply transform behavior to the head, the back hair will not be affected, which is not something I want. I want both the head and the back hair using the same transform behavior. I tried to apply another transform behavior to the Back Hair layer and do the same transformation (e.g. the same 9 degree rotation), but the result is not the same, like there was a space/gap between them. Probably due to the center/pivot point? If I move the Back Hair layer into the same Head layer, it will cause some part of the Back Hair (it's a long hair) will cover the body and cause her to look like a moslem woman. If I put together everything in one layer, well, of course, the body will also move following the transform behavior, which something I don't want to have. I tried to put everything together in one layer (with the exact same layer order) and then made the Body layer as Independent, thinking it will not move following the other layers in that same layer which the body is, but the body was still moving following the applied Transform behavior. How can I get around on this?
Yeah, normally this would work if the Head behavior is controlling the head and connected back hair, not the Transform behavior. If you do Transform on the head then you probably want to get rid of or severely limit the Head behavior on that. And yeah, to get everything to move in unison you would need the origins to be in the same spot and have the same settings. If you still need help please post your puppet or a screenshot/video to adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more direct help!
@@okaysamurai Hi Dave! I got another question, which I will also post on the forum. Have you watched South Park? I believe you have, they are hilarious I noticed there are lines between the arms and the body (to distinguish the arms from the body) when the arms are resting at "A" position. When the arms move, thus not overlapping the body, the lines will disappear (unlike outline which will always follow), and if the arms overlap the body, the line will be there to distinguish the arms from the body again (even when not in the "A" rest position, like when doing hand movements, the lines are still there every time the arms overlap the body). Do you know how to make the same effect in Character Animator?
You could do this with just not doing dragger for the arms and just doing triggered arm swaps instead - just take away the lines from the triggered arm positions. That kind of clunky style might look great for the effect you're going for!
Hi there! Excellent video. I have a question...It appears that a function no longer exists in the 2020 version of Illustrator that affects the making of the character's eyelid. At 18:50 you discuss copying the eyeball, placing a rectangle over it, selecting both shapes and then under Pathfinder using the "Minus front" option. That function no longer seems to be present. Minus back and all the others are. Is there a way you can suggest to go about making the eyelid (other than pen tool for us pen-tool-challenged folk)? I tried reversing the positions of the eyeball and rectangle and then selected "Minus back", but it didn't work.
Are any of the Home screen example characters talking, or it it just Blank that isn't? If your mic icon is blue and you see a green signal next to it, and the lip sync behavior is armed red, it should be working...
I mentioned in your other comment - I just checked and it's working for me - make sure in the camera panel that your mic icon is blue and you're seeing a green signal next to it. If not, go into your app preferences and try changing the input device.
Love it! Just got the programs, complete noob though so I'm trying to follow along with this video :) Do you have any videos on how to do a goatee on a male puppet? I tried but just end up blacking out most of the face :(
You would want to make a new layer inside your head group and just draw out a goatee with the pen tool. Illustrator can be tricky - might be worth checking out some other channels to nail down some basics first.
A really easy going toturial, love it ☀️ Only downside is that the programme can't change your voice and I did have trouble about delete a scene and after downloading Maybe just beginner mistakes that this video don't cover
Adobe Audition or other audio apps can change your voice. We don't recommend doing it until after lip sync because the variations could create inaccurate results. To delete a scene, just select it in the project panel and press delete.
Hello! After I went to do my edits , my changes showed up in rig mode but not back in record mode. 24:41 , do you know how to fix this? this video has been very helpful so far thank you so much.
Make sure that "Auto-Sync With Artwork" is checked on the right when you select a puppet. And make sure the scene is referencing the correct puppet and art file, not a copy or earlier version. If it persists, please post a screenshot, video, or File > Export > Puppet (.puppet file) to adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more help.
If this character was in more of a 3/4 or profile view, then yes. As it is, straight on is not great for left/right walking. The Walk tutorial covers this a little more. ruclips.net/video/gv_2Upvtm-M/видео.html
Pretty please if you can help with the following dilemma I would be very grateful! With a typical puppet layout, such as Chloe you have the head folder, and the body folder. Chloe has an issue though where the hair comes behind the chin in front of the neck and makes it look as if she's got a beard! Let's say I need the arms n body to be in front of the face, but still need the neck to be behind the face and in front of the long back hair to avoid the beard thing, should I place the neck in the head folder? I noticed the Wizard Girl has a looser structure closer to want I want and could work as a reference, since you can place layers the way you want with neck sandwitched correctly without the typical body head folders. BUT the problem is If I were to design something with head turns, I would then need to group all the elements in one face folder n tag those to the different head turn views based on all your tutorials. But given some layers fall in front of the neck and some behind, can you still tag random layers which are not part of the same head folder to form the different face views such as left quarter, frontal, right quarter etc..? Or would I need to place the neck in the different head folders every time? Not sure if the question is clear sorry. Hope you can help out!
Notice how Chloe has a "hair" layer that is under the body group. If this is at the same level as Head and Body, it will move with the character's movements as one mesh. So although the head/body method is the easiest to start with, you can play around with putting elements outside of them. In your situation I would recommend putting the Body group in front of the Head group, and put the hair behind it just like Chloe. With head turns, yes, you would need to have a new neck / behind hair for each view if you wanted it to change with each view - otherwise, you could just put your neck and behind hair under the hair group and keep it in one place during the turns.
@@okaysamurai Altho the neck is mostly the same, yes the hair changes slightly with each face turn so I guess I can't put it at the back n leave it there. Will try to have the neck and the hair in each head folder then, will see how that goes. I hope it won't affect how the face moves around since the neck will become part of the head. Thanks for your help! Much love xoxo.
First thank you a jillion, idk what we'd do without you. I'm learning with someone else remotely and we're working on a very short cartoon. He's more an illustrator and most of these resources are for photoshop. Anyway I'm finding that the "blank" character is actually blank it doesn't seem to contain the olive skinned plank person seen here. Is that right? My partner would really like the reference images to build from I think it helps a lot. Is there not a file with that "blank" body anymore, but just empty layers?
The Blank listed a couple of rows down on adobe.com/go/chexamples should be the right one...maybe they accidentally did the blank templates on adobe.com/go/chresources?
@@okaysamurai Thank you so much for the help! This is insanely fun and starting to work almost every time I get them imported now. another question if you don't mind, sorry. I see in this tutorial you're not using the plus signs in the layering in the file anymore. I'm used to building the independence states into the puppet, is that not necessary anymore? do you recommend NOT doing that anymore and then setting it with crowns from within CH now? It's not mentioned here but for consistencies sake I've been trying to always follow that convention in PS puppets. Like if it's possible to NOT do that (plusses in the build) maybe it gives me more flexibilty to change it quicker from within CH?
Download the Blank character Illustrator puppet shown here, import into CH, go to Edit > Edit Original, and delete everything except Sad Mouth and Mouth at the top - voila, an Illustrator mouth file. There's a basic set at the bottom of adobe.com/go/chexamples as well.
@@okaysamurai Thanks brilliant - For any one following Dave's tutorials. Just to highlight the MASSIVE benefit of using Illustrator for your puppets is scalability. Long, mid and Close up shots are all possible from a single puppet without any form of image degradation.
PS Dave - My next video is a song. A love song for narcissists. It is the first video of mine I feel may be good enough / eligible for one of your community reviews. I will send a pre release version the week after next. It is called #PLIM (Perfect Love Is Me).
Just make a new layer inside the head. Anything you put inside the head group will move with the head. So if you wanted to add glasses, earrings, a mustache, etc - just add it as a new layer inside the head.
@@okaysamurai I know the tutorial above is using Illustrator, but I'm currently using photoshop which I know Character Animator is compatible with both. I'm making a video with Harry Potter and I added hair, glasses, and the lightning bolt as a png (Originally found them as JPG but I used photoshop to mask the background and export as a png). Thing is, the animation is broken. It doesn't move the pupil or eye or head correctly anymore. Not sure what I did wrong
My guess is that the items were put outside of the head, or in the eye group, or something similar. If you remove them and the head and eyes work again, that's probably it - I would remove them and then add them back in one by one, checking in CH each time if it breaks things or not. If it persists, please post a screenshot, video, or File > Export > Puppet (.puppet file) to adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more help.
You have been my go to guy for Character Animator 4EVER. This tutorial is so great as it covers so many basic tips and since you start with a Blank Character it is a lot easier for my students to avoid so many of the mistakes we have had in the past when I tried to instruct them how too make a character from scratch, even when using the original template file and Template Mouths. However, this time, for some reason, we have an issue with the head movement after adding features to the face.Every thing was moving fluidly before. We all came back to Record Mode and now our heads are not working. When we move our heads the puppet head remain static. We tried some basic fixes but cannot pinpoint what went wrong in our behaviors or layers. I recently updated to the latest version. This has never happened before. Any words of wisdom?
I think I just responded to you in the forums?... If you can post or DM me there with a File > Export > Puppet there I can try to diagnose what the issue is. Probably a simple fix.
@@okaysamurai Yes I did get your reply in the forums. Thank you so much. You have been doing this for so long and have put so much energy and care into Character Animator and you still have time to reach out and help. Your enthusiasm is contagious and I just love this app.
Nevermind hahaha I decided to put it in the face background layer and made it using the pen tool. Now gotta figure out how to make glasses or sunglasses
Hi Dave. thanks for the great tutorial. Can we do a little more complex animations such as sitting, jumping, flying...in adobe character animator? thanks in advanced.
You can, although at this stage I'd say it's not as common. For example, you could add draggable or transform tags to any limb and move them, so if you wanted a character to do all that stuff, you could record a performance moving the limbs to get there. I think this will become easier and more intuitive in the future though!
I get really frustrated when trying you research tutorials on RUclips. Half the time they spend 90% of it going over stuff that's not at all relevant to the name of the video and I find myself skimming through the video to find what I was looking for. This video was gold! Perfect to a T
Yees exactly!
Dave, you’re such an asset to the burgeoning Character Animator community. Thank you for making these high quality tutorials, tips vids and generally sharing your experience with us all. 🙌
Dave, is it possible to use a character as a template to them edit its features into a new character?
This channel is absolute gold , i cant wait to get started
me to
i cant wait to start
me too !! ❤🙏🏾
Yeah pure gold he explains so clearly and motivates me too do it like now, awesome awesome🥺😍
Weird kid : well ya got somethin right before this puppet robot is made out of gold well at least it looks like it…
Same I cant wait to get starteddd
For anyone looking, the Blank character is now under pro puppets (as of 8/31/23)
I can't find "pro puppets"
@@Crymsa Ne Neither
I found it, Go to pro and then click on Browse Pro Puppets
This is wonderful. It's so helpful to have a top down view of the process from beginning to end. I've watched every video ever released on this channel, made tons of puppets and cartoons and I still get lost at times. These "birds eye view" videos really help especially with the constantly changing ( that is to say "improving " ) features. Thank you Mr Samurai. You're an Okay guy!
5 mins in and I am already mind-blown with the number of things I didnt realise I could do!! So cool.
I make my puppets with Ps but there was so much to learn from this video....thank you for this amazing tutorial!
Totally useful tutorial!!!! I always roll my eyes whenever there's a video that's really long.... But you just get right into it and get to the points right away... No fluff, no unnecessary chatter... I'm impressed. Every minute is packed with details that count... You demystified it for all of us that always wanted to animate but couldn't deal with some of those other programs. Thank you so much!!!
This is so helpful. Thank you for including and not cutting out when there's glitches and showing how to fix those. I've only watched this one video and I feel like I'm ready to make a whole cartoon series!
Thank you so much for this massive help!!
I am using Adobe Character for an e e-learning course which we have to create in university. I am making a course for kids and it's amazing what I am now able to do! I've never thought I would be able to do this, but now my first character is created and she looks like little me which is stunning! I am sure the other course members will be blown away!
Without this video I would never ever have been able to do this!
That's great to hear, made my day - thanks!
You have helped me so much Dave. I'm learning slowly and my character is getting better every week! Thanks for everything. You are awesome!
Nice to know this takes weeks. I am just starting.
Just started using Adobe Character Animator. Fantastic tutorial about character rigging! Hoping to manipulate one of the pre-designed puppets soon, and create my own animated puppet.
Thank you :)
I'm feeling less scared of Illustrator thanks to this video. I need to jump in and get over my Photoshop dependency. Also, I really liked seeing this whole process in real-time. Thanks Dave!
Haha, it's funny, cause I am pretty confident with illustrator but always shied away from Photoshop. Good luck, hope it goes well.
That tutorial is so clear, so you can easily understand how things work tougher. Stuff like this for sb who knows a little something but needs to learn a whole new world to get something out of it. Brilliant channel!
That was beautiful, man. Thank you SO much!
whatched it over a 3 days already over and over again and consume a hundred cup of coffee,thanks bro,still watching it right now,ggrrrr.....
Your dedication to helping people is amazing, thank you so much !
Thank you for the help Dave, your tutorials and quick response blow my mind. Thank you for all your hard work!! (I did have the wrong file after all. I was using the one from your website, not the one under Pro mode on Adobe.) THANKS AGAIN!!!
The Tutorials are some of the best I have seen. PLEASE make your cursor bigger to make it easier for us older folks to follow 🙏🏻. Thanks for everything!
Been putting off learning CA, but now I love it and have made my first character! This has been great during these crazy times. Ty!
you are awesome, thank you so much!
Thank You so much for this tutorial! I was terrified about learning this program but your videos are so to the point and clear it makes it fun and easy! Much appreciated!
I’ve been hooked on all your videos! Thanks for your clarity.
Omg that was amazing, I’m totally new to this and this tutorial was definitely the best! I learned so much! Thank you thank you
Your tutorials are amazing! They are all that one needs to get started!
My goodness. This information for me is vital. I'm going to began making "animated shorts" about my life adventures. Thank you so much for sharing this information. I have a lot of studying and practicing to do!!! 🔥🔥🔥✊🏾👍🏾👌🏾
I love you right now. I'm going to make whole animated movie because of u 💯💯💯💯💯💯
Incredibly useful, thank you!
This is awesome, Been meaning to dive into Character Animator for a while.
I'll add some of my notes here:
37:00 Independent hair movements
58:00 fixing shoulder movement
Thankyou so much for all the efforts that you've put in. It is because of your channel that i could complete my project well.
Thankyou!
I love your channel! Im a newbie when it comes to animation, and your videos helped me so much!!
Very helpful. Thanks😊
I appreciate the work you do. I enjoy long-form tutorials and think you do a great job...probably my favorite next to Andrew Kramer. Take care.
Fantastic tutorial-thanks!
I would like to thank you the Tutorials. I've learned a lot from these videos. Absolute Top. Respect!
your videos are amazing and detailed best by far I have come across, but I simply do not have the patience to learn every aspect of this
still subbed though I can tell you genuinely care when putting your videos together
Adobe ChA team is lucky to have people like you mate, thanks :)
Thank you! I actually needed half of this to get most of what I need for my simple rig! Great job!! Thank you so much!
I’m SO excited to see this tutorial. I’ve been following character animator since Beta and this tutorial knocks it out of the park! THANK YOU.
im glad youre still making videos, these are so helpful thanks
Best tutorial ever!!! Thanks a lot 🙏🏻
best channel ever obviously !!!!!!!!!!
Installed, everything works, thanks!
This is so exciting. I feel like anything is possible. Thank you for sharing.
Great job Dave. So helpful & well thought out. I need to find someone like you for After Effects & Premiere!
Thanks. Try Video Copilot for AE and Premiere Gal for PR!
Fantastic video - love your teaching style
Excellent
Thank you so much for all the work you do on these. It really has been a lot of fun learning to use this program and your videos are a godsend!
this was really helpful. followed the entire tutorial!
So basic and so helpful! I like to go back to videos like this that show workflow and remind me that kinks happen (and its not just me :p)
I use the product every day and still run into kinks! It happens. :)
Thanks man for that great tutorial
Thank you so much for creating this valuable content!
This is so cool. I am definitely gonna learn about it.
Just need few more days to complete it.
Great video that helps me
I am very new to this so this may be a dumb question, but how do you go about saving them as new names? everytime I do it messes up everything
If you change the name of something in Illustrator, it can potentially erase the rigging because CH can't keep track of the new layer anymore. However, you can change a name in CH Rig mode by selecting the layer and pressing enter to rename - that shouldn't mess up anything.
@@okaysamurai thank you so much!!
@@okaysamurai I already had my character created, but not in CH. How can I make a CH file out of a .ai file?
File > Import. That will automatically turn it into a CH puppet, but you can then do File > Export > Puppet to get a .puppet file.
Very well explained
Great work 👍
Wow, you're a genius. It's really cool.
This is awesome! Very clear instructions and great tutorial. Thank you!
Thank you, this tutorial is gold. Much appreciated 😀
Good information I would love to learn more.
You know, I was absolutely ready to use adobe Animate. I watched hours of tutorials, I don't even have a laptop yet, then, I watched a cartoon called Bob in Space, an amateur made cartoon using character animator and was blown away with the end result and how fast it was made. I'm after watching this tutorial 3 times and many others that you've done and have come to the conclusion that Character animator, using Adobe illustrator is definitely the way to go. You make it look extremely easy to use and break it down into easy to understand steps. Thank you very much for your tutorials. Once I get my laptop I will 100% be using this combo. Amazing. Quick question, I have a lot of my characters already drawn in Adobe illustrator draw (the free app). Can I import these PNG images into illustrator CC and rig them as is, or, will I need to draw them from scratch in Illustrator CC.
For Illustrator, CH is looking for an AI or EPS file, so if you can export like that you should be set (but you'll want to isolate and organize your parts according to the CH tagging hierarchy). Otherwise you could export out PNG parts and piece them together in AI or PS. It's been a while since I've used Draw so I don't remember all the export capabilities it has.
Just checked, it has the option to export directly to AI or PS. That's great news. Saves me a lot of time re drawing characters. Thanks for the quick reply. I hope to see more tutorials from you down the line. As of now, your channel is now my go to for how to. 😊
What are the advantages of creating the puppet on Photoshop over Illustrator?
Since Illustrator is vector based, it just seems like a better idea in order to able to resize any character freely.
Either works - there is no real performance gain from either one, so I just tell people to go with what they feel comfortable with.
So wonderful tutorial!!! This is really so much helpful. Thank you sooooo much~~~~ !! Have goood day~~~
Love your channel dude! These tutorials are a great resource. Detailed, to the point, with no fluff! (Side Note: Thank God you don't have that annoying "strain to poop" voice like other channels I know 😁)
Thanks and HAHAHA I know exactly what you're talking about!
Thanks really helps a lot.
Sweeeeeeet! Yo! Thanks so much for all you do to teach people 😁😁😁 gonna watch this in full after work and take notes
I have characters that I've drawn myself on paper and want to know if there's a way that I can bring them into Photoshop or Illustrator and make them into a puppet. I've been watching your videos lately but haven't seen a video on that particular feat. Loving the easy instructions and details these videos bring. Really driving me more to get my cartoon off the ground. Thanks!!
Have you tried using the Adobe Capture app to turn it into vector images to import into illustrator?
@@lindymartin8425 honestly, I don't even have a clue what any of that even means but I'll try and give it a shot. Thanks!
It took me a little while but there should be videos on it on youtube. Best of luck!
@@lindymartin8425 I'm still new with Adobe lingo, so that's probably why it's a bit confusing for me lol but I'm more of a hands on learner, so I'll take your words and try my best. Thanks!
@@lindymartin8425 OMG I just took your advice and looked up the Adobe Capture app and found a video on it! Thank you sososososososo much for your help!! This will make my cartoons 10x better now!!
This video helped me a lot on my university assignments 😭 thank you a lot
Do you prefer fresco or illustrator for creating puppets?? And I’ve Been binging your videos while I cram all this knowledge into a week! Thanks for always getting back to me!
You know, it really depends on the style of character I'm going for. I really love the hand drawn look, and for that it's hard to beat Fresco. But when I do more flat, cel-shaded type characters, I go with Illustrator. I have more fun drawing in Fresco, but I love the vector tools of Illustrator.
Is their anyway to use a turnaround sheet in this, so when I turn my head C.A will switch to different parts of the turnaround sheet?
Yep! ruclips.net/video/g1wbw6-7zM4/видео.html
I followed the video detail by detail you're awesome!! im only wondering if its possible to make this format WALK??? thanks again
Walking is possible (see ruclips.net/video/gv_2Upvtm-M/видео.html ) - but because this character is facing forward instead of sideways, it would take a little more work to get them walking (you would need to adjust the facial features, arms, and legs to be facing more towards the sides). A lot of work but not impossible!
@@okaysamurai bro you are a bonafide saint. A noble Lord. I was sad there were no natively black ch puppets. You're the best dude. thank you.
could I pay you to send you a template and you send it back as a walking, talking machine?
Unfortunately my full-time job at Adobe prevents me from taking on outside projects. But I recommend checking out our community Character Animator users page, where hopefully you’ll find someone with the style and skillset you’re looking for: www.adobe.com/go/ch_examples_thirdparty_en
Thank you, it works perfect!
Hi Dave!
I am stuck in this situation (I hope I can describe it properly)
I have a puppet which I want her head to be moving (e.g. rotatable). She has a long hair, so this is the layer I made:
(by order)
1. Head (everything but the back hair)
2. Body
3. Back Hair
If I apply transform behavior to the head, the back hair will not be affected, which is not something I want. I want both the head and the back hair using the same transform behavior. I tried to apply another transform behavior to the Back Hair layer and do the same transformation (e.g. the same 9 degree rotation), but the result is not the same, like there was a space/gap between them. Probably due to the center/pivot point?
If I move the Back Hair layer into the same Head layer, it will cause some part of the Back Hair (it's a long hair) will cover the body and cause her to look like a moslem woman.
If I put together everything in one layer, well, of course, the body will also move following the transform behavior, which something I don't want to have.
I tried to put everything together in one layer (with the exact same layer order) and then made the Body layer as Independent, thinking it will not move following the other layers in that same layer which the body is, but the body was still moving following the applied Transform behavior.
How can I get around on this?
Yeah, normally this would work if the Head behavior is controlling the head and connected back hair, not the Transform behavior. If you do Transform on the head then you probably want to get rid of or severely limit the Head behavior on that. And yeah, to get everything to move in unison you would need the origins to be in the same spot and have the same settings. If you still need help please post your puppet or a screenshot/video to adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more direct help!
@@okaysamurai
I want to make South Park-style head movement when the character is speaking. No dangle or webcam.
@@okaysamurai
Hi Dave! I got another question, which I will also post on the forum.
Have you watched South Park? I believe you have, they are hilarious
I noticed there are lines between the arms and the body (to distinguish the arms from the body) when the arms are resting at "A" position. When the arms move, thus not overlapping the body, the lines will disappear (unlike outline which will always follow), and if the arms overlap the body, the line will be there to distinguish the arms from the body again (even when not in the "A" rest position, like when doing hand movements, the lines are still there every time the arms overlap the body). Do you know how to make the same effect in Character Animator?
You could do this with just not doing dragger for the arms and just doing triggered arm swaps instead - just take away the lines from the triggered arm positions. That kind of clunky style might look great for the effect you're going for!
@@okaysamurai Then it means I have to designed every arm movements in Illustrator then?
Hi there! Excellent video. I have a question...It appears that a function no longer exists in the 2020 version of Illustrator that affects the making of the character's eyelid. At 18:50 you discuss copying the eyeball, placing a rectangle over it, selecting both shapes and then under Pathfinder using the "Minus front" option. That function no longer seems to be present. Minus back and all the others are. Is there a way you can suggest to go about making the eyelid (other than pen tool for us pen-tool-challenged folk)? I tried reversing the positions of the eyeball and rectangle and then selected "Minus back", but it didn't work.
Strange, I am still seeing Minus Front in my AI 2020. You can also try Effect > Pathfinder to get to more options.
I don't know why mine is not showing up in either place. Oh well, thank you for responding.
Amazing explanation good bro thanks
Thank you. You are an excellent teacher.
I downloaded the "blank" template but it doesn't look like the mouth is working. I did not make any updates or changes yet.
Are any of the Home screen example characters talking, or it it just Blank that isn't? If your mic icon is blue and you see a green signal next to it, and the lip sync behavior is armed red, it should be working...
same here, "Chad" works with no problems but the blank puppet mouth is not responding when I change my mouth shapes which should happen
@@okaysamurai Any thoughts? Chad is working fine in the same scene but blank does not respond to any mouth movements. Cheers
I mentioned in your other comment - I just checked and it's working for me - make sure in the camera panel that your mic icon is blue and you're seeing a green signal next to it. If not, go into your app preferences and try changing the input device.
Thank you for your videos, they are incredible helpful.
Dave, you're the best! Thanks for always producing such great tutorials, they're always easy to follow and I always learn a lot.
Love it! Just got the programs, complete noob though so I'm trying to follow along with this video :) Do you have any videos on how to do a goatee on a male puppet? I tried but just end up blacking out most of the face :(
You would want to make a new layer inside your head group and just draw out a goatee with the pen tool. Illustrator can be tricky - might be worth checking out some other channels to nail down some basics first.
A really easy going toturial, love it ☀️
Only downside is that the programme can't change your voice and I did have trouble about delete a scene and after downloading
Maybe just beginner mistakes that this video don't cover
Adobe Audition or other audio apps can change your voice. We don't recommend doing it until after lip sync because the variations could create inaccurate results.
To delete a scene, just select it in the project panel and press delete.
Awesome as always. You're a legend mate! 😁
Hello! After I went to do my edits , my changes showed up in rig mode but not back in record mode. 24:41 , do you know how to fix this? this video has been very helpful so far thank you so much.
Make sure that "Auto-Sync With Artwork" is checked on the right when you select a puppet. And make sure the scene is referencing the correct puppet and art file, not a copy or earlier version. If it persists, please post a screenshot, video, or File > Export > Puppet (.puppet file) to adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more help.
Is there a way to make this exactly animation walk?
If this character was in more of a 3/4 or profile view, then yes. As it is, straight on is not great for left/right walking. The Walk tutorial covers this a little more. ruclips.net/video/gv_2Upvtm-M/видео.html
Okay Samurai thank you
Does this puppet have body tracking?
Body tracking wasn't added to this particular puppet. Check out pages.adobe.com/character/en/body-tracker.
Pretty please if you can help with the following dilemma I would be very grateful! With a typical puppet layout, such as Chloe you have the head folder, and the body folder. Chloe has an issue though where the hair comes behind the chin in front of the neck and makes it look as if she's got a beard! Let's say I need the arms n body to be in front of the face, but still need the neck to be behind the face and in front of the long back hair to avoid the beard thing, should I place the neck in the head folder? I noticed the Wizard Girl has a looser structure closer to want I want and could work as a reference, since you can place layers the way you want with neck sandwitched correctly without the typical body head folders. BUT the problem is If I were to design something with head turns, I would then need to group all the elements in one face folder n tag those to the different head turn views based on all your tutorials. But given some layers fall in front of the neck and some behind, can you still tag random layers which are not part of the same head folder to form the different face views such as left quarter, frontal, right quarter etc..? Or would I need to place the neck in the different head folders every time? Not sure if the question is clear sorry. Hope you can help out!
Notice how Chloe has a "hair" layer that is under the body group. If this is at the same level as Head and Body, it will move with the character's movements as one mesh. So although the head/body method is the easiest to start with, you can play around with putting elements outside of them. In your situation I would recommend putting the Body group in front of the Head group, and put the hair behind it just like Chloe. With head turns, yes, you would need to have a new neck / behind hair for each view if you wanted it to change with each view - otherwise, you could just put your neck and behind hair under the hair group and keep it in one place during the turns.
@@okaysamurai Altho the neck is mostly the same, yes the hair changes slightly with each face turn so I guess I can't put it at the back n leave it there. Will try to have the neck and the hair in each head folder then, will see how that goes. I hope it won't affect how the face moves around since the neck will become part of the head. Thanks for your help! Much love xoxo.
Great help!
First thank you a jillion, idk what we'd do without you. I'm learning with someone else remotely and we're working on a very short cartoon. He's more an illustrator and most of these resources are for photoshop. Anyway I'm finding that the "blank" character is actually blank it doesn't seem to contain the olive skinned plank person seen here. Is that right? My partner would really like the reference images to build from I think it helps a lot. Is there not a file with that "blank" body anymore, but just empty layers?
The Blank listed a couple of rows down on adobe.com/go/chexamples should be the right one...maybe they accidentally did the blank templates on adobe.com/go/chresources?
@@okaysamurai Thank you so much for the help! This is insanely fun and starting to work almost every time I get them imported now. another question if you don't mind, sorry.
I see in this tutorial you're not using the plus signs in the layering in the file anymore. I'm used to building the independence states into the puppet, is that not necessary anymore? do you recommend NOT doing that anymore and then setting it with crowns from within CH now? It's not mentioned here but for consistencies sake I've been trying to always follow that convention in PS puppets. Like if it's possible to NOT do that (plusses in the build) maybe it gives me more flexibilty to change it quicker from within CH?
شرح جميل وواضح وبسيط .. جزيل الشكر
Hi Dave, Can you please make availible the mouth sets as an illustrator file. Thanks for covering this topic.
Download the Blank character Illustrator puppet shown here, import into CH, go to Edit > Edit Original, and delete everything except Sad Mouth and Mouth at the top - voila, an Illustrator mouth file. There's a basic set at the bottom of adobe.com/go/chexamples as well.
@@okaysamurai Thanks brilliant - For any one following Dave's tutorials. Just to highlight the MASSIVE benefit of using Illustrator for your puppets is scalability. Long, mid and Close up shots are all possible from a single puppet without any form of image degradation.
PS Dave - My next video is a song. A love song for narcissists. It is the first video of mine I feel may be good enough / eligible for one of your community reviews. I will send a pre release version the week after next. It is called #PLIM (Perfect Love Is Me).
Thank you so much for the video. I have a question. How do you add glasses? Specifically round glasses like Harry Potter but also in general
Just make a new layer inside the head. Anything you put inside the head group will move with the head. So if you wanted to add glasses, earrings, a mustache, etc - just add it as a new layer inside the head.
@@okaysamurai I know the tutorial above is using Illustrator, but I'm currently using photoshop which I know Character Animator is compatible with both. I'm making a video with Harry Potter and I added hair, glasses, and the lightning bolt as a png (Originally found them as JPG but I used photoshop to mask the background and export as a png). Thing is, the animation is broken. It doesn't move the pupil or eye or head correctly anymore. Not sure what I did wrong
My guess is that the items were put outside of the head, or in the eye group, or something similar. If you remove them and the head and eyes work again, that's probably it - I would remove them and then add them back in one by one, checking in CH each time if it breaks things or not. If it persists, please post a screenshot, video, or File > Export > Puppet (.puppet file) to adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more help.
great tutorial much love thanks for this!
incredible
You have been my go to guy for Character Animator 4EVER. This tutorial is so great as it covers so many basic tips and since you start with a Blank Character it is a lot easier for my students to avoid so many of the mistakes we have had in the past when I tried to instruct them how too make a character from scratch, even when using the original template file and Template Mouths. However, this time, for some reason, we have an issue with the head movement after adding features to the face.Every thing was moving fluidly before. We all came back to Record Mode and now our heads are not working. When we move our heads the puppet head remain static. We tried some basic fixes but cannot pinpoint what went wrong in our behaviors or layers. I recently updated to the latest version. This has never happened before. Any words of wisdom?
I think I just responded to you in the forums?... If you can post or DM me there with a File > Export > Puppet there I can try to diagnose what the issue is. Probably a simple fix.
@@okaysamurai Yes I did get your reply in the forums. Thank you so much. You have been doing this for so long and have put so much energy and care into Character Animator and you still have time to reach out and help. Your enthusiasm is contagious and I just love this app.
Dave how can I give my characted a beard?
Nevermind hahaha I decided to put it in the face background layer and made it using the pen tool. Now gotta figure out how to make glasses or sunglasses
For glasses just make a new artwork layer and put it above the eyes.
Hi Dave - is there a way to do a vector shape as a mouth and map to anchor points on my mouth?
Not currently, nice idea though!
Hi Dave. thanks for the great tutorial. Can we do a little more complex animations such as sitting, jumping, flying...in adobe character animator? thanks in advanced.
You can, although at this stage I'd say it's not as common. For example, you could add draggable or transform tags to any limb and move them, so if you wanted a character to do all that stuff, you could record a performance moving the limbs to get there. I think this will become easier and more intuitive in the future though!
@@okaysamurai Thanks for the reply. Hope to see your tutorial to cover those in the future.
Fantastico! Thanks, Dave.