Character Animator Tips & Tricks (June 2018)

[@petichie]

More facial controls that's awesome. Sure if we look into it we will get a full head turnaround

[@scarysherri3316]

Omg Dave!!! Thank you for the spotlight! Gulf City couldn't exist without all your dope tips and tricks! 💋💙💙💙👻🐋🐳

[@mendistudio]

Dropping the whole CA project on the AE timeline felt like magic to me. Looking forward to make something cool with Character Animator!

[@NinjaMomtastic]

That pallet gear thing looks awesome

[@BrianEYoung]

These are great! I’m almost finished with my first public Character Animator project. Can’t wait to incorporate some of these new tips into my next one.

Less than 24 hours ago I didn’t know that this amazing software existed. Today after I watched several videos of yours, I managed to create my first character. This totally encourages me to make better videos for my channel. I will let you know when I publish the next video including my character. I really thank you Dave. I highly appreciate it.

[@JackyCGuitarStrings]

Atmosphir music still love it. I've known you since I was 14 and you've really inspired me to create stuff and be creative. Thanks Dave

[@okaysamurai]

Thanks for all the support throughout the years

[@AugmentedActor]

Awesome info. Your videos have got me so excited about character animator. I can’t wait to get my hands on those modular dials and sliders

[@vagabundodevaughn1287]

perfect i been wanting to see palette used with character animator

[@ZenGuitarStudios]

Dave, this is such a great piece of software for animation!

[@seantzizl]

Hell yeah. Gulf City Cartoons is the best channel on youtube right now. Fright Power!

[@BabyZoneGaming]

Awesome! Thank you Dave so much. You are the best animator I have seen :)

[@GoCody]

Palette Gear looks super interesting. I've been thinking about getting an Elgato Streamdeck for my workflow, but that looks really cool. I've also been working on a live-streaming character for the past month that wouldn't have been possible without your videos. Thanks for the tips!

[@okaysamurai]

Yeah Streamdeck is pretty cool too. I think Streamdeck is great for triggers, Palette is great for dial/slider/range type controls.

[@isaacx6560]

This has been so helpful! Thank you Dave! 😀 Love the new intro

[@jamesmat]

This was super early, it’s not even June. Thanks!

[@tjc360]

As always another great episode. CA is one of my favorite "go to" tools and your videos help out big time! Hope to see you at MAX this year and talk one on one.

[@rodangles9645]

Tkank you so much Dave your tutorials are very useful for all of us.

[@daxcastro]

This year I am definitely buying the palette gear set at Adobe Max!

[@GuyEinhoren]

i think these videos are my favorite show

[@MetreonServices]

As always Dave, great stuff!

[@hans-anneveldt]

yeah it was nice again, tnx and anneveldt-animaties will have some news to soon :)

[@HollywoodReap3r]

Im going to use this method to make Follower Alerts for Twitch :D

[@antiapologetic]

Fright Power! All Hail Blue Whale, Krill be unto His name

[@kristjan1757]

i cannot believe, the all tutorial without subtitles !!!!! DAM

[@sabarikrishna4900]

Oh my God I am the first one to comment I am happy,I've been waiting for this videos to come up since many days

[@HollywoodReap3r]

Another great video dude! Thanks :D

[@Jtr_ceral_killer]

Fright Power. Gulf City for life

[@smkabir2446]

Thanks for this class. Dave

[@Ki-xs4qk]

I was wondering if you have any videos with instructions on how to do voice recordings with additions or how to prepare my puppet to sing a song that I already have ready. I’m just wondering how I can play the audio and make my puppet lip-synch.

[@okaysamurai]

For prerecorded audio, try kzbin.info/www/bejne/laTQfYuFebmXbLcm50s. But if there's music it will pick up the instruments too, so ideally you need a vocal only track (or record one yourself)!

[@nehemiahjackson]

As always you've been doing a done a great job my question to you is could you recommend where I can find good cartoon backgrounds like skys craves so on and would you please do a tutorial on how you use backgrounds with character animator

[@okaysamurai]

This is a much requested tutorial, I'll try to cover this in the future.

[@epelfeld]

3:25 - very useful technique, but I didn't understand how was it done... If you'll have some time and think it's important - may be you can do full tutorial about this?

[@okaysamurai]

I talk about how he did this for about 3 minutes; it's essentially just a clipping mask + adding some extra tags and behaviors - what part seems confusing to you? There might be some more fundamental stuff linked on okaysamurai.com/CHFAQ that might help you learn about clipping masks, adding/removing behaviors, etc.

[@epelfeld]

Okay Samurai thanks, I'll try to get it

[@testyourbrain1901]

hello sir can you elaborate about clipping mask tool in another video I cant figure it out. Thanx for your great and useful tips

[@okaysamurai]

Watch "Advanced Rigging: Leeta" on this channel, it talks more about clipping masks.

[@Fabian-_-]

Hey, is there a way for the ellbow not to bend so weird, but to rotate? Theoretically I just have to cut there, so making it 2 objects and connecting them?

[@okaysamurai]

I think if you made the forearm and bicep both independent parts, each with a draggable handle, and attached to each other as "hinge" instead of weld or free, this could work.

[@Chenzaloon]

Hey brother, im kinda new to Ch. I want to add a character to my vlogs, I basically want to make a character come into scene and like, hop up on the couch next to me. Do you have any videos explaining this in detail?

[@okaysamurai]

Not exactly that workflow, but you would want Dynamic Link. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJ3GfaNqbNF6n7sm13s. Record the character, dynamic link it by importing the chproj file into Premiere Pro or After Effects, and then position/edit the character as you want.

[@Chenzaloon]

thanks so much!

[@nohbodyhughno1121]

Nice! Fright Power!

[@thefeltingcritterbarn2299]

just looked at this product Palette Gear dose it work on 2020 charactor animation software

[@okaysamurai]

Yep!

[@secretkartoonclub5089]

Another great video thank you so much

[@raghulkpm]

Is there any iPad app for MIDI control? That would save lot of $ for me :) Thank you for all these videos. You're amazing!!!

[@okaysamurai]

Yep! Someone on the team has been trying out www.metasystem.io/ and likes it a lot!

[@raghulkpm]

Okay Samurai thank you so much! Let me try..

[@nasaqproduction8093]

hello , thank you for all video , we have Q : how to use dslr camera in adobe character instead of webcam

[@okaysamurai]

Not directly, but apps like Manycam can essentially trick your webcam into thinking it's other devices and/or videos. But truth be told, a higher quality camera won't have a huge impact on performance capture - a standard HD webcam is perfectly fine.

[@yoyoemmyjo]

Those editable text fields that transfer from AE to Premiere! GRRRR... please stop giving me good reasons to switch from Final Cut to Premiere, Dave! 😝

[@texasboi4998]

Fright Power!! All Hail Blue Whale!!

[@CorinneIsIn]

Hey Dave. I'm marathon watching all of your videos trying to learn more about this and when I create anything with a gradient within illustrator...it'll automatically just turn into a completely black shadow or dark shadow with no gradient property. I tried that when I was doing strands on the hair and so forth. Any insight? I noticed on this featured character he had gradient and it worked but I think he imported that from photoshop. Is there a glitch with Illustrator and gradients?

[@okaysamurai]

Yes, sometimes some features from Illustrator unfortunately don't translate to CH as vector. If you select the puppet in Rig mode, make sure "Render as Vector" in the upper right is unchecked. That should do it by effectively rasterizing the layer - if it's still happening, please post a screenshot or your .puppet file to adobe.com/go/chfeedback and we'll take a closer look.

[@CorinneIsIn]

@@okaysamurai Thanks for your quick response! I hope this message finds you and yours well and in good health. As it turns out, what I'm doing is creating stuff from Ai and then importing it into Ps to finesse it. It's working great so far. I'm most interested in seeing a layer structure for a complex puppet. One with all the bells and whistles like multiple swap sets and so forth. I'm feeling a tad confused around how to create that layer structure in those cases. Perhaps I've missed something but I haven't found a tut on the layer structure other than just seeing it applied to puppets that are limited in functionality. Can you point me to that resource if any?

[@okaysamurai]

These are more advanced tutorials that might help! kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3y0mmZ3o9qbosU kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4vElZiFequoo7s kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6uqk3mnot6DfZY

[@TheRealDamienPriest]

You're the best Dave!

[@mentalscientist9924]

I would like to try IBREC's face parallax method on my own puppet. Is it possible to download his Photoshop file and switch out the artwork with my own?

[@okaysamurai]

Unfortunately I don't have the file anymore - but there are other parallax examples out there now on adobe.com/go/chexamples and okaysamurai.com/puppets if that helps.

[@mentalscientist9924]

@@okaysamurai Ok, Thank you Dave.

[@markroxy1750]

Hi dave, how can i turn my head with cycle layers, there will be more layers in the meddle of frontier and semi right , so that my head will turn more smoother.

[@okaysamurai]

Yep, here's a good example of someone doing this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpmnnXZ7qrGtq7sm52s

[@markroxy1750]

Thanks a lot dave :)

[@blackwomenspeak1]

Help Wanted... I have created nice characters but I have not found a way to animate the arms. I have created different arms and I have tried to just use the default arms but it doesn't look smooth... any suggestions?

[@okaysamurai]

Try kzbin.info/www/bejne/epTbep-mbKqFhM0m41s

[@blackwomenspeak1]

thanks as always

[@slangrj]

Hey Dave, great video as always! A question: anyway to link the parameters Scale X and Scale Y, but reversed? Meaning, when the Scale X goes up, the Scale Y goes down by the same amount, to simulate "Squash and stretch" effect. Thanks again! :)

[@okaysamurai]

Not automatically - currently you would need to manually do it by arming each parameter and changing them individually. But we realize this is way too hard, and should have some better solutions for this (and others from the 12 principles of animation) in the future.

[@slangrj]

You guys rock! Thanks!

[@jj.talbott]

Fantastic.

[@tahmaskenchers1782]

I lose the camera when i import audio. Is there a way I can use the recorded audio while using my facial features?

[@okaysamurai]

The webcam should be independent of timeline audio. You can turn the mic icon off in your webcam panel and it won't record any audio, but as long as the webcam icon is on and Face has a red dot next to it below you should be able to record your face performances as well.

[@tahmaskenchers1782]

Ok thanks alot it worked.

[@pranavtech673]

Hello Dave Sir I Use Character Animator CC 2018 April Edition And I Have Learn Lots Of Stuff From You. Is Palette Gear Is Available On India So I Can Buy It

[@okaysamurai]

Not sure - try palettegear.com

[@pranavtech673]

Okay Samurai Thank you sir I appreciate you Always keep your best

[@himanshu9848]

hi bro i dont know how to use forums adobe but i want to talk you some thing personal

[@kagayang7690]

Hey, i have a question for some reason when I blink my character eyes the whole screen blink. Is there any reset button on character animator. I cannot find it. I been stuck on this the past few weeks. Newbie needs Help Dave!. ;)

[@okaysamurai]

The eye structure has to be pretty precise - see kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3y0mmZ3o9qbosUm43s for more help on the proper setup. If everything is disappearing I think the blink layers are probably outside of the eye group.

[@kagayang7690]

Okay Samurai thanks!

[@kelvinjayaram1521]

Is it possible to hook up an iPad to the mac and control the puppet using the touch screen?

[@okaysamurai]

Yes - see kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKLRqoiMaJaYfasm11s

[@kelvinjayaram1521]

How did I miss that? Thanks Dave :)

[@tgmedia7085]

I have having an issue with my draggable handles. Ill have my arms in a certain position while recording and when i view it during the play back the arms are in a completely different position sometimes flipped the complete opposite way. Any idea of whats wrong?

[@okaysamurai]

Known bug. This will be fixed in the next version (finally). This drives me crazy.

[@tgmedia7085]

Do you know when the next version will be released?

[@okaysamurai]

Nothing has been announced yet, but we're hard at work on it now.

[@JoeKavar]

Can you recommend a laptop for Adobe character animator and Adobe after effects

[@okaysamurai]

We don't recommend specific hardware but these are our required specs: helpx.adobe.com/adobe-character-animator/system-requirements.html

[@DesignedByMaejor]

i have been looking for a tutorial on rigging a multi view character but i can’t seem to find it. please help

[@okaysamurai]

The walking tutorial is a good one for switching between 3 views: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nafCY4imq9mgY68. You could alternatively NOT add the Walk behavior and just add the views into a triggered swap set instead.

[@DesignedByMaejor]

Okay Samurai Thank you so much 😊

[@falakiart8914]

NICE شكرا على مجهودك

[@hugomercadocoronel971]

When I grow up... I would like to know everything you know! hehe!!

[@sicsey]

Hi When I export out of Ch into Ae, my Audio is out of sync with my Characters mouth movements and I cannot figure it out? What am I doing wrong? It syncs up fine in Ch.

[@okaysamurai]

Are you using dynamic link or PNG + WAV? If you use dynamic link it should be fine, png sequence you need to make sure you have the same framerate in both apps. More about dynamic link in okaysamurai.com/CHFAQ/

[@sicsey]

Okay Samurai thanks so much. It was defaulting to 30frames rather than the 24 👍🏽 Btw, your videos are absolutely awesome. Keep it up!!!! Thanks for the quick response

[@manuelaquinorolon5861]

I want to make a character with 3 eyes, how can I do that? I tried tagging the middle eye with the right eye. But didn’t work. There is any way that I can control the middle pupil with the mouse?

[@okaysamurai]

See the 3-eyed character Shmarflop on okaysamurai.com/puppets - you have to add an extra eye gaze behavior I think.

[@joesnyder9052]

#gulfcity #frightpower #whalrgang thanks for the shout out!

[@consp51]

Thanks for the video

[@LeeboProductions]

ALL HAIL THE BLUE WHALE!

[@언제나웃음-u8p]

Always Thanks!

[@jfiera4965]

Are you hiring any freelancers for your projects ?

[@okaysamurai]

Not me personally!

[@Imm0rtal101]

How do I make invisible eyeballs?

[@okaysamurai]

Just make your "right eyeball" and "left eyeball" the same color as the skin or lower visibility/opacity or hide them behind the face. Then the pupils will move within the confines of the eyeball circles but you won't see the bounding circle itself.

[@Imm0rtal101]

Okay Samurai thanks for the help

[@himanshu9848]

bro i animate a cartoon but its eyes are not moving

[@okaysamurai]

How to set up the eyes: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z6aWZWepapd0hqsm46s

[@himanshu9848]

thanks bro love you

[@himanshu9848]

its work thanks

[@kermithermit2107]

All Hail Blue Whale. #FrightPower

[@caffeinewelfare6621]

Hey Samurai! I'm using your software for the cartoon I'm crowdfunding right now! Character Animator is a breeze to use and I'm use the continuous cycle layer feature to create this hand-drawn effect! Hope you can check it out and consider donating!

[@okaysamurai]

Great to hear! Congrats!

[@himanshu9848]

sir i want to talk with you in personal how i can do it

[@okaysamurai]

DM here: forums.adobe.com/people/oksamurai

[@markmaher1878]

Please,I need a way to move the head, eyes and eyebrows without using the camera thanks

[@okaysamurai]

Adding an extra Transform behavior to any group will let you move it through the parameters, and for the eyes you can just arm (red dot) mouse & touch or keyboard input instead of camera input.

[@markmaher1878]

Okay Samurai Thank you .and i wish Make a custom video for moving or moving for beginners

[@CryptoFeeders]

plz suggest a good webcam

[@okaysamurai]

Any modern webcam should work - it doesn't have to be anything fancy. It's more about good lighting that camera quality.

[@CryptoFeeders]

plz reply 720p ok Logitech c270 ?

[@okaysamurai]

Should be, yes.

[@myserrie_inc]

Waaat?? Gulf city! All hail the blue whale!!

[@himanshu9848]

how to open puppet panel

[@okaysamurai]

We usually call this Rig mode - it's in the workspace bar at the top of the screen. Double click any puppet in the Project panel to open it here.

[@SassyShelly]

FRIGHT POWER! 🌎🙌🐳 #WhaleGang4Life

[@772tsweet77]

Frightpower

[@tasminleroux2694]

Yaaaaay, favourite time of the month! Always get excited when I get that notification! I don't know if you remember me getting about my files just getting to big from the complexity of my puppet. But Ive finally put up a demo of what this puppet does... www.behance.net/gallery/66097691/Science-Center-Promotion - (heres the link if you'd like to take a look.) I've done some other stuff, logo build and such but this guy is my little star. I've never seen anything like it being done before, so it might be quite cool to check it out! I also would really welcome feedback if you have anything. on a side note; I think it might be time to call yourself sensei now.

[@okaysamurai]

Cool idea! I bet if you added even more triggers and controls (with something like the Palette Gear stuff shown here?) that would take it to the next level. Love the concept and style!

[@tasminleroux2694]

Okay Samurai great, thank you!

[@werfsflammen1616]

All hail blue whale #FrightPower

[@phrack9998]

#FrightPower #AllHailBlueWhale

[@TheFinerPrint]

All hail blue whale!

[@tubesurfer007]

A pity you have to buy all the apps for the high price just to get character animator. Adobe have the silliest pricing I've ever seen. Buy 2 apps and its almost the same price as the 20 apps. That isn't helpful and isn't in the interest of the consumer.

[@okaysamurai]

Unfortunately I have no control over the pricing, but feel free to add or vote on this idea here: adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911317-character-animator

[@tubesurfer007]

Okay Samurai sorry my last sentence is for adobe not you.

[@Wombenangriff]

Hey Dave, I just wanted to say thank you for all the information you are sharing! I just recently discovered what actually is possible with Character Animator and your videos have been a great source of inspiration and motivation! I am currently trying to connect my digital illustration and animation work with my love for traditional puppetry. I find that Adobe Character is just ideal for this as I can do really quick and fun experiments. If you want to have a look, I have put some stuff on instagram: instagram.com/p/Bi5Lf-LjCkl/?taken-by=ries.illustration

[@okaysamurai]

Looks fantastic!

[@calinmisaras6348]

You lost me at "political incorrectness"