Character Animator Tips & Tricks (November 2017)

[@SKETCHFLIXGAMES]

Omg thanks so much for having me on this episode!!! Im sooooo honored you guys have done so much for me. I'll keep pushing

[@okaysamurai]

You bet! Keep up the great work, it's a fantastic character brought to life with an entertaining personality!

[@SKETCHFLIXGAMES]

Okay Samurai Your too kind sir!

[@omeezadjali484]

Really great work... Do u giving classes for animation... I really need them

[@omeezadjali484]

Keep it up... I am ur fan... I hope u can give more and more.. I appreciate your hard work and ur help for us

[@SKETCHFLIXGAMES]

Omee Zadjali No animation tutorial yet. But I'm planning on it ！

[@inventsable]

Aaah! Thanks so much for having me Dave! Sorry about being your first anonymous feature--it was super late and I was still testing things when I recorded that as a quick demo plus I'm making some awfully funny faces that I'm not comfortable showing to the world just yet, lol. The art was done by my friend Suta, I've been practicing non-stop with Character Animator and AHK scripts and I really think the combination (or at least, Character Animator with any kind of macro creation program) can be *truly revolutionary*. What I have lined up can blow that out of the water, it's very exciting and I can potentially make it into user-friendly software specifically for Character Animator--since I'd want that for myself and there's no reason not to share. Great video as always!

[@okaysamurai]

Awesome! Definitely keep me posted!

[@DigitalPuppets]

Superb ep as always, I really need to start exploring those new physic options and wonderful to see Mr Brown featured, he is a great Cartoon KZbinr!

[@howtohaunt]

The bongo jaw part looks 1000x better with the tip! I'll have to give that a try. Thanks!

[@terrysharing]

This was a wonderful video! It's so exciting to see what Character Animator can do. I hope to give it a try! Many thanks!

[@PintoSixty]

*mind blown* ... I wish I could sit in the room with you and your team as you daydream, brainstorm, concoct, extrapolate, experiment, code, etc. It would be a learning experience in examining the concept of "breakneck pace." I can't keep up! Every day, I take care of the mundane: answer emails, write emails, check on Trump's emails, check news sources, social media, then ... several hours of intense coffee drinking while trying to get a handle (pun intended) on the maddening creativity of Character Animator. Thank god I'm retired with a daily cache of free time. Because I've become a ChA addict. Destined for ChA-A (Character Animator Anonymous). In withdrawal until your December T&T video. I need help.

[@okaysamurai]

Ha - thanks for the continued support!

[@victorballeste9583]

YEAHH!! Thanks again !! Best teacher EVER!

[@franatcartoonfun8736]

Fab show (as ever 😁). Love the 'Nutcracker Jaw' tip. Superb 👍👍👍👍👍

[@P3tonka]

Thanks for featuring my comment in this video, and the detailed explanation!

[@maximelebrun5970]

Thanks for all the amazing tutorials/tips and tricks etc. so grateful! A few things from photoshop would be great to add. Like when I want to not show layers, on photoshop I usually click on the eye icon, stay click and go down all the way and it unclick them all. In CA it seems we need to do one per one click. Or the useful photoshop search layer (where we could type "angry" and it would show all the angry layers on different elements) would be easier if we need to trigger them all and want to do them at the same time, instead of having to search manually for them. I'm not complaining but I know you guys read the comments :)

[@okaysamurai]

Agreed about the eyeballs - it's slower than it ideally should be. And yes, easier rigging / tagging / triggering is a constant goal of ours - one of our team members is a big fan of adding a similar PS search into CH, so send Dan Ramirez $20 and it might get in the next release. :)

[@maximelebrun5970]

Thanks for your reply, as I said I don't mean to complain here, I'm really glad with what we have at the moment and still haven't learned all the software yet, it's a lot of try and errors but it's great fun! :) Thanks for your hard work

[@omeezadjali484]

Thank u for u great work.... We are thankful for your time and help

[@jroz7graphics709]

Love your tutorials...just started using Character Animator...if I could make a small suggestion: please add the specific tips and trips that each video covers on the title--I'm trying to find the video that covers the causes of warped puppets, and how to fix them. Great tutorials! Thanks.

[@okaysamurai]

Thanks! There are a few resources on the official forums - see forums.adobe.com/docs/DOC-5992 for a rundown of every tips episode and forums.adobe.com/docs/DOC-7732 for a video FAQ.

[@GiselleCoindreau]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@andrewbrianis]

OMG The new jaw tools look AMAZING! Question, can you use it with both Mouth shapes and jaw? Example jaw deforms head shape, while using mouth shapes?

[@okaysamurai]

Yep. I've seen several people make puppets that are combos of the lip sync mouths + nutcracker jaw in the past - but usually just for subtle chin movements - this technique could do a lot more!

[@AnaxcartoonsWEBTV]

GREAT

[@Mr.Fascinate]

Awesome vid! We are releasing an animated series soon as well! Thanks so much for your tips!

[@EihabFitness]

I just come across your channel recently; I am a beginner and getting into animation. How do you know whether this programme Character Animator or Animate CC is more suitable for you? Thank you

[@okaysamurai]

+Eihab Fitness They're different tools in the toolbox - it's really a matter of your workflow and project type. Animate is keyframe based, CH is performance capture. I would test them both out and see what feels like the best personal fit for you.

[@hvaranhvaran]

12:10 This is one of the biggest issues with Character Animator that I've had. I couldn't find yet a detailed manual or guidance on basic functionality. So I have to go through the tips and tricks videos to find out those. Spent some time to figure out myself how to make this items show up in properties panel (those on the timestamp of this video). Could use a detailed guide for the pins too to be fair. Thanks

[@okaysamurai]

+Handarand the "getting started" video is probably the best entry point - that talks a little about selecting and fixed handles for the feet. I'm working on a few more in depth tutorials that will hopefully cover more of the basics.

[@TheAnimatedHistory]

Hellow there... brother i just have discovered your channel and really loved the way to teach. The adobe Max project was of 2017 and now in 2019 its all changed there is not available.. so from can i get that? I really need that. Thanks

[@okaysamurai]

Yep, that page is updated but the old file is still around, try adobe.ly/2ia40x2.

[@yitz7805]

Ok, oddly specific question over here: How would I live record the animated output as a secondary screen input? Thanks!

[@yitz7805]

(on a mac)

[@okaysamurai]

If I understand what you're asking correctly - So if you set up Stream mode in CH to send out a fullscreen signal to a separate monitor (in the streaming preferences) and have Screenflow or other capture software recording that monitor, it should work.

[@yitz7805]

Thanks!

[@Gnome2D]

Hi Dave. I have a question, its about physics features. Ehm how to say.... Can i triggered button, and create an object infinitely? Like i use button, and object throwing down, and again, and again, and again, but the objects did not disappear. Sorry for my bad english and thanks.

[@okaysamurai]

Currently particle systems don't support physics tags yet, but we hope to add that in the future.

[@bigbadbanana]

Hey awesome content thank you ! It really helps me better understand Character Animator ! I was using Duik on After Effects but it's pretty rough around the edges... thankfully we can Dynamic Link the rigging in AE and Premiere. But how do you do the animation of your character (from a transparent scene) following what's happening on the edited footage (from Premiere for exemple) Can you do a video about how exactly you should setup your character in Illustrator (or Photoshop) to use in CharAnimator ? (< Edit: I didn't see the video "Making your first character", that's cool sorry !) Thank you so much

[@simonmountney]

Hey! Really helpful! Is there any plan to be able to import video for background playback any time soon? My characters are reacting to video playback so it's a little tough to straddle AE to then come back to animator to amend the reactions.

[@okaysamurai]

This would be really nice - if it's not on adobe.com/go/ch_wish please consider adding it!

[@simonmountney]

Found a ticket there and bumped it. Fingers crossed! character-animator.ideas.aha.io/ideas/CH-I-50

[@merochingon]

Ok, Samurai, this is probably a stupid question... but how you achieve the lining in your drawings?... I mean my drawings are always a solid line, same thick, yours have lines that ends in a fine point, What kind a brush you use or technique to achieve that?. in PS and Ai. Hope u can answer this.

[@okaysamurai]

I’m just using basic mechanical brushes in photoshop with my Wacom...see the recent “how I draw robots” video I did for a closer look.

[@merochingon]

Thanks!..I'm about to get there since im going video by video to learning step by step and applying what I learn in this section: kzbin.info/door/IWe3abR63z8rVmPpU4Juqg.

[@mycowginger]

Nutcracker Jaw question! Usually wouldn't Bongo be independent and his head and torso not? When I do it your way, with the name (main layer) not independent but the head and torso are, then my characters body does not move with him. When I do it the way I was shown, (name/main layer independent, head and body not) then his body moves with his jaw instead of his head. :(

[@okaysamurai]

Yeah, the artist for this set up Bongo in an interesting way for his various parts - I don't remember exactly why. But if you check out the puppet Almasol on the Okay Samurai puppets page, he also has a jaw setup but with the normal independent structure.

[@mycowginger]

I see. Thank you for your reply. Is there no where I can learn how to put together a puppet in order to use this nutcracker upgrade then? Because through your videos we were only taught the one way...which apparently doesn't work for this nutcracker version sooo...I guess I'll resort to the old nutcracker with an independent jaw.

[@okaysamurai]

Did you see the advanced tips video I did yesterday? It has a whole section about how that jaw was set up.

[@mycowginger]

Oh! great thank you

[@mycloudvip]

Hi, I was playing around with a new character (a kid with a guitar) not sure what the name was... mario or martin... well, anyway... when I tried to use it... I always got it way too big, so the black border of the active canvas would only show his upper chest, so the face was blocked and so were the legs... is there a way to quickly resize the character, without editing the character itself?

[@okaysamurai]

In the right properties - Behaviors > Transform > Scale. We go over all that setup stuff (framerate, screen dimensions, etc) in the "Getting Started" video.

[@mycloudvip]

Awesome... I fixed the size... Now, since I wear glasses I have to close my eyes very slowly or keep them closed for more than a second or two to make it work... but it is very distracting. Is there a way to apply a random auto blink to eyes?

[@TheMajesticLord]

Would dangle and collide make sense if used for hair or hanging objects that may touch other objects?

[@okaysamurai]

Currently dangle and collide aren't compatible because there's some conflicts in the simulation that runs them both. Hopefully we can fix this one day because yet, I'd love colliding hair!

[@TheMajesticLord]

Thanks. By the way, love your tutorials. Gives me a lot of inspiration to create.

[@how2ae]

Can't figure out how to setup physics. Do layers have to be independent? How do I get them move?

[@okaysamurai]

See Physics Playground on the Adobe example page in the video description. Everything is independent, tagged collide and/or dynamic, and has attach style set to free.

[@aronkay5274]

Hey OkSamri Grea Video!, Quick Question: I have multiple puppets in my scene that I want to appear at different times . Is there a simple way to toggle the puppet appear On and Off?? thnks!

[@okaysamurai]

Sure, you could make a simple trigger at the top +Character puppet group - if you do that it will appear/disappear when you trigger it.

[@charitymonae5608]

I cant find the lab project from Dan's Advanced Lap Project on adobe's site.

[@okaysamurai]

That site has since been updated but here's the link still: adobe.ly/2ia40x2

[@tiffanylabelle]

Hi Dave, Great lesson from the L526 Character Animator class at ADOBE MAX 2017, but I can't find the other "lesson on nested scenes" in the "see more" links or in this downloadable project file, mentioned on page 49.

[@okaysamurai]

Hmmm - unfortunately I didn't put that file together (my coworker Dan did that class), so I'm not sure if it's there or not, or what he was teaching with it. But basically it's what happens when you put a scene within another scene, which is also what happens in the Dr. Funkenstein tutorial scene in the app.

[@tiffanylabelle]

Thanks Dave, I appreciate your response. I thought I'd let you know the file is missing in case Dan wanted to add it. I vaguely remember you covering nested scenes in your video tutorials. One of the best features about this tutorial was saving the head as a shareable puppet. A huge timesaver !!! I looked at Dr Funkenstein tutorial but to be honest I got lost a little. I hope you'll be covering this in your future tutorials in more detail. They are all BRILLIANT! After my first IG animation post I was already commissioned with lots more enquiry. Can't thank you enough!!!!

[@okaysamurai]

Awesome about being commissioned! Congrats. And no worries - the Funkenstein project is incredibly complex, and at this point a little out of date given the new features that have been added in the past year.

[@tiffanylabelle]

Oh, thank you for saying that about Funkenstein, good to know. You're an absolute legend and the best KZbin teacher! I read on one of your replies you wouldn't be giving this up anytime soon and I was soooo relieved. Can't wait until your new vids come out. I've been dying to animate my illustrations from ever since I can remember, and it's all thanks to you and your team! Huge thank you to ALL of you! Truly means the world to me!!!!

[@bradkevin4209]

how about smoke , explosion , glow and refletion ?

[@okaysamurai]

You can use cycle layers for frame-by-frame versions of those, or do that kind of post production stuff in After Effects via dynamic link.

[@GameGabe]

Hey Dave is there any way to simulate the head bob without using the camera?

[@okaysamurai]

The best I could think of would be adding a dragger handle to the head or a more manual cycle layers head bob. I would think camera would be better than either though.

[@danielbaugh9586]

The link to the advanced example which is spoken about no longer works. Is this still available somewhere else, I have looked but can't find it. Thanks

[@okaysamurai]

I think I found it! shared-assets.adobe.com/link/f8ac99a2-295d-42cb-5bab-41659233aa86. It is a super old project so it may not work exactly the same in the more modern versions, but I just checked and it should be the one you're looking for.

[@pogorelovsdelal]

Thank you for the video! I'm sorry for my english, but I'll try to ask a question. Is there an option to combine nutcracker with the usual phonemic lipsync in the current version? If not, will there be a similar option in the next releases?

[@okaysamurai]

Yes, they are separate behaviors and many people in the past have used them both to great effect!

[@pogorelovsdelal]

Great! Will any advice on your channel about this technique? I'm a beginner, that's why I'm guided only by your advice.

[@okaysamurai]

Yep, check out kzbin.info/www/bejne/pZekaH18jst_oq8m14s

[@pogorelovsdelal]

WOW! Thank you! :)

[@deepakwagh8971]

Thank you for great video. I am new to Ch. I want to export my scene as flv or any other format with transparent background to use it in other video editing software. How can we export scene?

[@okaysamurai]

For other programs your best / most reliable bet to keep the alpha channel is probably PNG sequence + WAV. Different apps will import these different ways so you might have to tweak settings to get the framerate and syncing perfect, but that's how I would suggest trying it.

[@travelwell6049]

I am very keen to use Character Animator, however, I am unclear on its link or dependence upon After effects. I have both pieces of software, but am I going to have to learn both?

[@okaysamurai]

You make your artwork in Photoshop and Illustrator, perform and record character animations in Character Animator, and either export a video directly from there via Adobe Media Encoder, or optionally add finishing touches in After Effects or Premiere.

[@junkyfunky1857]

Hi, It will be good if we can add transition effect for fade in fade out within Character Animator.

[@okaysamurai]

There is an opacity slider value for each puppet, so there's a manual way to do fades.

[@junkyfunky1857]

Yes, I learned that from your last video. But I am looking for transition effects from one scene to another.

[@okaysamurai]

Yes, we've wanted camera controls in CH for a while now, agreed.

[@dan7696]

Hey Dave, changes I make sync in rig mode, but when I import it into a scene they don't, as if I never changed anything, though it shows my changes in the rigging panel. (To be specific: I use ProCreate to draw and export it as a PSD, in CH I use a template puppet that I import and I re-link it to the ProCreate .psd, I also tried replacing the psd files in Gathered Media with my own, still doesnt work.) Is there a way I can fix this?

[@dan7696]

Or sometimes it just randomly picks a character from the list of them in my projects and all of them whenever I drag them into a scene become that character. So far I tried restarting my computer and reinstalling CH, so far nothing worked.

[@dan7696]

And I also get erorr "handle value is not a number! (container.js:215)" if that has anything to do with it.

[@okaysamurai]

Sometimes you may need to click the refresh icon in the scene panel to get the freshest changes, and more rare - you might need to hold down opt/alt while you do it to clear your cache. If you're getting that kind of error though, it sounds like something got out of sync or some sort of illegal info happened, so going several steps back in your History panel might help undo those steps and get you back on track.

[@dan7696]

Definetly not the case with illegal info, I exported some of the puppets and in rig mode they were fine, but in the scene they were glitched. I tried using multiple (different) puppets in a scene and even after refreshing with and without holding alt, and for some reason, now they're both one of the two different puppets I imported. (I imported puppet A and B, put them both in my scene, CH crashes, I re open it and now I have 2 puppet A's, even if I refresh or clear the cache) Edit: Now itcrashes whenevr I open the scene.

[@dan7696]

I contacted Adobe Support about this earlier today, they said it was a scripting error.

[@NewbArchitect]

Hi again, I'm trying to import the new way versus the traditional old way. i can't seem to get it working. I'm using AE2017, it has the 'dynamic link' too but after opening it, it doesn't show any scenes. I should have the most updated CH too.

[@okaysamurai]

I ran into this once before, and a un-reinstall of all the apps fixed it for me. Let me know if that works or not.

[@NewbArchitect]

hi there, for both programs? what order did you re install it at if it worked. Thanks!

[@okaysamurai]

I uninstalled and then reinstalled AE and then CH in that order. Both updated to the latest versions. I think it's a corruption with CH's version of dynamic link. We're trying to narrow down and fix this for the future, it seems to be a rare case.

[@arcanerstudios]

Hi , can you please provide me some great puppets for CA beta 5?

[@okaysamurai]

That's two releases ago - we're out of beta now and update the example puppets with each release.

[@Triric]

How do i render my Scene? I tryed to render a 10 minute clip with 30 fps but it takes 5 hours to render. I tryed with Media Encoder but it doesn't work. Does it really take so much time? Greetings from Germany :D

[@okaysamurai]

That seems pretty extreme...does dynamic link into AE or PR work any better? What's the resolution?

[@Triric]

I tryed in AE but still the same. Resolution is 1920 x 1080 Also i use alpha channel in this clip and render it as mov. Maybe this could be it.

[@okaysamurai]

Yeah it may be an export setting. My guess would be 10 minutes in CH doing a 1080 30fps H264 "Match Source - Adaptive High Bitrate" mp4 through AME or AE should take 30-45 minutes to render on my Macbook Pro.

[@Triric]

My Problem is i need the alpha channel for my transparent background so i can't render it in mp4 :/

[@okaysamurai]

What are you trying to do with the video? Composite it in something else?

[@PolymerJones]

can you use nutcracker jaw with recorded audio yet?? otherwise it's pretty worthless..

[@okaysamurai]

Directly - no. With a workaround - yes. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iH7SXq1unbRlfq8m16s

[@PolymerJones]

Wow you reply to KZbin comments?? I have a million questions for ya, are you active in the Adobe CH forums ? thanks

[@okaysamurai]

Yes, feel free to DM me there: forums.adobe.com/people/oksamurai

[@maxflash4835]

Hello! Does anyone of you have the Dan Ramirez file ? Thx in advance! :)

[@okaysamurai]

Try this: shared-assets.adobe.com/link/f8ac99a2-295d-42cb-5bab-41659233aa86

[@maxflash4835]

@@okaysamurai Hey Dave! Thank you very much! I tried to google it first but nothing ( : ... I like what you are doing, and thanks a lot for all the tutorials, they are very helpful! Im watching all your videos related to Character Animator from the beginning, I am somewhere around 2018 right now! I just learn about this software like half a year ago and now i wanna try it out, looks fun and "easy"! Thanks again and keep going, good job! :)

[@jaypandya6293]

hey Samurai, any tips or vids on how to create a png-type version of a character? I.e your taylor swift singing character who was wandering around your real life office? Thanks!

[@okaysamurai]

That guy was pretty simple - I think the "Building Your Own Animated Face" or "Getting Started" videos would take you through the steps to get there. As for him moving around, that was all motion tracking in After Effects.

[@jaypandya6293]

Thanks so much!

[@Sweetanimation168]

Can You Teach how to do animation Sleep , Shit ,or hug ....... ?

[@okaysamurai]

Maybe in the future!

[@nfb5575]

Can you please tell the required qualifications to become an animator

[@okaysamurai]

There's no one formula, but I'd say it's a skill you keep getting better at with every project. I've always loved to draw but animation is relatively new to me, and am learning a lot since joining the CH team!

[@nfb5575]

Okay Samurai can I apply for animtor in Adobe

[@okaysamurai]

We don't have in-house animators as far as I'm aware of! I'm a UI/UX designer.

[@nfb5575]

You are my dream and inspiration i want to be an animator like you

[@chrisduwe9591]

Please get a better mic!! Adobe will pay for it ;-)!!

[@okaysamurai]

Yeah the live parts of this one are rough. You'll notice in recent episodes they sound a lot better - now I'm using an off-camera condenser mic instead of the built in camera one!

[@Agente00Ai]

3 YEARS LATER...and this crap still keeps happening. Dynamic Link problems - and no one at Adobe has an answer.... seriously WTF....i'll check back with CH next 2 or 3 versions later. Not worth the time - lots wasted- and aggravation! Not even during quarantine!

[@okaysamurai]

I use dynamic link often and rarely run into issues other than it running slow when I have a lot of assets. What's the problem? Freezes or crashes? Error messages? If dynamic link doesn't work for you, you can always export a PNG sequence and WAV file and use that instead. If it persists please post on adobe.com/go/chfeedback and we'll try to help you more.

[@Agente00Ai]

​@@okaysamurai wow. quarantine ,us be rough. i got an actual reply. lol. hope you and the family are well and safe. as for CH....i just gave up. and no - the dynamic link never works for me. just to get a simple mouth rig i had to revert to script and sequence. i am sure if one has quarantine time and nothing else to do, they can drill down, source all the forums to find solutions to reoccurring unresolved issues and workarounds. i'd rather a program that just did what it says it can do without all the workarounds and need to spend hours in forums to find a solution to a problem that shouldn't exsit. i will keep CH on the back burner for emergency use and that occassion where i might need to set up a mouth rig for a fast toon design.... great premise tho. hope one day all the glitches are worked out. tho, by then i am gonna be a master with Blender 2.8 and their 2D animation set! stay safe, samurai. stay home! and thx for the reply.