Walking (Adobe Character Animator Tutorial)

[@extremesegaa9239]

I wish every youtuber had great step by step explanations and clear speaking like you do , keep it up

[@ktroofficial56]

ExtremeSega A i agree with you

[@hansendesigns]

He works for adobe. He gets paid. :)

[@emilbrothersmedia2533]

I just want to thank you Samurai - I stumbled upon one of your videos and since I am already using the creative cloud I immediately installed the character animator. Since then I watched nearly everyone of your videos twice and can't stop playing with this amazing piece of software. Your tutorials are in my opinion amongst the best tutorials for any software ever. They cover everything you need to know, they are perfectly suited for beginners and provide you an easy acces to the character animator capabilities. Awesome !! Thank you so much for everything you're doing and I hope you will continue it for a long time :)

[@kingy-ai]

Fellow tutorial maker here - and I must say, your tutorials are top notch. Well explained and thorough. Big fan.

[@ChrisHoffmanHoffmangler]

You always seem to know the parts of my project that I'm struggling with and post a relevant tutorial. Thanks!

[@ScaryStoriesNYC]

12:56 BRILLIANT!! I've been looking for something like that to use in music videos that I had to put n the back burner because they just weren't working. I was thinking of animating them in 3D, but this trick should save those projects. THANK YOU.

[@laovoly6988]

Thanks to your great tutorial, I was able to make an animation, too. DAVE, You are my great teacher.

[@ganapathysubramaniam]

character animator via these wonderful videos has opened up a portal for me! Thank you!

[@udittatisar5336]

Keep doing this great work bro ! May Shiva bless you with whatever you want 💫

[@neoblackcyptron]

Your team is really spearheading an amazing product. Good job. This is one of the best well designed well written pieces of software ever created. It’s intuitive and these video tutorials are excellent.

[@houseofsugars]

Another winner!! Thanks so much for these. And I LOVE what Tiffany LaBelle has done !!

[@DinveMitoloji]

Hi, I need your help. I need to do my background in 'CA' instead of 'AE'. But if I use a camera in 'CA' my background is not working. I mean background has different X positions but when the camera is open positions aren't working. I will really be happy if you can help me with this subject. Because as I say i need to use both of them at the same time in the 'CA'. Thanks for your tutorial videos, they are really helpful.

[@okaysamurai]

Did you check out the sample Linden & Robot file on adobe.com/go/chexamples? That has a working background - if you do everything just like that it should work just fine. When you add a camera into a scene it affects all layers below it. If you're still having trouble please post a video of the issue on adobe.com/go/chfeedback and we'll help you more directly there!

[@KnockemOrLockem]

The Samurai has 85K subscribers and still answers all of our questions 👍🏻🙏🏻❤️

[@RicsiDy9]

Well.. you know... you are a hero. You just gave me some new skills, and a new job as well. I can't even say how grateful am I. If you will be in Hungary sometime, i will definitely give you a bottle of wine or something. Thank you so much!

[@okaysamurai]

I'll take it! :)

[@laurabelpiano]

Thank you so much for these wonderful lessons!

[@CloakedMan71]

Thank you Dave so much, this was exactly the tutorial I needed.

[@Dramadonia]

Walking and running works fine for me but when I try to do the slump it looks like the puppet has been pinned to a board and is trying to break free. I guess I need to toggle and play around with the head behavior.

[@okaysamurai]

Some of the variations can feel broken with certain character types, play around with the parameters and see how it goes. If it's only happening in one style that's probably what's up.

[@meghandaharwal5179]

Hi, I'm trying to set up a walk cycle. I've watched the video and copied each step for hours, repeatedly and its still not working. The issue seems to be that none of the handles I'm tagging are being used by any behaviour. Its weird because I even downloaded Eliza and copied every step thats visible but it just doesn't work. Please please please could you help? Thank you so much!

[@okaysamurai]

If it's not working then yes, most likely the Walk behavior isn't seeing the tags for some reason. For more direct help please post a screenshot, video, or file > export > puppet to adobe.com/go/chfeedback and we'll try to help diagnose what's wrong.

[@manaalacademy9534]

@@okaysamurai hey sir im using ch and i wanna make my own story using ch animation then upload my youtube so ist problem?

[@SLOPPEWALL]

Yay! I did it. Thank you for the well put together tutorial.

[@TheEbble]

This is so so helpful!! Thank you so so much!!!!🤩🤩🤩

[@Vobo-Ghure]

Awesome thanks.... But what about jumping... When the character is happy he jumps saying yeahh....

[@okaysamurai]

I would probably animate that with dragger takes and transform keyframes. Hopefully I can cover something like this in a future tutorial.

[@genzcheerleader]

@@okaysamurai Do You have a video that covers dragger takes and transform key frame?

[@ArgosEyesCinema]

I made a tutorial about it on my channel!

[@goetzvideo-filmmaker]

Awesome video! Thanks for all the hard work!

[@LanguageHelp]

Thank you for your tips and videos.

[@codygarcia1783]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge dude!

[@quincyndekwe]

One of my legs and arms are going the wrong direction and I keep trying to fix it thinking maybe I accidentally duplicated my right arm/ leg but nope. Yet they are moving the same direction. What am I doing wrong?

[@okaysamurai]

Hard to diagose here - if the problem persists, please upload a screenshot, video, or your File > Export > Puppet file to the official forums at adobe.com/go/chfeedback so we can take a closer look.

[@kailashrajkhowa9418]

Thanks a lot! I was struggling a lot to do this

[@heroesofcolor]

This was incredibly helpful!! KZbin School is the best. Thank you Dave!!

[@shariqmanzoor322]

It’s too detailed and easy to learn, thanks dear

[@artistictreehgr]

Great videos they are super helpful. I have a character that has a skirt. I wanted to know how you go about adding dynamics to the skirt so it can collide with the legs as she walks.

[@okaysamurai]

Currently there isn't a great way to have cloth dynamics, what Tiffany is showing in the video is as good as we can do right now. You kind of just have to fake it. But there will be advancements made here in the future.

[@artistictreehgr]

@@okaysamurai I see. Is there a place I can suggest new features? I have a 3D Character rigging background and was trying this software for the first time and have several ideas.

[@okaysamurai]

Yes! adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911317-character-animator

[@rolfkrumbein4170]

Great Job - Many,many thanks!!!!

[@Quran_memorization]

hello dave, can you help me, please .. I used two puppets at the same scene .. I tried everything to make them both move with my head movement but they move separately I wanted the first puppet to be the base and the second one to be pinned to the first one's face so it can do the same movements as the base.. can you record a simple video if it is possible and if you cant I would appreciate if you answer me in a message thanks a lot for all tutorials keep it up

[@okaysamurai]

Unfortunately I don't think you can do exactly what you're trying to do here. CH is really optimized for controlling one character at a time. The best you could do is arm both of them in the timeline and they'll both move with your movements, and adjust the parameters under Face to make one move slightly differently. Or of course you could just record them one at a time, which is what I normally do.

[@Quran_memorization]

@@okaysamurai thank you for the fast responding dave i want to ask if i can take the layer of the mouth that i recorded and edited it for the first puppet and put this layer with the second puppet's rig layers ? thank you again

[@okaysamurai]

Yes. But you should ideally do the actual artwork sharing in Photoshop or Illustrator, not in CH. if you recorded one lip sync take with one character you could copy and paste that exact same take to the other puppet, and it doesn't really matter what their mouth looks like - the visemes will still work with whatever mouth the character has.

[@Quran_memorization]

@@okaysamurai thanks a lot , i dont know how can i thank you i pray to god to give you hidayah in your whole life thanks dave

[@sonicgaming618]

I am using motion lines behaviour but i cant see any effect

[@okaysamurai]

Here's how to set them up properly: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJDdc4ehmJykd6s

[@geotiempo]

Good channel! I've activated the bell and following you. More than uploading tutorials, you are really contributing to the society :D Nice job.

[@sonicgaming618]

I have rigged my chrcter prfctly but my character is walking backward like his body is walking bckwrd and head is facing front

[@okaysamurai]

Hmmm, that seems like maybe things were tagged incorrectly, either the left/right profile views or the arms/legs? If you still can't figure it out please post a screenshot of your rig mode to adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more direct help.

[@sonicgaming618]

@@okaysamurai No i have prctly rigged my puppet

[@okaysamurai]

I would post to the forums then.

[@tonyredgrave009]

please do a tutorial on how use multiple characters.

[@okaysamurai]

I'm hoping to tackle this soon. Making a little multi-character cartoon short or something like that.

[@hanalanaelle1357]

@@okaysamurai This. Also can multiple characters come into contact with each other and have physics applied? Like can one character punch another character in the head and have that head automatically move?

[@okaysamurai]

Yes, multiple physics objects can interact - see Physics Playground on adobe.com/go/chexamples as a working example.

[@tiffanylabelle]

Brilliant as always Dave. Thank you! It's interesting what workerstudio did, I also used the walk cycle on my lady playing the piano and all my scooter and people on bikes too with very low settings... :)

[@okaysamurai]

Thanks for letting me share your examples! Awesome work!

[@MaverickVersusEverything]

Bringing heat! Mav flips out when he watches. --Mav's Underlings

[@DigitalDave]

is there any way to have character animator automatically flip the profile for standing view? like Eliza my Puppet's standing view faces left so even when walking right and stopping he instantly flips around again. Or is there any way I can get around this? thanks mate!

[@okaysamurai]

I think I talk about this in the video as a limitation - no, whatever your standing view is will be what shows up. The only way around this would be to either a) have your standing view be a more front facing view so it looks more in between the two profile views, or b) have a 4th view facing the correct way that you manually trigger. Honestly for me I would probably just keep things like Eliza and reverse her scale either in CH or AE if I needed her facing the other way...less complex that way!

[@DigitalDave]

@@okaysamurai thank you so much for the reply, yeah I did see you go over that in the video however just wanted to know if there is another way of achieving the same result, flipping the character using keyframes is a pretty good workaround. Thanks Dave!

[@dontclickmychanneldescript8854]

Could you please make a tutorial on how to make puppets sit down and interact twitch things

[@okaysamurai]

For interacting with things, see the Magnets tutorial - kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6fXZK2HZd-hn5I. For sitting, you can add draggable handles into the limbs to do this - see Gene at adobe.com/go/chexamples as a character with a lot of draggable parts. There will be some improvements on this in the future as well.

[@geoffreywade]

Following your tutorial at 7:27, I was able to get ElizaSimpleUnrigged to walk from right to left in "Immediate mode". Cool. At 11:10, the mode for Eliza3ViewUnrigged is set to "Left & Right Arrow Keys". Eliza3ViewUnrigged works as shown. However, if i switch to "Immediate" mode, Eliza3ViewUnrigged walks from left to right. Why is that the opposite direction of ElizaSimpleUnrigged. Am I doing something wrong?

[@okaysamurai]

I'm not 100% sure, but in general "immediately" should only be used for the single view walk characters. My best guess is that immediately picks the first walking view it sees and goes with that? Any time I do 3 views, I always do keyboard inputs or position based.

[@akridiy]

Thank you for the video! Could you rework the default walk cycle? Almost every client says it looks jagged and unnatural.

[@okaysamurai]

It's based off of hand drawn frame by frame animation walk cycles, but as I say in the video, one size doesn't fit all, so it's impossible to pick a default that looks great for everyone. But thanks for the feedback - we are looking into ways to greatly expand the walk possibilities and we'll take it into account!

[@Dincerssssss]

I wanna ask something about this. Can we able to make all characters walk like in this video? For instance I choose Kroegnar in Character Animator and I couldn’t manage to make him walk in any way.

[@okaysamurai]

Not all characters walk - they have to be rigged like I show here to work. Krognar doesn't have the Walk behavior or rigging, and his body is more front facing instead of to the side, so he's probably not an ideal character for walking.

[@Dincerssssss]

Thanks a lot.

[@diabllo68]

Great tutorial, but after watching several videos, I still really struggle with this software. It would be nice for beginners tutorials to be gone through a lot more slowly. I'm constantly struggling to keep up, pausing and rewinding and having to watch again. Great resources you have here and one day I hope to be able to keep up.

[@MisterFrostee_NYC]

I cant seem to get a valid "origin point" to show up with the green dotted line- so I'm unable to fully attach like you are at the 5:18 mark.. I tried "reset layer" on the left arm for example that is crowned/independent and still nothing. Any tips? Also love the channel!

[@okaysamurai]

Make sure the independent layer has something non-independent to attach to, usually the torso layer below. Also in rig mode make sure the bottom left corner of the canvas area that the polygon icon is turned on (blue) to show this kind of stuff.

[@Backpackerwangi]

hi bro, how to make kicking ball animation? or jump

[@okaysamurai]

For those animations I would put draggable handles in the ankles.

[@Backpackerwangi]

Okay Samurai oh i see, i will try it

[@GLOSSYFUTURE]

Why Puppet glitches after recording when I play? I made a puppet who can walk on stage and it has all side profile. When I add key frame to make it walk one side to other side works fine, but when watching the preview it glitches among all side of profiles. Even I turned off my web cam but it remains same.

[@okaysamurai]

Hmmm not sure why that would happen, especially with keyframes - those should be absolute. If it persists, please post a screenshot, video, or File > Export > Puppet (.puppet file) to adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more help.

[@whoozie]

Walking behavior is my favorite one so far and I'm really having a lot of fun with this! Btw I made an assassin's creed character based on eliza and think it's looking good ...I'm on my way to finishing my first cartoon video I can't quite understand why moving the playhead after capturing a take mess up the walking we just recorded....can uu explain more about this?

[@okaysamurai]

Walking is a simulation. Your recording shouldn't be messed up if you play back from 0, but if you play back from anywhere else, the simulation will be starting at a different position. So for a real playback, always start from the beginning of the timeline.

[@whoozie]

@@okaysamurai thank uu for the explanation ! appreciated

[@Marion0142]

Hi there. Thanks for you brilliant videos. Do legs have to be two different elements?

[@okaysamurai]

For this walk behavior, yes. They should each be a separate independent element rigged as shown, with the knees, ankles, toes, sticks, etc.

[@mibevan]

That quadruped walk cycle HAS TO BE POSSIBLE...may need to update my characters back legs now that I think about it (personal task) Are you able to apply a walk cycle to hands so like if you need them to crawl?

[@okaysamurai]

Yes, like I show at the end of this video, the best way to do this is with two Walk behaviors, but I would tag the second pair of "hands" as legs instead to get the right foot motions.

[@zed2960]

Can't you create a swap set for the standing view, and this way you could have two rest poses, one left profile and one right profile, and even maybe a third front facing view?

[@okaysamurai]

Yep you definitely could! But Walk will default to whatever is currently triggered. So it's not smart enough to know if you walk right to show the right view when you stop, and the left view after walking left - you would have to do that manually. But yep, totally possible!

[@zed2960]

@@okaysamurai Great, thanks for replying (as always! )

[@vb7105]

Does Adobe have some sort of index that explains all the features and icons? I saw that the ninja puppet had a bunch of pawn looking icons next the heads?

[@okaysamurai]

This is your best bet: helpx.adobe.com/adobe-character-animator/user-guide.html

[@كرتونكو-ت9ض]

Man you’re doing perfect job ❤️ Wish to have my own work soon

[@haneyaljayar5164]

Great tutorial! I have a question; when releasing the arrow keys, the character snaps back to the standing pose which looks to the left of the screen. What if I need the character to walk to the right of the screen then stand with its face looking to the right?

[@okaysamurai]

Yeah, this is tricky because you're only allowed one standing pose. I would probably say use the Transform behavior and change Scale X to - 100% to send the character facing the other way. You could either start with your character flipped like that or keyframe it in later.

[@garytownsend6953]

I've been playing around trying to get this working. I've ended up scaling X to -100% in the Rig setup, i.e. you only need to change the standing pose (I started by scaling X to -100% in Record but that reverses all three poses). Then also whilst in Rig setup for the standing pose again, change X 13.5px to -13.5px to align it with the right profile. However, the hair physics causes the hair to flick to the left after stopping walking to the right, i.e. you want it flicking to the right of course. So finally, I added another walk position keyframe about 10 to 15 frames later in the timeline but only added 0.1px to the value so that you don't see any walking occur... something must be happening (technically) when the puppet switches to walking/facing left after stopping walking right, which is why the hair flicks the wrong way... therefore this stretch of 0.1px gives the hair time to settle. You can also place this additional walk position keyframe as far to the right in the timeline as you like, but the dragger doesn't allow you to drag the arms during walking, e.g. I now have the puppet talking after having stopped walking to the right, and I'm making the arms move slightly to express what is being said whilst facing right.

[@paulartifice]

Thanks for all your helpful tutorials!!] Is it possible to add head turns to the right, left, standing postiions, so that a puppet could say, look back as they walk forward?

[@okaysamurai]

Yes! See the Brooklyn Buddies on www.adobe.com/go/chexamples for a great example of this.

[@paulartifice]

@@okaysamurai I actually figured it out after a few hours of messing with layer duplication. I created a separate group folder "head" for each body position and tagged them as independent. I don't know if you've done a video on it but I discovered some of the pretagging you did in photoshop of things like "origin" and "dangle" etc, and have found adding those in photoshop greatly speeds up my rigging time in CA. Might be something to do a video on. Anyway thank you. I have watched hours of your videos and used your puppets for reference and it has been super helpful. Been using CA for my band/art project, "Aktion Kat!" and very happy with the results! Happy New Year dude! 😺

[@nancytriggiani9565]

What is the best way to have a character walking in 3/4 view stop and then turn to a full front view?

[@okaysamurai]

Probably creating a 3 view character, and then using keyframes to manipulate some of the recorded elements, like step speed, body speed, and stride length. That would let you slow down & stop the 3/4 view, and then you can switch to a front view.

[@nancytriggiani9565]

@@okaysamurai Thank you for the quick and thorough reply! I'll try the method you suggested!

[@aaqililham5802]

Bless you Dave!

[@OzienPlays]

Does anyone know how to keep the character from changing the hand style? I have triggers for multiple hands and it goes to default when walking.

[@okaysamurai]

If you have a hand trigger on, you'll need to drag the triggered hand from each view into the trigger. So for example, if I have a pointing hand trigger, I would need to drag the point artwork layer from my left profile, standing, and right profile views into the point trigger in the Triggers panel so under "Layers & Replays" it shows 3 layers. Then one trigger will work across all views. If the problem persists, please upload a screenshot, video, or your File > Export > Puppet file to the official forums at adobe.com/go/chfeedback so we can take a closer look.

[@OzienPlays]

@@okaysamurai yeah, I actually figured it out, I had some triggers setup wrong and I also had the little eye icons wrong for some of the trigger groups, once I fixed it it works! Just asking the question helped! I have my character walking across a room with a sword and shield sitting down in a throne. It was dropping the sword and shield in my walking animations. I duplicated those characters to add static turning left and right half a turn for sitting in a chair with a side profile and being able to move the arms and legs with 1K, once I duplicated how I did those my walking worked! Your videos help a lot, but I just really need to do the work and learn the software. Not sure why, I don't make any money, lol.

[@bibleventures]

Just finished making my first video that used character animator (previously used simple key framing in fcpx) and my rigging is a mess with extra limb iks and walk behaviours on every limb to make them function! Still - it was a start and allowed me to make a video in a very short timescale. I shall have to make use of the videos to sort my puppeting out, ensuring they don’t revert to a scrambled mess every time I drag them newly onto a scene). Still - it’s making a big difference in what I do, so thanks to you and the team.

[@okaysamurai]

If you're banging your head against the wall please please post a screenshot, video, or File > Export > Puppet (.puppet file) to adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more direct help!

[@bibleventures]

@@okaysamurai thanks - I’ll bear it in mind if I don’t get things resolved but it’s not a significant problem at the moment, it’s just that I needed arms behind legs, thus splitting the arms from body group and so on and didn’t have time to work a better solution so bodged it lol. Thank you though and if I struggle to sort things I’ll let you know, 😊

[@scott285]

@@okaysamurai I'm starting to bang my head against the wall with this problem. :) I got my 3-view puppet to walk but when I added the limb IK to the front view so he could jump, squat etc, he then quit walking. Do you have any suggestions from having this happen previously?

[@akhilakhil9325]

confusing, all set, but how set the animations like left right, and wslking style in recirding time

[@okaysamurai]

I would recommend using the keyframe option I show at the end of this video. Then you don't have to record anything.

[@tessyantony9091]

Hi , Can you pls make a video on how to do animation recording with two characters . Like two characters taking to each other . Thanks

[@okaysamurai]

Yes, this will be the next tutorial. Stay tuned!

[@scott285]

@@okaysamurai Hi, love your work, great tutorials. Have you all made this tutorial (of two CA characters interacting together) yet?

[@totlenmoingay]

Hi Dave, I want my character to walk but don't have that much time to illustrate and rig a 3-view character. Is there anyway to fix a ONE-VIEW character to the ground (not floating) one it stops walking??? Thank you and all the best, Tony.

[@okaysamurai]

Unfortunately no, because the legs need to be able to move and not pin to the ground. However, you could just duplicate your one view into 3, keeping the same illustration for each of them, and just rig it up that way.

[@totlenmoingay]

@@okaysamurai Thank you so much for the idea.

[@realityinvestigationbureau]

This video was so helpful to get my character walking and not looking like some kind of celestial horror being! Thank you Dave. I was wondering if its possible to have the character default to standing whichever direction they were walking? I got my dude walking, and he defaults to standing left like in the video, but it'd be awesome if he could stand right if I was walking right. Thanks again!!

[@okaysamurai]

Sadly no, there isn't an easy way to do this outside of making your standing character a swapset where you can trigger between two facing directions. But that feels pretty complex - usually I just pick one side and stick with it, or swap in a reverse later in After Effects or something.

[@realityinvestigationbureau]

@@okaysamurai Ah thanks for the reply! I'm getting into swapsets now, mainly for the arms because I keep getting weird shoulder issues, so I'm still in the beginner phases but looking forward to creating more complex puppets. I'll be watching a bunch of your videos! :D

[@8414darkness]

my character walks with a "right quarter profile" walking to the right side and a "left profile" walking to the left. How can I fix. Also, how is the starting profile selected?

[@okaysamurai]

The 3 view walk at 9:25 should go over this. You need to tag each side as Right Profile and Left Profile, not quarter. The starting position is the frontal view. If you download the Eliza character you will see this in action.

[@sezginderin9571]

Men you are the best, your videos help me A LOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT Please share more videos, thank you.

[@angu4878]

Thankyou for this video. It cleared my doubts. When i try to download any templates from your website, it says the file cannot be downloaded securely. And i have to discard them.

[@okaysamurai]

I would try a different browser or network. The site does have a certificate and should be working: www.okaysamurai.com/puppets/

[@angu4878]

@@okaysamurai I downloaded them! Thankyou very much!

[@johnashworth9628]

Is there a way to rig a character who isn’t upright on two legs? For example, a dog that is using all four legs on the ground? Will it work the same way in a walk cycle?

[@okaysamurai]

I talk about this at the very end of the video - it's possible, but very hacky in its current state.

[@jacquelinewilliams747]

Can you separate or regroup segments? if there is no body section, leg, or torso? One of my puppets I was trying to get to walk had all of the elements under 'Torso'

[@okaysamurai]

I would do that in the original PSD or AI file, which may require some surgery to cut out and correctly organize the necessary parts. Typically you want your original art structure to be a good as possible before importing to CH.

[@bhaggyaumayanganasalwathur6102]

thank you for your lessons, I have a problem , I can't add walk behavior because no walk behavior in my software. some behaviors are there but no walk behavior. what is the reason for that??

[@okaysamurai]

You probably have an older version. We are currently on the 2020 version 3.4 - you'll need to update to get Walk and other new behaviors.

[@bhaggyaumayanganasalwathur6102]

@@okaysamurai thank you very much

[@cerenalaz]

her head has a quarter degree but ve pick the puppet as right profile. What if i want its head to really turn even more (like a real right profile) wouldnt it cause trouble? Sorry i’m having trouble with expressing, hope you got me…

[@okaysamurai]

Check out the character Walker on www.okaysamurai.com/puppets/ - they have head turns + walking. You have to be careful because both Walk and Head Turner are looking for the "right profile" tag, so if you don't set things up like the Walker example it might not work right.

[@andycrosier3541]

Hey, great vid! So, when you're tagging the shoulders and hips -you do that on the "body" section? And when you tag the arm -you only tag the elbow and wrist -not the shoulder? And when tagging the legs leave out the hips, because they were tagged "hips" in the body section? What if you tag something twice, like hips within the body and legs sections?

[@okaysamurai]

Yeah, so typically you just want to be consistent, so I recommend putting your shoulder and hip tags all on the body group. I think it still works if they're on the arm and leg groups, but I think they have more possibilities of becoming detached if you do this. When you tag things twice, usually CH just ignores the second set, but it's good practice to only have one set of tags. If the problems persist, please upload a screenshot, video, or your File > Export > Puppet file to the official forums at adobe.com/go/chfeedback so we can take a closer look.

[@andycrosier3541]

@@okaysamurai Ok, thanks!

[@priyankarana333]

Small query - how can we make character walk and stop and tehn wave hi ....all in one rig.....when i try walk rig , hands are not able to dragged to do wave gesture

[@okaysamurai]

The best way to do this is to not rig one of the arms with wrist, elbow, and shoulder tags and just add a dragger on the hand. The walk animation takes over when those 3 tags are present.

[@priyankarana333]

@@okaysamurai let me try

[@nadermuhanna7003]

Is there anything thoroughly explaining Position based walking?

[@okaysamurai]

Is there something missing here about it? This covers the basics - just set keyframes and everything else happens automatically.

[@nadermuhanna7003]

@@okaysamurai Im doing something wrong on my part, I am just aiming to have my character walk across the screen through each scene transferring throughout different positions in the "background". im gonna redo everything and see if I am still having issues. I have rewatched video. thanks

[@nadermuhanna7003]

@@okaysamurai I was setting the new Keyframes incorrectly I see. Thank you again

[@renatovelarde422]

The Adobe forums for this is a digital desert. I can't find help. I've completely rigged some characters and closely followed the naming and rigging of "walker" generally. It sort of works as it's supposed to but the arms and legs both don't seem like they're permanentaly "attached" at the joint. I've tried changing the attachment method, placement of pieces, waist position, joint positions, everything. So it walks but at random times a leg or arm will jump out to a random place in front of the puppet when walking and won't correct itself until you stop walking and try again. I don't get what I'm missing. How can I get it to stay attached to the puppet as it walks? Consequently none of the other styles work (run, sneak, etc.) because it does the motion but the limbs don't look attached at the joint spot. they are all independent because they have to be for walking but I don't need them THAT independent.

[@okaysamurai]

Ugh, sorry for the issues. Can you File > Export > Puppet your character and send me that file? You can message me on the official forums: community.adobe.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/8340746

[@daniel_morbin]

Nice! Does anybody knows if can I use a Speed Graph (like in after effects) when I choose "Position-based"?

[@okaysamurai]

Yes - if you twirl down the parameter name in the timeline you'll get a graph editor!

[@daniel_morbin]

Thank you! I'm a Character Animator beginner, and I'm watching a lot of your videos to learn. Thanks for teaching! @@okaysamurai

[@tarikbo490]

could you explain how you make the puppet face right when standing? my puppet automatically turns to front view. thank in advance.

[@okaysamurai]

Whatever your standing/front/non-walk position is, that is what the character will always return to. There's not currently a way to say "after he/she walks left, stay turned left," or vice-versa for the right - there's just one default view. I've seen some complex rigs where they gets around this by manually triggering two different facing versions of the puppet, but most people just stick with one.

[@tarikbo490]

@@okaysamurai thanks for the quick replay.

[@timothylitostansky1339]

Thank you for the tutorial! I'm struggling something pretty specific. While my character is walking I want them to occasionally raise their hand, point, etc. I tried the limb IK but they seem to fight each other. Is this possible in CA? Thanks in advance!

[@okaysamurai]

Yeah this is a tough one. Your best bet is to leave Limb IK off of the arms for the walking views and don't tag the wrist/elbow so walk won't take over. You won't get the benefits of Limb IK but at least you'll be able to move the arms. I unfortunately can't think of another way to deal with this because Limb IK and Walk both want those same tags.

[@timothylitostansky1339]

@@okaysamurai Thank you very much for the reply. That really is a huge bummer. Hopefully something like this will be fixed in the future.

[@basseverexclusive8047]

Why is kaufman standing was tag as frontal but eliza is not tag as frontal ? Would u explain why ?

[@okaysamurai]

I don't remember if it was how the behavior used to work or my misunderstanding of it, but frontal is not a required tag for walking anymore.

[@basseverexclusive8047]

@@okaysamurai thnks dave

[@extremesegaa9239]

Is there a way to reset the workspace layout to it's original layout? I managed to mess mine up and is driving me insane trying to fix it , found it in window, workspace, reset record

[@extremesegaa9239]

Nevermind I found it in windows , workspace ,reset record for anyone having this issue

[@exnewyorker4374]

it would be nice to have a standing view for both directions in the same puppet. it seems this is not an option here - i am right?

[@okaysamurai]

Technically you could rig it up as a trigger for the standing view to have two standing options, but you would have to manually do it, so walking to the left or right will not always automatically switch to the correct view. So possible, but manual.

[@exnewyorker4374]

@@okaysamurai thank you for the reply and the great video above. i learned a great deal from it

[@robynp3893]

Thanks! I'm trying to create a character with big pants and shoes (think C bear and Jamal cartoon) how do I get the walk to not warp? Can you show how to set up a walk for a larger character?

[@okaysamurai]

In general, Character Animator does use warping to do a lot of its animation. If you don't want things to warp, you can use tools like independence, sticks, hinge attach points, etc. to minimize the effects, but for walking in particular you are always going to have some degree of warping.

[@robynp3893]

@@okaysamurai thank you for the quick reply. 🙂 I've tried using a stick across the bottom of my shoe but when my character walks the shoe folds( at the top). My shoe is the shape of a half circle. I was just curious if there were a way to keep the shape. Maybe I'll have to just animate movement frame for frame

[@okaysamurai]

Yeah what I do when I see weird warps is exactly that - add sticks, move origins/tags around, adjust parameters, etc. Even adjusting the waist and neck tags can have a big impact, I've noticed character lean in/back more depending on the relationship of those two. It's a lot of trial and error since every character form is unique, but hopefully you get something you like! If the problem persists, please upload a screenshot, video, or your File > Export > Puppet file to the official forums at adobe.com/go/chfeedback so we can take a closer look.

[@robynp3893]

@@okaysamurai you are the best! Thank you for the tips

[@philipjeffery6682]

Version 22.5 seems to not work properly. Reducing the strength parameter in the walk behavior, say from 100% to 50% increases the hip sway *permanently, even if I reset the parameters the puppet's gait is permanently altered. I started over with a simpler puppet in right profile only and the hips worked until I reduced the strength. Then the hips never returned to their origins. I realize walking has a lot of "moving parts" but the older version worked better. If no one else thinks so, then I'll assume it's only my puppet.

[@okaysamurai]

If I try walking with the Eliza examples from okaysamurai.com/puppets I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary with the hip movement, so not sure what is going on. If the problem persists, please upload a screenshot, video, or your File > Export > Puppet file to the official forums at adobe.com/go/chfeedback so we can take a closer look.

[@philipjeffery6682]

@@okaysamurai Thanks. Eliza helped. I see I have to add handles on the body for the hips and shoulders. I thought the green dots were sufficient.

[@neoblackcyptron]

Hi Dave, I think this might be an old question. But is there a way to make walk cycles for a puppet with 4 legs. The one approach I can think of is to make 2 puppets with 2 legs each, and have a 3rd puppet with a head and torso, combine all 3 to create my 4 legged creature. But I think, there might be a better way which I am not aware of. Thanks I figured it out saw another video where the user maps the same puppet leg tags to more than one leg. So it is possible to have a one to many relationship between the puppet tag and the different parts of the vector art.

[@okaysamurai]

I talk about it at the end of this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nafCY4imq9mgY68. It's not great but it's the best workaround I've found so far.

[@neoblackcyptron]

@@okaysamurai Thanks. I'll check that out. BTW the new IK for the arms and legs in the BETA version is really useful. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. It really made a difference in my episode2 which i released last week.

[@1WillyDAVID]

There's some fix to create a standing view in both directions depending on the character direction?

[@okaysamurai]

The best way to do this is to make the two different facing views and put it into a triggered swap set. It won't automatically change position, but it would let you trigger a turned stand when you need it.

[@1WillyDAVID]

@@okaysamurai got it, thanks a lot Dave!

[@66forty68]

Struggling to use this puppet and edit the eyes act ? Replace not opening ? Help!

[@okaysamurai]

I'm not sure what "Replace" not opening means? To edit her, I would select her and click the PS icon to edit her in Photoshop: kzbin.info/www/bejne/baHKnpKrabueh80

[@FemtechStudio]

Thanks I have issues with "CH" any time I tried to open the app I pop and error message saying opengl 3.2 is not found, that the scene will be blank l, once I click on cancelled it will open and it will not work, please help me to fix this issue

[@okaysamurai]

See community.adobe.com/t5/character-animator/faq-how-do-i-diagnose-and-resolve-an-opengl-related-error/td-p/7383058?page=1 or community.adobe.com/t5/character-animator/opengl-problem-won-t-allow-character-animator-to-work/m-p/9140012?page=1

[@CanberkSezer]

my characters head is kinda independent when walking? it doesn't effect as my as need from the walk behavior _ what could be the reason?

[@okaysamurai]

Is it rigged the exact same as Eliza here? Note her head origin has also been tagged as neck, which should bob the head up and down. If it persists, please post a screenshot, video, or File > Export > Puppet (.puppet file) to adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more help.

[@CanberkSezer]

@@okaysamurai thanks dave it works now:)

[@zavankan4796]

Hi Dave, for Eliza, are we able to change the color of her shirt and pants? I did not see a layer for shirt and pants. I just finished the "create your own puppet" tutorial and noticed it had a group for pants. Also her hair, I was able to change the color for the right and left side of her hair, but not the middle. How would I be able to do that? Thanks.

[@okaysamurai]

Yes, I believe if you go into Eliza's legs and torso in the PSD file you'll find the elements you're looking for. Her pants parts are more spread out because she needed walk functionality. Same with the hair and dangling - just go through the PSD and turn layer visibility on/off until you find the right ones!

[@kelvin_darwin]

Are you guys planning on doing a front view walk cycle option soon? That will be a game changer.

[@okaysamurai]

No current plans outside of using cycle layers as shown for Wonder Boy in this video, but feel free to add/vote on it here: adobe.com/go/ch_wish

[@JohnMcMahan5]

With the 3 view walk, would it be possible to add 3 different standing profiles instead of one in the standing group and use a swap set to change the standing direction? That way, when the character stops walking, the character is still facing the direction that it was walking. This might kill the need for having separate standing and walking characters. Is that even a good idea or is it better to just have separate characters? Thanks.

[@okaysamurai]

Yep, this is totally possible! It may feel a little complex, needing to remember when & where to trigger the views, and if those extra views don't have view tags, you would need to manually add additional face / eye gaze / etc. behaviors. To me it's just a bit too much complexity to keep in my head, so I tend to stick to just the 3 view, but it's definitely doable.

[@JohnMcMahan5]

@@okaysamurai I see what you mean! It is totally easier for me to use a separate standing and walking version on the timeline than to rig, tag, and untag all the behaviors for one character. Thanks again!

[@addisutesfaye5585]

Does Eliza have custom expressions like blink, smile, shrug. . .?

[@okaysamurai]

Eliza does not - I kept her simple to let the focus be on her walking...plenty of other example characters who show that stuff off!

[@addisutesfaye5585]

@@okaysamurai Thanks for clearing that up Dave!

[@NilmiRN]

Hi, Why My puppet is not walking through the screen, instad walking in the same position.??

[@okaysamurai]

Make sure Walk > Body Speed is set to 100% in the right behavior properties.

[@NilmiRN]

@@okaysamurai . Yes got it. thanks again.

[@ChrisOVEMERY]

hey Dave thanks for an amazing tutorial. I have a question, and sorry if this is covered but I simply missed it somehow. Say you have a rigged and tweaked standing puppet. You just want to add the left and right profiles and do the whole walk thing. Immediately when putting your your whole character in a folder (standing) all the rigging disappears and needs to be re-done. Is there a way around this?

[@okaysamurai]

Unfortunately no - CH has a hard time keeping track of the rigging if things get shifted around into different folders. Anytime there are major structure changes, which is usually folders being added / moved / renamed, it can break the rigging. Sometimes CH is smart enough to figure it out, but not all the time. So for a walking character I try to add that stuff ahead of time before I get into any heavy rigging.

[@ChrisOVEMERY]

@@okaysamurai alright! thanks for answering!

[@anotherdayanotherdance8369]

Hello Dave... thank you so much for the help! Where can I find a video where it shows how to set up the three view step by step?

[@okaysamurai]

I'm not sure if I ever show it exactly step by step - but I do give a slightly different take here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGKqfZ6Ei7t4fc0

[@anotherdayanotherdance8369]

@@okaysamurai Thank you!

[@phagestudio]

When i follow these steps up until 6:28, my character wont float in my scene :( any idea why this is happening?

[@phagestudio]

could it be because i have hips in my artwork?

[@okaysamurai]

So they're just showing up static without moving up and down? Do you have waist and neck tags yet? My guess is there's some behavior / tag mismatch. If the problem persists, please upload a screenshot, video, or your File > Export > Puppet file to the official forums at adobe.com/go/chfeedback so we can take a closer look.

[@phagestudio]

@@okaysamurai Thank you for your response. I've tagged the neck and waist correctly, still no bounce. I am unable to upload my exported puppet file to the forum, it says the puppet file is unsupported.

[@okaysamurai]

Try uploading it to something like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Creative Cloud and post it as a shared link on the forums.

[@theshapeofart8536]

youre the best teacher!

[@rufia3165]

when i select the parts you are referring to, they do not turn anything green and I do not see the green dots either, am i missing a step? neither do i see a yellow outline around those areas

[@okaysamurai]

It's possible you toggled off the view mesh toggle. In the lower left of the Rig puppet panel, there are two icons - try toggling the outlined one and you should see the yellow and green.

[@rufia3165]

@@okaysamurai got it , thanks

[@Qtoonsnetwork]

Hey i love your work I wanted to ask u can i make a cartoon series using this Software ?

[@okaysamurai]

Yep! In fact I hope to release a multi-character cartoon episode and accompanying tutorial next month - stay tuned!

[@Qtoonsnetwork]

@@okaysamurai ok great that would be very helpful cause I always wanted to start animation but never knew where to start from but your videos are very very helpful

[@silviocosta1577]

Hi there. What about if I want to create a walking behavior for a female puppet with a long skirt that cover her legs? I can draw legs under the skirt, of course, and set all the handles and tags, but then...?

[@okaysamurai]

Currently this is difficult to do as there's not an easy way (yet) to set up collision with the legs and a physics-enabled skirt. Your best bet is to either make the skirt params generous enough to give extra room so the knees don't show up behind, or hide the legs entirely. See how Tiffany LaBelle does this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3_KpqxrZq6boaM

[@silviocosta1577]

@@okaysamurai OK, good suggest. When you say "hide the legs" you mean that I have to draw legs (to activate behavior) and I have just to totally cover them with the skirt, right?

[@okaysamurai]

Exactly.

[@moneyconceptsmcallen]

when exporting to media encoder 2020, character starts in the middle of the scene, even if I walk him off camera to original position of the recording!! Please advise.

[@okaysamurai]

The character will start wherever he is via the Transform behavior, which is usually the middle of the screen. If you want this to be different, adjust Transform > Position X.

[@RogerMudd009]

I see all these videos about walking, but none that how to make a puppet walk on-screen from off-screen. Researching I see that question has been asked since at least 2017 and I can't find one video on how to do it. My puppet should walk from off camera to to the middle of the screen, stop and begin the presentation. But as I'm sure you already know, the video for some reason begins with my puppet in the middle of the screen and when the video starts the puppet walks off the screen. Can you please make a video showing a solution to the one problem? Thanks.

[@okaysamurai]

Use position based walking with keyframes as shown here, and make the first keyframe off the screen, and the second wherever you want them to end up several seconds later. Or if you're using keyboard based controls, I would use the Transform behavior to move them offscreen with the Position X control. Also, to see an accurate playback, disarm the character in the timeline (click the red dot off).

[@RogerMudd009]

@@okaysamurai Thank You!!! One more question though. now that I've imported after effects is only play 25 seconds of the video.

[@okaysamurai]

Select the scene in CH and change "duration" on the right properties to be higher. In AE make sure the comp duration is long enough as well.

[@RogerMudd009]

@@okaysamurai Don't know what I'm doing wrong, both durations (CH & AE) are for 3 minutes, but the video still loops at 25 seconds.

[@okaysamurai]

Possibly your AE cache getting filled up? Or an active work area bar? If it persists, please post a screenshot or video to adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more direct help.

[@neoblackcyptron]

I have one question regarding the walk cycle. Is it possible to avoid the sudden jump when transitioning from the left profile view, to the front view, to the right profile view when walking back and forth on the screen. I have tried setting up the curves for the smooth transition from one view to the next. But the act of switching between the left, center, and right profile view still seems immediate. I might be missing something, that the software application already has to get this accomplished.

[@okaysamurai]

This is currently how walk works - there isn't a transition, it will immediately jump to the next view when triggered. I've seen some people play around with keyframing the parameters to slow down / speed up a walk at the beginning / end to ease into a standing position better, or use some transform keyframes to line them up better, but yeah, unfortunately right now transitions are always going to be immediate.

[@neoblackcyptron]

@@okaysamurai No problemo, this is already an awesome piece of software. I am sure the adobe folks will come up with some algorithm to give us this feature in the future. For now I am transistioning between left and right views, without hitting the Frontal view, that works better for my needs.