How I Animate In Adobe Character Animator

So you want to learn how to use Adobe Character Animator? Well you’ve come to the right place. I think... I created Culpamland. An online animated series that uses Adobe character animator to bring the 2D characters to life. This video will show how Culpamland’s characters are rigged and, give a break down on how you can create a basic rigged puppet. Adobe Character Animator is a unique program that allows to animate their Photoshop or Illustrator files: either through cyclic trigger animations

or motion tracking through a webcam. As you need Photoshop and/or Illustrator to use Character Animator, you cannot buy this program separately. These are the file specifications that each character in Culpamland character uses. Make sure you’re using RGB instead of CMYK! 1080 x 1920 is a good size. As Culpamland’s characters are created in Illustrator this video will focus on this program but the same rules apply for Photoshop too. Layers and Groups are what will formulate your puppet If your l

ayers aren’t in their proper order then you’ll struggle in the rigging stage. Each layer and group MUST be labelled properly! An issue you may encounter is that Character Animator won’t recognise certain layers due to their names therefore you won’t be able to rig them. This is what a basic rigging file looks like. Before we continue, you’ll need to decide which recording process you’ll prefer There are 3: Motion tracking Triggered cycles and Transform. Culpamland’s characters use all three Moti

on tracking for the face movements. Triggered cycles for the eyelids and eyebrows leaving the position and rotation of their arms with Transform. Cycle triggered animations are grouped in a particular way, like so: If the hierarchy is incorrect, the animation won’t work. Once you’ve completed your layering and grouping now it’s time to start rigging. Simply drag and drop your Illustrator or Photoshop file into the program. In the rigging tab you’ll be presented with this The character you’ve des

igned in the middle. All of the layers and groups ready to be rigged. And finally, the alterations column. This skeleton wireframe will help us properly rig your puppet granted that you’ve labelled your layers and groups properly... Most of the rigging occurs on the face. IF you labelled it properly, you might see that the wireframe is now blue. This means that the layer is now assigned to this element Now lets select the face group. You’ll have to make it INDEPENDENT by crowning it king. This t

ells the program that this layer or group moves independently from the puppet. This group will have its own face behaviour Along side being rigged on the skeleton as head as well. So now both the Head group And face group are rigged to the head, with the face being independent Let’s give this a try. Go to the record tab and ensure that your webcam is on If not: go to this drop down menu and ensure that your preferred webcam is selected. Also, this red dots imply that this behaviour Make sure tha

t Face is highlighted This rigging method achieves the ‘parallax’ effect where two layers travel at different speeds so the illusion of 3D is at play. An issue you may encounter is this: The head and face are being tracked but the puppet flies all over the place. It’s an easy fix: Go back to rigging and select the characters name in the group Down at the bottom you’ll see these tools. Select this tool and protrude a long line along the puppet's base. Press the plus sign and apply ‘Fixed’ This be

haviour will, fix the puppet in place so when we return to the record tab and use motion tracking, the puppet’s feet will stay put allowing the head to navigate at ease with no disruptions You’ll notice that this character has an ear hiding in the back. To further achieve the parallax effect add a crown for independence on this layer. Then, just like the face, add a Face behaviour and assign this ear layer to the face. You’ll have to ensure that the parallax behaviour falls into the minus, this

allows the ear layer will travel opposite to where you look to give the illusion of rotation and travel. Now we’ll focus on the eyes. There are three ways to animate the eyes: Motion tracking, using your eyes through the webcam. Mouse, using the direction of the mouse cursor to navigate the pupils. Or, the one that I use: Keyboard, using arrow keys You’ll notice that the file uses ‘Detail R’ or ‘L’ instead of naming the group Eye. This is to tackle an issue you may encounter: the entire group bl

inking and stretching like a balloon. Inside the group, the layer that’s assigned to ‘Eye’ is the layer Eyeball. As the pupil has it’s own behaviour, ensure you crown the pupil layer and assign it to the wireframe. In the record tab, you’ll get to chose how your pupils react in this area. Decide which method you prefer for your project and highlight it. If your pupils are reacting differently, make sure that the origin point is in the centre of the layer and try to play around with the propertie

s behaviours. We have the parallax face and rigged eyes. Let’s move on to the mouths: Mouths have different expressions: happy, sad angry for example. Triggers won’t be used here, instead we use Swap sets! This allows the user to swap through elements during recording. Before we do that, we need to make sure that the mouths are properly assigned and layered. The swap set options allow you to set which mouth is default. An issue you may encounter is that when you record, the default mouth is show

n but the other expression don’t appear even when triggered This is because the alternative mouth sets aren’t assigned as a mouth. This same swap set can be made with hands, clothes and even hair styles! Here are some quick issues you may encounter and how to fix them: Sometimes when you edit the puppet in Illustrator/ Photoshop, press save to process the changes, this may happen. The artwork isn’t in sync. It’s an easy fix In rigging, go to this area and find the file with the puppet. The conne

ction should be found again. If your pupil isn’t responding, add the Eye Gaze behaviour to the pupil that doesn’t work. This should override the problem. If you have more than one method of recording assigned to an element, for instance an eyebrow, then Character animator might have some trouble understanding. Only assign one of these to the element, this should fix the problem. And that’s it! A quick basic rig for you guys to follow. Be sure to check out the downloadable files to help out with

your adventure into Adobe Character Animator.