project_6_character_animator_body
Notes:
Making Head Turns
Make sure to correctly LABEL your layers in Photoshop first.
Unfortunately your Keyboard Triggers and Rigging will be lost on the original head after the change!
You must have a Head Group at the top of the Hierarchy. Copy paste your main head to make different groups, named as follows.
Left Profile
Left Quarter
Frontal
Right Quarter
Right Profile
Upward
Downward
Make the Head Group different in each state by moving the eyes, mouth, nose, etc.
Select Head Group in Puppet Panel.
Then click Behaviors and the + symbol and choose Head Turner.
Each Head should have a 1 next to it, if not Go back to the TAG Section and look at heads.
Now Heads should work!
Heads can also be triggered with Keyboard Triggers
Note:
You have to manually add the triggers to each head 🙁
Make Body more Adjustable
Put Layers in correct Stacking Order
(stacking order is up to you, just remember to think of what you parts you want in front)
Possible Idea:
+L Leg
+L Arm Folder
L Arm
L Hands Folder
L Hands Versions
Torso
+R Arm
>Hands
+R Foot
On the Puppet
Click Body Layer
Drag center of Origin (little circle that says Body) to change the Origin Point
Think of the Center of Gravity of your character
Add Thumbtacks to keep parts in place (if you want it to stay)
Click the Body Group
And add Thumbtacks where you want
Click on an apendage
Add Staple to part where it should attach
In Layer you can change the Attach style to HINGE / WELD
Now add the Sticks where you would have ‘Bones’
You can Do Shoulders, Spine and Sides of Body to keep character rigid
Now Add the Draggable area to the areas you want to make draggable
Add Dangle to other Apendages that move with Gravity
Mesh
Mesh can be adjusted if you notice errors with your puppet. Not necessary to use this.
Click Top Puppet Layer, Click Mesh Button
In Scene
In the Recording Properties , go to Dragger and set it to Record
Move your body parts
In the Dragger Recording Properties adjust After Move– Choose Hold in Place (keep the position when you move mouse), Return Duration – how long it takes to remove if not using Hold
Recording
The Red Dot is what is ON for Recording
Turn off the dots to focus just on the drags (or other variables)
You can do one thing at at time
Lip Sync
Records Audio and Lip Sync Track
If you wanna fix Lip Sync
Edit Split
Split Lip Sync into Viseams
Import Audio
Timeline
Compute Lip Sync from Audio
Turn of you Mic or Camera when you don’t need it
To reset the camera position, look direct at camera and hit RESET
Slow mo record
Adjust the variable next to the record button, gives you longer time to work
Takes
Character Animator records takes over each other
It also records independent Drags as their own bar in the timeline
Blends
You can Blend the Takes
Export
Adobe Media Encoder
Choose Preset and Drag
Walk Cycle
Move arms and legs to one extreme
Record a Take
Then Pose the opposite Extreme
Record a Take
Now Extend the bottom Take
Now Blend and Duplicate the Top Take
Command + D to duplicate
Then to animate vertical movement, in Transform Properties you can Record the Position X movement
(you can see an example in the tutorial video at 41:28)
Walk Cycle – Using Traditional Animation Methods
Walk Cycle
Make the separate drawing for the Body of a walk cycle each as their own layer
(you could import your gif to do this!)
Put these all in a Layer called BODY
Put the Heads in a body called head
Set a Cycle Layers Behavior for the Body
Cycle Layers, Start Immediately, Cycle Continously
Alternative Methods
Add Images and tag with the Names from the traditional file structure
Adjust the Face Settings to get Extra movements using Head Tilt/Smoothing