Learn Adobe Character Animator CC

Name: Learn Adobe Character Animator CC
Rating: 3.7 (334 reviews)

Motion Capture Animation Basics

Created byDavid Miller

Last updated 11/2019

English

English [Auto],Polish [Auto],

What you'll learn

Create their own motion capture puppets using Adobe Character Animator and Photoshop
Set physics on their animated puppets
Record voiceover or sync pre-existing dialogue to their puppet's mouths
Incorporate their Character Animator puppets into Adobe After Effects

Course content

8 sections • 44 lectures • 3h 32m total length

Introduction2:38
We learn the core concept behind motion capture and how Character Animator is used in contrast to frame-by-frame or keyframe animation.

The Face Template7:53
The Face Files In Photoshop and Illustrator7:52
Creating Face Parts3:40
Learn to create reusable face parts in Adobe Character Animator CC by duplicating mouth and eyebrow shapes, recycling parts across characters to speed up design and ensure consistency.
Head Rigging And Behaviors Pt. 14:49
In rig mode, explore independent facial features like eyebrows and mouth, adjust head position strength, tilt, and scale, and examine puppet behaviors for after effects workflows.
Head Rigging And Behaviors Pt. 24:22
Mouth Shapes1:40
Master the full set of 14 mouth shapes, or viseme phonemes, in Adobe Character Animator CC to convey speech; avoid reducing to a few shapes, as variety keeps characters engaging.
Creating Your Own Face From Scratch2:52
The Scene Menu and General Transformations3:22
Learn to set up scenes and apply general transformations in Adobe Character Animator CC, adjusting scene width, height, frame rate, and duration, then transform puppets for close-ups and varied animation.
Characterizer: The Alternate Way To Make A Face6:15
Students will learn how to create puppets with Characterizer and import/ export their own artwork styles into the program.

Designing A Body Pt. 110:18
In Photoshop, we create a body out of different parts on a puppet created from scratch.
Designing A Body Pt. 25:30
We finalize our body in Adobe Photoshop in our created-from-scratch puppet.
Introduction to Body Rigging3:39
We begin work setting up the rigging of the body layers.
Body Rigging 2: Hinging and Welding Parts2:48
We learn the difference of welding and hinging limbs and attachments.
Body Rigging 3: Nutcracker Jaw3:11
We cover the option of a "nutcracker jaw" as opposed to a viseme/ phoneme oriented head.
Body Rigging 4: Dangles and Draggables2:03
This is where we add on pins with behaviors that have physics of their own.
Body Rigging 5: Breathing1:29
Characters look more alive when they breath on their own, right? Here we go through breathing options.
Body Rigging 6: Walk Cycles2:44
This is where we check out how to get our characters walking from side to side!
Body Rigging 7: Walk Cycle Options4:12
In this lesson we showcase how to work with a puppet's body in motion.
Hip + Shoulder Sway and Pose Emphasis4:35
We begin organizing our layers for our talking puppet.
Arm IK6:00
In this lesson we finalize our photo layers in Adobe Photoshop.

Swap Sets Pt. 13:10
Here we get into "swap sets"- changeable attributes that you trigger with your keyboard or MIDI input.
Swap Sets Pt. 23:43
Learn to create swap sets in Adobe character animator cc by dragging arms into a swap set, assigning default and trigger names, and using latch and hotkeys for persistent poses.
PNG Sequences6:05
This lesson covers "rigging" or how to attach the various sections of the body so Character Animator recognizes which parts are supposed to move in which way.

Initial Drawing5:52
Working in Illustrator Pt. 17:51
Learn to create scalable vector artwork in Illustrator using layers, strokes, and fills, and prepare separate layers for character animator behaviors with tools like the pencil tool and curvature tool.
Working In Illustrator Pt 211:09
From Illustrator to Photoshop10:41
Learn to transfer character assets from Illustrator to Photoshop, rig faces with puppet tools, create reusable mouth sets, and organize layered files for efficient character animation in Adobe Character Animator.
From Photoshop to Character Animator9:01

Designing A Background In Adobe Illustrator3:12
Now we have our Photoshop puppet in Character Animator and rig the structure.
Preparing The Background In Adobe Photoshop3:13
Backgrounds As Character Animator Puppets3:40
Create a walking puppet scene in adobe character animator cc by importing foreground and background, adjusting scale and body speed, then animate background with breathing on clouds and sun.
Cycle Layer Details3:24
Copy grass paths from Illustrator, paste on separate layers, tweak with curvature tool for a looping breezy grass animation, then export as pngs and import cycle layers into Character Animator.
Using Fader On Backgrounds6:36
Animate background elements in Adobe Character Animator CC by recording background layers, using a fader to fade gradients and skies, and swapping them with triggers for different times of day.

Copying and Pasting A Performance3:46
Copy performances from one character to another in adobe character animator cc, transferring walk, lip sync, and triggers from Wolverine to Jean Grey, noting hand group differences.
Copying and Pasting Behaviors1:46
Recording and Exporting Walkthrough6:30
In this lesson I show you the basics of recording a scene and exporting it from Character Animator.
Making A Puppet File3:35
In this lesson we explore how to make a .puppet file and why you'd want to.
Final Thoughts1:01
We summarize the basics of Adobe Character Animator!
Character Animator Final Quiz

Requirements

Students should have access to the Adobe Creative Cloud, including Adobe After Effects CC which uses Adobe Character Animator as a subprogram, and Adobe Photoshop.
Basic understanding of layers in Photoshop.
Access to a webcam is required.

Description

Animate characters you create with your web cam and automated lip sync in Adobe's Character Animator!

Motion capture puppets are great for:

explainer video animations
short films + cartoons
commercials
creative live interactive characters
motion comics
anything needing reusable characters - no need to redraw frames or set keyframes anytime a character moves!

We'll cover mouth shapes, layer placement, syncing an audio track to lips or creating your own audio for your puppet to voice, adding physics for more life-like movement, creating custom puppets and even walk cycles.

This course utilizes Adobe Photoshop to build our puppets and files are exported to Adobe After Effects, so both programs are essential to using Character Animator effectively.

This is a highly effective way to create reusable characters for explainer videos, short film, music videos and other media.

Who this course is for:

Beginning animators.
People with interest in motion capture programs.
Creatives looking for new means of self expression.

Learn Adobe Character Animator CC

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction1 lecture • 3min

The Head9 lectures • 43min

The Body11 lectures • 46min

Cycles, Triggers and Behaviors3 lectures • 13min

Photographic Puppets, Head Turns and Motion Triggers5 lectures • 26min

Designing a Character From Drawing To Puppet5 lectures • 45min

Backgrounds In Character Animator5 lectures • 20min

Wrap Up5 lectures • 17min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: