I learn my Character Animation through you . All I learned was because of you . Now I wake up @5am re watch some of your video then start my morning. Thank you.
I really love this and feel sad that I'm not actually creating anything with it (and Adobe Fuse too). Very powerful tools and I hope you keep making them better. Thanks Adobe!
This is so awesome!!!! You are a great artist as well! I'm so excited to discover this and I so wish I started messing with this app sooner!!! I definitely am glad for my year of courses with School of Motion. This is just so exciting to see new things possible! Thanks again!!! Using this method, once you pick your style, just script and record! I truly hope to bring some of my mother's artwork to life. She paints, pencils, and does sculpture. So excited!!!! Thank you so much again!
That is really awesome, I enjoyed seeing a character of you talking too. These are really neat. I haven't really gotten to Character Animator yet. I was just thinking, some Halloween characters would be really cool.
I don't know if you're open to feedback, but I'll offer here that to me the tech isn't up to par yet. The subtlety of acting isn't there and its all rather choppy. Looks like a previous comment got it right when it said that these would be really powerful as photoshop filters, but very weak when it comes to animation.
We're always open to feedback - that's what makes us better for the future. This is the 1.0 version of this feature, and we hope to make improvements in subsequent releases. Like the choppy look can work for certain animations, but it would be nice if users had more options, like morphing between mouth states.
Glasses should still show up if you move the stylization slider all the way to the left (in most cases). I would experiment and see what looks best to you!
Currently it only takes one image of each mouth, but you could manipulate these in Photoshop to either line up better or add multi-frame sequences - what we call "cycle layers" in CH - to make an animation like a jaw dropping or a "Woo" shape getting smaller. It would take some manual manipulation though - ideally Characterizer could do this for you in the future.
I love this feature in [Ch] but since I have the face of a proper woodsman my character renders a long face due to my beard... Is there anyway to eliminate that without going into Photoshop and erasing the beard from every face layer? ...or shaving?
Yeah, beards and long hair can sometimes run into capture issues. One idea might be to pull your shirt up or use a blanket and cut your beard off a little higher to see if that helps isolate it. If it continues not working please post some screenshots in adobe.com/go/chfeedback and we can try to fix it for the future.
Hi! I used the characterizer to make a puppet. I used the webcam and posed for the expressions. Then I choose this "character" I just made. BUT - It wont let me press the, "generate puppet", WITH NO STYLE. I just want to use the images I posed for with no style at all selected or applied. I don't want a mixed character I just want to use my own images I posed for. There totally is a USE NO STYLE button, the first box in the style choices section. I definitely have it selected. But the button up top, above the preview image is grayed out UNTIL I select one of the other styles. USE NO STLYE is the choice I want. Until I select a picture as a style, the button that says generate puppet will not work. Is this a defect? What can I do to be able to use the images I pose for WITHOUT an additional STYLE applied? THANK YOU for all the helpful videos you create!
@@okaysamurai I havent tried it, but seems like a fairly simple work-around. Use create new style, and point it to a copy of the same photo. Then go in and allocate the regions using the guides provided. I think that should do the trick
The creating the puppet part is definitely the biggest obstacle to using the program quickly. Is this feature only able to be used for photos and webcam capture or could we input art that mimics the capture to shortcut a quick puppet?
Currently it's just for the webcam, and I've never tried with artwork before so I'm not sure how well it would work! We agree that puppet creation is tough and are planning to have more ways to make this even easier in the future. Stay tuned!
Great tutorial. I love the new format of the channel with highlights as a separate video. One question about Characterizer, why is it necessary to capture our face at all if we're just going to apply a new style over it? Perhaps if there were a default FACECAP already in the captures directory, kind of like the face from FACE CAP iOS app, we could skip training the software altogether. Where can we go to provide such feedback to the dev team?
There should be - once you go through the process once, when you reach that first screen there will be faces that you can click to use instead of doing it over and over again. In fact, you can right-click any of those faces to see "Reveal in finder/explorer" and see the actual facecap file itself.
Single photo mode will only generate the one mouth from the photo - to get all the mouths you would need to go through the creation process where you make each mouth shape as you say the words (as shown in this video). Photo mode will only give you a single stylized face.
Can you animate one picture? For example can I take one shot of Yoda and talk with that one picture? Not my face with yoda effects but Yoda's picture I choose. How can this be done?
Question: I filmed a head & shoulders interview with a person and would now like to animate them. As opposed to capturing myself from my webcam. Does this work? Can I import the video and animate it like you have? Thx, Paul
Can you just take your own face, go to Characterizer and get the facial expressions, and just use that face without having to merge it into one of the styles?
0:56 Probably the most important instruction in the video, how to open the characterizer tool, isn't working for me. It's not in my start workspace as the video.
Hi Are you able to create a character on photoshop / illustrator and then import on top of an existing video? I'm thinking you do a full capture and then be able to use videos with your face and then superimpose the rig on the existing video? Does this make sense?
Yep! You would record your face and then use a tool like After Effects to add it to video using motion tracking or something similar. Check this out: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FqnyUV31eGI.html
Dave, this has probably been asked before, so apologies in advance, but is it possible to attach a head created in characterizer to the body of an existing puppet? I'm hoping it's simpler than motion tracking it in After Effects :) ... any resources you can point me toward? Thanks!
Yes - I would just check "Head Only" inside Characterizer and export that into CH. Then you could do something like make a copy of Chloe, delete her head, and drag the Characterizer puppet head inside instead. Or you could combine elements together in the original PSD file as well, but that might require re-rigging when synced back. I don't think I have any videos showing how to do this but yeah, it should be totally possible!
While it’s optimized for human faces and can fail if It doesn’t find the right components, I’m sure people are going to hack and break this in interesting ways!
Awesome video!! Sir Wade Neistadt sent me, I'm definitely purchasing this software. Just one question. I'm interested in doing animation with animal characters such as dogs and cats, is this possible with this software? Thanks.
Yes - anything you can make in a Photoshop or Illustrator file can be animated in Character Animator. Note that 4-legged characters aren't naturally supported for the walk behavior, although there are some hacks to get it to work.
@@okaysamurai First and foremost Thank you for replying to my questions. And also your knowledge is infinite with this software, that’s what I was trying to find out next, the walking ability of 4 legged friends. You say there’s a hack for that I wanted to know if you have a video on this if not I think it’s something you should consider making as I’m sure a lot of people want to know how to make this possible. Thanks again and I will be purchasing this software my strongest motivation being YOU and all those video lessons you post. I hope the company appreciates your worth. You’ve definitely motivated me in becoming a customer of Adobe. Thank again.
Thanks! The end of the walk tutorial talks about several hacks, including a 4 legged walk one: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gv_2Upvtm-M.html
Your original capture has your eye are brighter but all of the renders, gives your eyes a weird low contrast darkness. Is that related to the style you chose or is it a flaw in the characterizer?
The one thing I want to do I can't seem to do with this. I have a human-like image I created and I want to use that, but with no added style. It seems to want to force me to choose one of the included styles.
@@okaysamurai I took another static picture in the same environment as the "Character Animator walk through" and imported it as a custom style then used that to create the character and it turned out pretty good.
Hi again Dave. I love all of your video tutorials and really appreciate them. I just was using my wife's iphone today and hate to have to ask you... why is iphone lip sync able to be light years ahead of adobe character animator? they must be using alien technology! can you please ask adobe what is iphone doing that they are not? or what is adobe missing that iphone isnt? Other than that, im an adobe fan for life!!! thanks again Dave!
I'm guessing you're talking about animoji? It's two different methods: those are 3D models doing morphing mouth movements based off of the camera tracking of your lips and jaw. Character Animator is instead a 2D approach, and is primarily based off of the audio, not the camera (unless you add nutcracker jaw). So really it's the difference between the 3D and 2D look. If we did 3D one day, we would almost certainly adopt a similar technique or morphing geometric shapes. Personally I don't think their lip sync is "light years ahead" - it's just a different method better suited for a different dimension.
Got it. Thanks for the explanation Dave. When i tried out the iphone, it tracked precisely in low light. just something to think about. lol. many thanks for the speedy reply!!!!! I'll be going to the next char anima event! ps.. congrats on evan the robot detective story! very unique layout; well planed logistics. talk soon!
I've been looking for the ability to have my facecam record me, but my animated face go over and track onto my face. I belive I've seen something like that in one of your videos. Could you please help me find which one if able? Thank you for your time.
Yes, but you would need to go into Photoshop to do that. Once you generate a puppet, select it in the project panel and click the "PS" icon that appears at the bottom.
Not very well, no. You can use the still photo method as I show here, but there's not currently a way to use a video instead of the webcam to drive the capture process.
Shave? Just kidding. Facial hair can get lost in translation when adding styles - your best bet is to turn the stylization slider all the way to the left to retain more of your facial features.
@@okaysamurai okay, I really reconsider using Adobe in future.... especially if I see how Microsoft treats the customers data with every update.... Adobe should finally get their stuff working in Linux.
If staying with Windows 7 is important to you, I'd say just stick with the 1.5 version, which still has the core functionality (but yes, no Characterizer). Minimum requirements will always evolve as technology improves, and sticking to older operating systems will impede innovation - especially the number of OS-specific bugs that engineers have to fix instead of working on performance or new features. As for other systems - we are always looking into new platforms that make sense for users (see the recent Photoshop on iPad Pro announcement).
Hi...I have Adobe package, but unable to install Character Animator CC 2.0...My Laptop is Windows 10, 64 Bits...And the latest version I can install via Creative Cloud is only 1.5. Could you please advise on how I can get this version??........Thanks
Strange...should be working. Are you able to download all the other CC 2019 updates or is it just Character Animator? This is what I do: helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/update-app.html
@@okaysamurai Thank u for replying back and for the link. It seems that the issue is with all apps. For example I checked Illustrator and found that the version I have is 22.1 and no updates after that, also After Effects version is 15.1.1. So, I think that there should be updates for them. But I just realized the one for Character Animator as it seems it has many new features. And regarding Creative Cloud app, it has only 1 update available for a program that is not important to me. But for all other programs, I can only open them, and when I press 'Manage' beside each program, I am able only to install older versions....And also I need to mention that for troubleshooting the issue I tried to install Creative Cloud and Character Animator CC on another laptop, Windows 10, 64 bits, but also could not get except the same version that I used to have which is 1.5, and I do not know why.
@@okaysamurai Thank you again. Do you have a direct link for their Live Chat option on the website? As I tried several times to find this everywhere on Adobe website, but always getting into loops, even after answering all the questions related to my query, cannot find the Live Chat option at all.........Sorry if I need to discuss another issue that I have, I am really giving you the questions that I failed to find their answers anywhere online...... I am unable to export any scene from Character Animator CC to After Effects or Premiere Pro, and whenever I drag the scene to the import section inside Ae or Pr (project panel), or press Import, then choose the Ch file.chproj, I get this error: Failed to connect to Adobe dynamic link project...online videos did not help. And I need to mention that I have never experienced this error before between premiere and after effects. Thanks again for helping and sorry for my long comments.
Yes - in the "more options" like I show in the beginning you could select an image and use that as your source. You won't get the different mouth shapes but you can stylize it and still export to CH.
Currently (unfortunately) there's not an easy way to do this. The only hacky way I've done it is to take screenshots of the non stylized Characterizer faces in Edit mode and composited them into a PSD. Very manual but possible.
This is almost always because another app has control of the camera, even one in the background like a chat app. I'd restart, close everything down, and try again. If it persists please post what's happening on adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more direct help.
Unfortunately this is only for characters/faces now, but if your image has a face in it, you can use the manual process I show here and see if it works.
@@okaysamurai interesting. Have you thought about standalone application or would copyright wall stop it? This could be game changer if it was possible to do entire images. It's almost akin to paintbox or the app on iPad but damn these styles are nuts and create your own is Apex
@@okaysamurai Thanks for the reply. Do you know if its possible to access original Psd document where the original snapshots are (when you have to say adobe and photoshop etc) . Trying to use it for a client project and need to access those scans but it looks like its embedded in the charcterizer file and not possible to get the originals out?
I'm honestly not sure! I believe the captures are packaged together in some face capture file or something behind the scenes, but a PSD isn't generated until the export step. Hopefully we can make this an option in the future.
What are the legalities of using another artists work as a style? Surely there are copyright issues if people are able to just import an artists work and rip off their style?
Our recommendation is to use the built-in styles (which have all been licensed and cleared), use styles that you have the rights to, or images in the public domain. Much like you can take any image into Photoshop or any video into Premiere, you can also add any style to Characterizer, and each user should use their own discretion when doing so.
Okay Samurai Its such a grey area. I don't think there are any copyright laws that cover this yet. So basically Adobe have released this app that allows people to steal other artist styles, but is saying 'it's not our responsibility if someone chooses to do that.' Surely they realise that some people are going to do just that.
Dakika 3 well actually I'm pretty sure their aren't copyright laws in place yet that prevent someone extracting an artists style from their work using algorithms and then using it to profit. So yeah, grey area.
@@okaysamurai Okay thanks a lot. Seen it. Okay another quick question. I noticed STICKY puppet has a very smooth head turn, how can I add it to my puppet. Can I just copy the layer styles from one puppet to another?
Sticky uses the Parallax feature for his head turns, but the way he's set up it's very difficult to take anything out of him for use in other puppets I'd suggest watching the "Advanced Rigging: Leeta" video on this channel to learn more about how to get parallax to work for smoother head motions.
@@okaysamurai Okay Dave, thanks a lot for your videos. I just watched it, this is really advanced and I am just beginning to learn about the software. But the smooth head turn is not so vivid and almost like you didn't speak much about it. So I wouldn't quite be able to do it if I was to create my puppet.
That exact same technique is what is done for Sticky. Tag more things as Head and add more Face behaviors. Sticky is also using clipping masks and some other stuff to add to the effect as well. If you are just starting I would learn the basics first and tackle something like parallax once you have some of the fundamentals down, I think it will make more sense then.
Yeah you definitely can do that - if you search for “character animator adobe live day 3” you should find a livestream we did this spring where the guests used draw to make a character!
You would have to add those manually in Photoshop - currently Characterizer only captures your face and whatever fits in the camera directly below. You could try standing back from the camera more but I think it will lead to incomplete results during the creation process.
Depending on the capture or style, sometimes parts might get cut off - usually I find experimenting with lighting or using a clean background eventually solves this.
Lip sync doesn't work in Characterizer, but once you export it should. For more direct help please post a screenshot, video, or file > export > puppet to adobe.com/go/chfeedback.
