Thanks so much for all your work in explaining Character Animator. I'm a 20 year Flash dinosaur and depend on your videos to keep up with the times. Can't wait to get a grip on Ch!
This is going to make my life easier! I've been using Illustrator + Triggers for similar effects. And animating frame by frame to get the control I wanted. This way, I'll only have to worry about. Will test it out!
Thank you so much for this! My current character basically tried to do this, but I had to accomplish it by using dozens of cycle layers behaviors. That made the character file really big and a nightmare to try and edit. I'm really looking forward to using replays to create little actions I can trigger with my stream deck while recording :)
I am new to Character Animator (in 2022). It seems as if many of the 2018 links in the information section are broken. I am sorry, I didn't know how to share this in a private session. Thanks for all of your work.
I come back to this video a lot when animating my characters. I find myself incorporating the tips from this with the new body tracking update and it's made it even easier. I'm wondering if you plan to make an updated version of this video with body movement? (maybe you already did and I'm missing it 😛)
Yeah, this tutorial probably is due for an update - there is a lot more you can do with replays now! Hopefully I can find the time soon to make a new one.
Hello Dave i tried the arm ik behaviour but the problem is that the''Reverse bend Left'' and ''Reverse bend Right'' are light and are not recording my different hand positions.ANY SOLUTION OF THIS???
We need key framing in Ch it would be awesome if i could enter a pose then move to next frame then set another pose. this would allow fort jump animation and other more complicated animation
Make sure each element has blend in and out curves for all parts that can use them...if they do, things should blend when moving in/out. 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.
HI, Dave! How are you? I'm getting late to the party but here I am :D I hope you see my question. I followed this tutorial and everything happened exactly as you said except for blending the hand as you did with Chloe's. I dragged my puppet's right arm to the position I wanted, hold the key for the activate the trigger for the correct hand position and recorded a take for a few seconds (I was aiming for a quick arm raise with a changing hand). But the elements showed in my timeline are different from yours: The take bars for the Arm IK Behaviour didn't appear. I got only two take bars for this puppet: 1 for the Dragger > Handle (the Right Arm) and 1 for the Triggers > Right Hand. But after recording only the Dragger's take bar has Blend Handles - The Trigger take bar doesn't have them so I can't blend the hands. After trying unsuccessfully with my puppet for a long time I used Chloe to to accurately reproduce your steps (luckily I had downloaded the puppet some time ago) but I was unsuccessfull as well. Any ideas why this is happening? I'm using CA 3.3.1. Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Copying my response from Twitter: If it's just hand triggers, those don't have blend handles - they are simply on/off switches. Only stuff like dragger, face, etc (performance based) have blend handles.
Hi! Thx for answering here too. I posted my question here 1st but them I notice that the video is from 2018. I was afraid you wouldn’t see my question and that’s why I went bother you on Twitter :) Anyway, thx again!
I don't know if this is a silly question but i'm still learning. Can i drag and drop a replay to the timeline after a recorded scene like we can do in starter mode? i find it easier to work like that and much more precise. I can't find a way to do it in pro mode.
No, Pro mode doesn't have the drag and drop functionality that Starter mode does - but I agree, that would be nice! The best way I'd recommend doing it is activating one trigger in a swap set, recording it, and then editing the track to switch between different triggers, kind of like how I do it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VhCKD5vl848.html
hi dave, i made a replay to change the default A pose to rest pose (like willy and heller) but the problem is after the replay finish, the puppet only stay still, not tracking my camera movement anymore, i already set the trigger end ti stop/sustain replay, but still not wroking, any tips? thanks
If you include things like face, eye gaze, etc in the replay, then those will be sustained until the replay is released, causing your character to be in a "stuck" position. So at least for your default pose I would only recommend doing the dragger behavior for the arms.
@@okaysamurai oh i see, thanks a lot dave, turns out you also mention that in this video, my bad for not watching the video thoroughly, better not skipp any part for other tutorial here 😂
Thanks for this! I tried following along, but apparently the arm behaviors aren't in the downloadable file, only the body moves when I hit the replay triggers. Still, following the tutorial is great!
Unfortunately you can't copy and paste replays. You could copy and paste recordings from one character to the next but they would have to be the same layout, because otherwise CH won't know what handles/artwork it's looking for.
Hi, thanks, little question. I saved a "waving" replay and it works fine, but when I record the replay, it shown at the preview but when I stop the recording It seems like I never recorded it... do you have idea why?
Make sure you are using a trigger to record it, not the replays panel. The replays panel isn't attached to any behaviors, so it won't actually record anything - it needs to be connected to a trigger to work as expected.
I tried this with the Breathe behavior today, recording setting breathes per minute from 0 to 25 and back to 0, trying to time it with deep inhale sounds. It sort of worked but it seems like the Breathe behavior is not keyframed and kinda does just what it wants
Right, unfortunately you can't currently keyframe exactly when the breathe will puff in and out, just the parameters. I guess another option is to use the new transform tag and do a triggered scale recording.
@@okaysamurai oh yeah ! I haven't played with that yet , thanks! I tried to make a Replay for visemes but I couldn't get it to work maybe I wasn't doing it right.. Is there a way to copy and paste visemes for things that repeat a lot?
If you look in the file you can see that each instance of the girl "puppet" is really just a group inside Photoshop that are 1) independent, and 2) have a head behavior added to them. With a normal puppet you would just have all these behaviors assigned to one character, but for example projects like this I basically put a bunch of mini-characters inside one parent puppet file.
@@okaysamurai Thanks for taking the time to respond. I been at it for a few days off and on trying to get it to work but without any success. I've been using my puppet in live streams and wanted to play a welcome/goodbye replay with the trigger head motion up as people come in and out of the stream. The other possible soltlution is building it in cycle layers and linking that to the motion trigger. Using replay would be soooo much faster tho.
Hi Dave! Thank you so much for your great videos. i have question: i made some triggers using replays for right hand of my character, is there any way that i can mirror all of those triggers for the left hand too? 🙏(if it helps, i also save all of the scenes of those triggers)
sorry i also have another question: is there any "mirror" or "reverse" option available for the puppet body or hand option? for example sth that i could move one hand and the other hand move exactly like that at the same time🤔thanks alot🙏
Unfortunately there is no mirroring option currently, so you would have to record each arm element on its own. If you wanted to match exactly, I would add two dragger behaviors so you can record with one and watch the other while recording. Check out this tutorial on how to do that: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XolxHNixBpA.html
Thanks! Can I trigger a replay with a specific mouth shape (vocal such as Ee). I want to trigger the rest of my face for a replay based on my mouth. I imagine I would turn off mouth recording while making the replay, but then how do I link the mouth to the replay of the rest of my face? Thank you!
Unfortunately I believe the lip sync mouth doesn't count as a triggering event, so when it sees a certain mouth it can't fire off a replay. Replays only really happen with manual trigger presses. So you would have to do it manually live or add it in the edited recording.
@@okaysamurai thank you for the information. In this video that I made I ended up manually making the character move via webcam. I would like to have the movements automated and just add my audio recording, just to save time. Maybe there's another way to do this? Or at least make the replay happen at random times? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-q4iFuh6r64k.html
There is a feature called speech aware animation that will automatically do head movement: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HTdKGYjdSFY.html. Otherwise, you could make replays of your head movements, but right now I don't believe there's a way to randomly fire them off.
Is there a way to trigger Replays with something not commonly used for a command? Like SHIFT + CTRL + 3 or something of that nature? Right now things trigger while typing normally. Which is maddening. :)
You can't have modifiers (yet) - but you can add as many triggers as you want to the Controls Panel without keys, and you can also use external devices like MIDI controllers, X-Keys, Stream Deck, etc to trigger as well. In user testing we've found that people seem to respond better to visual systems like the Controls Panel as opposed to trying to memorize what all the alphanumeric keys do. :)
I use 8 to go into a resting pose. The problem is that because it is holding on the last frame the bones and the drag don't work unless I turn off the latch. Is there a way around this?
Yes, the only way to have dragger control is to get free from a replay hold. So sometimes I will make a blank trigger called "manual" and use that if I need manual control. I believe Sirr at okaysamurai.com/puppets/ is set up like this.
@@okaysamurai Can you point me in the direction of a video on this. I tried to load in Sirr, but it wouldn't load. Lots of errors came up. So perhaps it was created in an earlier version of Animator.
I just tried him in CH 2023 and he works fine without any errors, so not sure why you might be seeing errors unless you're on a much older version...If the problem persists, please upload the errors you're getting to the official forums at adobe.com/go/chfeedback so we can take a closer look.
Yes - if you disarm everything but triggers, press record, and press a trigger connected to a replay, it will "splat" out the contents into the timeline below. It will be longer or shorter than your original replay depending on how long you had the trigger active, but it should work.
hello dave，really like your tutorials, just one question, how to clear cache in Adobe character ? I saw there are so many unused voices recorded and I don’t know how to delete them correctly. And Yesterday I was playing with this software but it forced me to shut down suddenly , probably because I don’t know how to clear the cache so that it was getting so slow to run the process.
You can delete the CH Data > temp.noindex folder to clear your cache. To get rid of unused recordings, your best bet I think is to File > Save Project As, which will make a copy with all the relevant linked recordings in the Ch Media folder. File > Copy Media Files into Project Folder will also make sure you have all relevant materials, so you can do that after copying just to be safe.
@@okaysamurai @@okaysamurai Thank you so much!! you know I have watched this tutorial 5 times already!! its just so detailed and practical! Just one more question, if I applied the same mouth set from yours to my project, will I get trouble with the copyright?
I have followed this tutorial several times but I can't get the blending to work. Every time I make/use a trigger/replay, it doesn't ease at all and skips right to the new position and then snaps immediately back to the resting position when it's done. Have re-done this many times on several puppets and it just won't work. Getting so frustrated. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
If you see snapping, it's probably because there's an element that wasn't blended as expected that is being included in the replay creation process. As a simple test, open Blank Face, and record just your face moving for 3 seconds. Blend the in and out of the Face track that appears, then right click to make it a replay. That should definitely ease in and out as expected. If it doesn't...something is seriously wrong.
HELP: It worked in the timeline, then i created the replay. After the replay was created, i gave the trigger a key on the keyboard, but when i click on the key i see no difference.... What can i do?
Try playing with the trigger end parameter at the bottom of replays when a replay is selected and latch in the triggers panel. It’s possible you’re only pressing the trigger for a short time but the recording is longer.
One thing replays do not currently work with is sound - as in, you can't say "hello" and have that replay every time you wave. You can still use live or prerecorded audio for lipsync, you just can't trigger it yet - but we know this is a highly desired feature that we hope to get to very soon!
Is it possible to loop replays? I set to two keyframes, made a replay, works perfect but now I would like it to loop for a minute so I don't have to copy/paste all the keyframes. Is that possible? :)
@@okaysamurai I see! I got around it by animating the part in After Effects, exporting it as a png sequence, putting it in photoshop and triggering it as a cycle layer, this way it can loop! I could probably also have exported it from Character Animator. But sometimes After Effects comes in handy when I want limbs to move in 3rd dimension. Anyways, your tutorials help a ton and I have so much fun animating.
I set up a puppet in the style of Kaufman, everything works great, the issue is that if I put it in record mode, I only see the front puppet, left and right profiles are not showing up . What can I do to make it work? Thanks, Michael Schutte
If you're only seeing the frontal view that usually means CH doesn't recognize the others, either because they're not tagged, not at the right hierarchy, or something else like head turns is using them first. Make sure they're organized and tagged exactly like Kaufman. If you have head turns too, make sure to set it up like Walker like here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Bg4j0xmxa9Q.html.
@@okaysamurai Thank you Dave but I think everything is in the right order with no head turns. It might be great to have the photoshop file of Kaufman. Would that be possible?
You can! You downloaded him from okaysamurai.com/puppets, right? In CH, select the puppet in the project panel and go to Edit > Edit Original (like I show in ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BYkl9VhfHpQ.html)
Make a swap set of replays and make the one you want to stick the default. Several example characters like Heller on www.okaysamurai.com/puppets/ are set up this way.
I'm talking about swap sets and replays for triggers. It's mentioned in this video but you can also check out ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WzYJbZYhxmk.html for more info.
You can't record a replay via the replays panel, you need to assign it to a trigger. So assign it in the triggers panel to something like the 1 key, and then when you record and press 1, it will show up.
@@okaysamurai Thanks for the quick answer, you are amazing! My problem was in the recording mode. When i pressed the record button, then tried to start a replay to record it (not by pressing the triggers because i wanted to manipulate its takes) in my scene, no take from the replay was showing up. When i tried to record it via its trigger button it was recorded as a trigger, fine. But i wanted to change some things in the takes of the replay as you showed in the video. The problem solved when i unchecked the "Smart Replays" button in the scene properties. I did not understand exactly why but that's ok. Thank's for your answer.
Ah good to know. Yes, Smart Replays combines everything into one track for a cleaner timeline, but if you want more individual control, "Dumb" replays are the way to go. :)
Should be working...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.
@@okaysamurai this is very exciting... I am not a trained artist. I'm a trained classical guitarist. But I've always loved drawing... And like you... Animation is new to me I was born in SF... Go Warriors!!!
Ok for over 2 hours I've been trying to record the TRIGGER with the ARM IK and Draggables, just like you show in the video and I've had no luck. Any ideas?
Official forums might be the best place to get more individual help, if you can share screenshots or your .puppet file. Check out the end of the Arm IK video as well, that has a tip for turning IK on/off.
its been recording the ARM IK and DRAGGER but not the TRIGGERS. As an example I've been using Chloe like you did, and set up everything like you did. When I go to record her waiving, the arm motion and everything looks great, but It won't had the hand turn (3 trigger key) to the replay. I've looked on the forums and haven't found anything yet. Thoughts? By the way your videos are great bro ;) @@okaysamurai
That's weird, you should definitely be able to add triggers to a replay. Maybe make sure you are selecting the take bar and not just the triggers themselves (you'll need Timeline > Show Trigger and Viseme Take Bars checked to make sure of this)? If that doesn't do it then it seems like it might be a bug...
Okay Samurai what interesting about what you just said. There isn’t a take bar for the triggers, but there is for the other items like ARM IK and draggers. I have record turned ON for triggers but the take bar never shows up, just the trigger in the time line. I’m sure it’s user error. Thanks for talking with me. Any ideas on how to get the take bar to turn on for triggers? If I already turned on record for the trigger, is there something else I’m missing?
@@okaysamurai Hi i got One of the puppet with T pose, how to set his T pose to normal rest pose as for always. i mean default. I tried one of the pose were there under trigger, i set that to Default but it was not for always, chr come back to t pose automatically. i want chr start pose should be rest pose or whatever we want?
Set it as a default in a swap set and make sure the replay is set to "Stop/sustain replay" instead of "let replay finish." I talk about this more in ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aZadeOEFumY.html.
