Book Image

Real-Time Animation with Adobe Character Animator

By : Chad Troftgruben
Book Image

Real-Time Animation with Adobe Character Animator

By: Chad Troftgruben

Overview of this book

Adobe Character Animator is a power app for non-animators that provides easy rigging and easy-to- understand tools that enable you to create entertainment or business videos in no time. This guide to Character Animator gives you a comprehensive overview of the app, helping you learn the entire process—from importing a character designed in Adobe Photoshop to animating a sequence. Complete with background art, multiple character rigs and Character Animator project files, this book will show you how to animate a scene in Character Animator from start to finish. Starting with a character PSD from another artist, you’ll organize and condense the file to prepare it for rigging and animation. From there, you’ll systematically rig the character while exploring advanced behaviors and triggers to animate a complex scene that takes advantage of the app’s best features. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to create appealing animations in Character Animator for any purpose.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Part 1: Preparing Character Art for Rigging
5
Part 2: Rigging Character Art for Animation
11
Part 3: Animating and Refining Your Scene

Positioning the characters in the scene

With the assets for our background and foreground in place, it’s time to bring in our rigs, set up the first frame for our sequence, and start adding Chaz into the scene.

Importing and positioning Chaz

To import Chaz into the scene, take the following steps:

  1. Go into the rigs group on the Project panel.
  2. Click and drag CHAZ onto the scene.
  3. On the Behavior panel, resize the layer to 31% using Scale.
  4. Rearrange the layers so Chaz is behind his desk, but in front of his chair.
Figure 10.5: We can move the rig around to properly set the scene

Figure 10.5: We can move the rig around to properly set the scene

Move Chaz down and move the feet up to hide them behind the table. This will make it look like he’s sitting in the chair.

Figure 10.6: Moving the rig down and hiding the feet gives the appearance he’s sitting in the chair

Figure 10.6: Moving the rig down and hiding the feet gives the appearance he’s sitting in the chair

You may also find CHAZ’s whole body tilts when moving your head to control...