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

Recording dialogue

There are a couple of ways we can add dialogue to a scene. First, we can use a mic in the Record panel to capture audio in real time and have the rig track the mouth poses. We can also import external audio and have Character Animator calculate it for the poses. Both methods are viable and depend on your setup and how you want to go about the production.

To show both methods, we will record in real time with Chaz and use a .wav file for the alien.

Using a screenplay or outline

When recording your dialogue and setting up scenes, you will want to have a script, or at least an idea, ready to go so you know what to say and how to act. The same especially applies if you plan to use outside actors. You will want to convey the feeling and emotion of the scene so the actors have a blueprint. With this book, we will keep it simple. Here is the scene outline we will follow:

We will start with a zoom-in on the stage as the audience cheers.

Chaz laughs and welcomes...