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

Arranging character actions in sequence

When we recorded our character actions in the previous chapter, we didn’t pay attention to proper ordering. That’s fine, as we were only focusing on getting the audio and basic keys laid down.

Figure 11.18: As it stands right now, the timeline is a mess

Figure 11.18: As it stands right now, the timeline is a mess

But right now, if we play the animation, it will appear as a jumbled mess. The first thing we should do to work through this is pull up our script or outline from the previous chapter that lays out the scene. We can use this as a blueprint for timeline ordering:

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

Chaz laughs and welcomes the audience back from the commercial break:

“Welcome back to Chatting with Chaz! I am, of course, your adoring host, Chaz, and today we have a special guest!”

Cut to show alien.

“An alien from outer space! How are you doing, sir?”

The alien replies: “...