Character Animator (Beta)

I've lost the ability to see the timeline and the scene together.  

I've been experimenting using EBsynth to generate in between frames for head turns.  Anyone else?

Hi,Can you please add a Split button in the timeline area? Beside the new Shy button would be useful instead of having to look for the split option in the menu system or try to remember Ctrl+Shift+D. Renaming it Cut or slice would be more intuitive also? When you have to edit a lot of Visemes it gets a bit cumbersome.

Hi, if I double click a character animator project file to open it, it is so messy to have Ch create a default empty project. Those default empty projects are litterally just clutter! Ch should always open by default similar to all other products - like After Effects, Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator. I have quite gotten used to opening Character Animator and it starting up right where I left off, but when it causes problems, it's really frustrating.  And creating empty default problems is seriously gross for my OCD, especially when there's no thumbnail for the project. Please, for the love of parsimony... make Ch work like other adobe apps when opening up. PS> the way that Ch works with all the temp files, it's a horrific nightmare to work on Creative Cloud file storage, even exporting puppets can easily cause a sync error.  Creative cloud tries to sync the temporary repository, and then chokes and won't realize that the files are on neither local or s

First off, I'm new to Character Animator, but I'm pretty technically adept. I love the idea of Limb IK, which is why I started with this Beta version; I want to make my characters dance, and this seems like it'd be the easiest way to accomplish it.  When I record the action in Character Animator, everything seems OK. I save it, review it, and it's fine. Then I go to import the project into Premiere or After Effects and everything goes haywire (I've tried dragging the project file for Dynamic Link and using file > import). The leg movements are gone, not only in P/AE, but in the original Character Animator project, too. The character still bounces around a bit like I had intended, but the legs are stiff. Videos are attached:1) Shows recorded action in Character Animator2) Dragging scene from CA to Premiere (new project) and legs stop working.3) Error received in CA - error 3.5x19.  Any advice?

 While in the Adobe After Effects Beta I tried to import a CHPROJ file I did in Character Animator BETA. It just hangs for 10 minutes saying importing. I killed the process and sent the Crash report to Adobe.  Are there any Caveats I need to be aware of for FILE import of a CHPROJ file into After Effects BETA ? The CHPROJ file is a 4 minute Music Video with 4 Puppets . Thank you 

I'm finding it extremely cumbersome and workflow slowing with regard to the timeline zoom.as it is, it seems to zoom generally to the center of the timeines duration and not zoom to center of playhead. the problem that is slowing me with this is if i have the timeline wide to view most of the timeline and jump playhead to front of the timeline and zoom, it zooms sortof toward the playhead but it then zooms in to lose th eplayhead to the left of the viewer and off screen making you have to then use the slider to pan the timeline left to get to the playhead (which is right where i want to zoom to a 2fm take to edit.)  this slows workflow and makes more mousing. i think like most major editors should zoom to center of playhead instead. thanks 

i read about a rest position change to from what i gathered is supposed to let you set a resting pose for the whole puppet that isnt palms out arms out? am i misisng it? dave2.0

Hello All, I’ve created this “Splash” character I will use in an onboarding video. I’ve followed all of Dave Werner’s rigging and animation videos and am currently using Beta for limbIK, however I am still having a couple issues I really need help to figure out. I have duel mouths (happy/sad) and the sad mouth will trigger but not its visemes (sad mouth won’t talk/lip sync).When I’m in record mode and use my triggers, some of my art work doesn’t seem to match up (for example, the different eye lids).LimbIK seems to only work in body profile, not the others.Walk Cycle is acting up, why does it disfigure my puppet and why does the head bounce so much?Why do my behavior triggers only work in the profile it was recorded in? My puppet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZrIHsQPVQ9ZMKlEEWhLjYx65cVGg9pgX/view?usp=sharing If anyone has any advice, I wouldn’t be able to thank you enough! Best, Danielle

fixed

Dave is a great teacher with those videos.The suggestion is to use the Blank Template Character which I agree with but it can be confusing as to whether its a teaching tool or a Template. The Layers are colored in a inconsistant way and the abscence of + on the layers makes rigging a bit confusing if you arent following along with the tutorial. (Illustrator version) The bug though is that "Edit Original Artwork" with Blank puppet in Illustrator didnt carry over after saving Blank Puppet in AI 2020 format locally (Desktop) and to the the CC cloud. The link seemed to disconnect.I simply changed the shoes to Red . Windows 10 platform.

Beta version 3.4 introduces some helpful enhancements to working in the Timeline panel, including: Merge takes Different colors for take rows Refined search filtering Collapse or expand all takes or keyframes on a track Shy and Hide Shy buttons Sequence takes See below for more information about these enhancements, and see the What's new in Beta dialog box for additional changes in the Timeline panel.     Merge takes Combine multiple selected Lip Sync or Triggers takes into a single take bar or viseme or trigger bars with the Timeline > Merge Takes menu command. This can help to consolidate separate lip sync or triggered recordings so that they don't occupy as much vertical space in your timeline.   Different colors for take rows In the timeline, each parameter's row of takes is colored differently, to help visually identify them.   Refined search filtering In the Timeline panel's search filter, refine the filter criteria with additional search terms: kind:val

The Walk behavior has a new Pin Feet When Standing option to stick a character's feet to the ground when not walking.     Try out the Walk behavior's Pin Feet When Standing parameter using the following example puppet! ElizaSimplePinned.puppet    (Use this Beta forum thread to discuss this feature and share your feedback with the Character Animator team and other Beta users. If you encounter a bug while using this feature, let us know by posting a reply here or choosing "Report a bug" from the "Provide feedback" icon in the top-right corner of the app.)

The latest version (3.4) of the lip sync engine improves automatic lip sync and timing of mouth shapes (visemes). Prior versions can still be selected and viseme detection can be tuned in Lip Sync preferences.     Try out the improved lip sync engine in both live/rehearsal and offline (Timeline > Compute Lip Sync Take from Scene Audio) workflows, and let us know how it's working for you.   Are you needing to do fewer corrections to computed lip sync?   Are you able to adjust the Viseme Detection and Audio-based Muting settings (in Lip Sync preferences) to get desired results?     (Use this Beta forum thread to discuss this feature and share your feedback with the Character Animator team and other Beta users. If you encounter a bug while using this feature, let us know by posting a reply here or choosing "Report a bug" from the "Provide feedback" icon in the top-right corner of the app.)

I'm loving the new capabilities with LimbIk. My animations are more fluid. Is it normal tho that I can't dynamic link it in After Effects? Had to send it to Media Encoder and output it as an Alpha then into AE. Either Way...Let's make this official.  

I've really been missing the ability to directly puppet a character face with tracked features from my own face, instead of only working via triggers. Is that on any roadmap...?

So as you can see in the video, when I select a specific recording block, the following one just disappears and it does an autosave. It happened for every block except everytime I undo and bring it back, the problem gets solved just for that specific block. I'm not really sure if it's a bug but I can't find any other reason for it to just disappear on it's own.Thanks for the whole team for all the efforts to bring this amazing software some very cool updates, and special thanks for Dave for all the tutorials 🙂I NOW CALL MYSELF A CREATOR OF AN ANIMATED SHORT 🙂

Hi... I'm just now attempting to run some tests with v 3.4.0.131 and the camera is failing to open/become active.I'm just getting a 'waiting for camera' message in the centre of the camera/mic panel and nothing else. I've tried a couple of relaunches and have checked that the cam isn't being used by another app.Steps to reproduce:    1. Launch app. Result: 'waiting for camera' message appears - camera remains inactive.Expected: camera should become active. System info    Application: Character Animator (Beta) v3.4.0.131    OS: macOS v10.15.6, RAM: 40.00 GB, CPUs (logical): 8

A cena parou de abrir.

Hi, I would like to see the ability to be able to switch the puppets arms to move in front of the body and behind when needed. For example I ahve a puppet where the arms are constructed of the upper and lower arms seperately. I would liek to be able to keep the lower arm attached to th upper arm but move in front or behind the puppets body as required. At the moment you have to make the decision in advance as to whether the puppets arms will move in fromt or behind based on the layer hierachy.

What’s New in Beta: July 2020  Summer is here! Slather on the sunscreen, grab a lemonade, and get animating while you try new Beta features like Limb IK and Merge Takes. See below for more details. And we’d love to hear your feedback.    New Beta features include  Limb IK  Timeline improvements  Merge takes  Different colors for take rows  Refined search filtering  Collapse or expand all takes or keyframes on a track   Other notable changes  When the Timeline > Link Recording Selection option is enabled and replays are triggered during a recording pass, the recorded takes for the triggered replays are now treated as linked recordings separate from other recorded takes.   In the Project panel, refine the filter with an additional search term:  kind:value (where value = audio, puppet, scene, folder)    No

This past month, we finished development on several features -- Search filter in the Timeline, Markers via Dynamic Link, and Tapered motion lines, to name a view -- along with other changes and bug fixes. See below for more details. Thanks, as always, for your feedback. Special thanks to Beta tester, Scott Evans from Digital Puppets, for reporting an issue with a recorded replay not retaining the blend in/out settings for takes in the replay. That was fixed in v3.3.0.100.Finished features: Search filter for the Timeline Move selection to the playhead Markers via Dynamic Link Tapered motion lines Allow timeline items before the start of scene time Check for artwork issues before exporting a puppet Notable other changes: When moving or trimming objects in the Timeline, they now snap when nearby other object boundaries. Hold down Command (macOS) or Ctrl (Windows) while dragging to avoid snapping. New markers just have a number as their name, no longer includes the word “Marker”.

A large PNG stacked puppet photoshop file with 12 groups with each about 34 layers is showing extreme slow down on everything I am doing. Changing triggers to renaming. All seems to struggle.  When it goes live and it's all prepared. All works as intended. 650mb photoshop file.

Please try the latest build and rate the features. We’d also like you to rate the rating system (meta, I know!). Here is a list of the changes since v3.2. Please rate using the in-app rating system. What’s New and Provide Feedback. Check out the two new icons/buttons in the top-right corner. You’ll find Rate Features in the What’s New. Markers via Dynamic Link  Search filter for the Timeline  Tapered motion lines  Move selection to the playhead  Allow timeline items before the start of scene time  Audio track volume   Check for artwork issues before exporting a puppet  Reduce stuck-torso syndrome  Play audio when moving to adjacent frames   Automatically update audio devices when changes are detected  Current value for slider and angle controls in the Controls panel  Improved Contour mesh shape for disconnected regions of a layer  And more! You’ll find much more under Miscellaneous.  Bug fixes&nb

Markers in a Character Animator scene appear in other applications using Dynamic Link. For example, when you drag a scene from Character Animator's Project panel into After Effects's Project panel, or export a scene to Adobe Media Encoder and render it as an .mp4 file then import that file into After Effects, those scene's markers appear as composition markers in After Effects.     Tip: If you make changes to the scene's markers in Character Animator, refresh the markers in After Effects by right-clicking above a composition marker and then choosing Update Markers From Source.   (Use this Beta forum thread to discuss this feature and share your feedback with the Character Animator team and other Beta users. If you encounter a bug while using this feature, let us know by posting a reply here or choosing "Report a bug" from the "Provide feedback" icon in the top-right corner of the app.)