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Question

Ch is a nightmare as is most of Adobe

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
June 1, 2020
3 replies
2037 views

I've been a user of Adobe products since 1985 starting with PS and AI and later Pagemaker, ID, and other programs. I lived and died on these platforms.

But I want to focus on Character Animator. I was so hopeful this application would help me escape the horrible kluge that is Flash and Flash Animation only to find that once again Adobe has somehow managed to take a powerful engine and make it a living hell to learn.

I want to animate. I have years of expertise and creative work experience in cartooning, illustration and even traditional cell animation. Yet somehow your development team has removed as much intuitive interface from this program, as possible. Actually, that goes for virtually all Adobe products. It's as though the purpose of the program is to master opaque and confusing interfaces and not create art.

It is no surprise to me that Behance is filled with the work of illustrators who are working in traditional media like ink and watercolor ands then posting it on a site supposedly aimed at things created with Adobe digital tools.

BTW - I'm practically going blind trying to read tool panels on my 13" MacBook Pro that are in the real world equivalent of 6pt type, even at the "large" interface setting.

On a brighter note. Fresco harkens back to a simpler time in your product evolution with a real sense of intuitive interface. But C'mon you can't do a contiguous color selection and fill it?

I'm sorry, but if I don't get some direct response from Adobe so that I can further assist in making products that artists can use, then well, it's hello Procreate and Affinity.

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alank99101739

Legend

I personally render each scene separately creating .mp4 files for each, then assemble the final video in Premier Pro so you get all the video transitions etc. CH you can create a new scene and drag other scenes into it, but its pretty basic support. No nice transitions etc. You can drag scenes into a PP or AE project (its called "dynamic linking"), but I don't use that much because my laptop is slow. So I render them out once, save the file, then edit the files together. But it means I have to rerender the file if I make a change. Dynamic linking gets updates immediately, but the render time is not always fast. So I personally decided to control when renders happen by doing them myself.

Exuberant_website0D44Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the procedural tips on combining Ch scenes to Ae or Premiere. I also noted that possibly by exploiting "cameras" and "key frames" it might be possible to create "cuts" within a single scene.

Your insight is deeply appreciated!

KShinabery212

Community Expert

Did you watch Dave Werner's videos on YouTube?

https://www.youtube.com/user/okaysamurai

If you do not put the effort into learning the software, yes you will find it confusing. Can you master everything any piece of software has to offer in a day or a weekend? Most likely not. But I do highly recommend watching Dave's videos and other videos on YouTube.

The Adobe Education Exchange used to do a free 5 week course on Character Animator.... alas they no longer do that. But I think you can find the course online as well as their videos... then walk through it all.

Let's connect on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kshinabery/

Exuberant_website0D44Author

Participating Frequently

KShinabery212— I have been ploughing through Werner's videos (some twice already) and I think you can see from my YouTube above that I'm making slow, crude and ongoing progress... But thanks for your assistance.

There was a guy who put together a pretty good course in Lynda.com, but Ch has evolved to the point where it is almost non-relevant.

Thanks once again

KShinabery212

Community Expert

I liked Dave's stuff. Granted I studied 3D animation way way way back when and I did help with the official samples for Animate CC with Tour De Animate.

Ok, I did not do the side turns or look up or look down.... but that is partly because I am lazy.

Let's connect on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kshinabery/

alank99101739

Legend

Hi. This is probably more for the "feature requests" area than the community support forums.

If you are a cell animator, I suspect the lack of precision control may be annoying at times. I am *not* an animator or an artist (well, not professional... or particularly good! Lol!), but it seeing how a nice anime scene is put together there is a lot more fluidity that is possible with frame by frame animation (a dress flowing in the wind as the character turns around). I think if CH as a useful tool for quick animations. It can save a lot of time to knock something up with decent quality.

I agree on the font size at times, but I have a bigger problem with Illustrator myself. The little icons for the pen tool test the quality of my glasses prescription for sure! 😉

CoSA_DaveS

Adobe Employee

Ol__Steve, sorry Ch isn’t working well for you. We’re happy to help. Can you start with one specific problem?

BTW, if you haven’t seen these tutorials you might find them helpful: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq4LynfF_r15ZrovSAs2QTmhF4CxkVKCg

Exuberant_website0D44Author

Participating Frequently

Let me give you a basic example of my frustration.

I was able to create a character in Fresco, put it through photoshop to create the rigging heirarchy, bring it into Ch where I appllied rigging and created a scene. But there is virtually nothing telling me how to make another scene that I can "cut" to.

I'm getting the distinct impression I'm going to have to deal with the steep learning curve to use After Effects to compile scenes or cuts. So is that correct our can I create scenes in Ch and then order them on a timeline?

The interface using a 13" MacBook Pro is practically making me go blind...

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