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maryr34816705
Known Participant
Aug 6, 2019 8:27 PM UTC
Question

Character Animator Not Update My Project File

I am working in Character Animator CC 2019 on a Windows 10 platform (version 1809). I been creating characters in Character Animator and then importing the scenes into After Effects CC 2019 so I can add some text animation and other visual effects to the scene. Everything has been working great until today.

All of sudden Character Animator does seem to update my project file, when I make changes to a character or record something new in a scene. As a result, the scene does not update in After Effects.

If I close Character Animator and open it back up again, all my changes are there, but the time date on my project file hasn't changed. Here is a shot of my Windows Explorer. My project file shows a date modified time of 10:59 AM. I've been working in this file all afternoon and it is now 3:23 PM.

Like I said, everything was fine until today. I've been using this same file for several weeks now.  Is there a way to force Character Animator to save a file? I don't want to do a Save As, because then I lose all my history and my bookmarks.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

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4 replies

Sjaani
Community Expert
Community Expert
Aug 7, 2019 3:02 AM UTC

Are you able to update Windows 10?
My system is currently up to Version 1903.
This may not be the cause or solution at this point, but it may help in the long run as software updates.

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maryr34816705
Known Participant
Aug 7, 2019 2:01 PM UTC

I don't know if it was just coincidence, but the update seemed to help.

Thanks for the suggestion.

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alank99101739
Legend
Aug 7, 2019 12:22 AM UTC

The project file does not Contain the project - its actually zero length. Its just something to double click on.

But you made the comment that perhaps AE notices the change on this file’s timestamp to detect changes. DanTull​, is this the case? Is there any concern if the timestamp of the project file is not updating?

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DanTull
Adobe Employee
Adobe Employee
Aug 7, 2019 2:52 PM UTC

Yes, I don't think the zero byte chproj file probably ever gets changed after it is created. Ae does not directly open the chproj, it uses a Character Animator process that does not have a UI/window and that process knows where to look with in the project (in Ch Data/repo.noindex) to know if it is being update and thus needs to refresh or re-render.

I'm not sure off hand how to explain the delay in updating in After Effects. It makes me think the Character Animator process serving it got wedged somehow.

DT

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