Skip to main content
Pendali
Pendali
Participant
November 15, 2016
Answered

Feature request, color coded deformation meshes.

  • November 15, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 1172 views

Hi!

I've been trying to learn rigging in Adobe Character animator CC, getting it right is a bit difficult.

So here are my suggestions for what could make the prosess better:

1. Color coded deformation meshes. (How am I supposed to know what mesh belongs to what layer?, when it's not color coded?)

I used hidden Meshes in additional layers, as attachment nodes to get both dragger, hinged and welded behavior on art layers.

2. How are other animators supposed to know where I placed my manipulation handles if there is no way to display them on the puppet?

3. Character animator is difficult to figure out because when you try to see your rigging architecture there is no way to display the entire tree.

(you can only see from one branch of the architecture to the other) Can we get some kind of Node overview for debugging?

4. When I move the body, the head needs to be attached to the body.. from here, how do I get the body to follow the head when it moves?

Stapleing and Attaching the head to the "body draggable" solves most of the problem when using the mouse, but not when the using webcam.

(luckily this is not a big deal on my character's as the artwork has detached heads)

Edit: Apparently you can add a head track to the body as well, this solved the issue for me.

5. The rigg needs to allow for more functionality aimed at mouse only behaviors. Not everyone has a webcam, and not all things are best to animate with it.

     (Draggable manipulator handles need to be attached to the object it moves, so that it does not get left behind when the character moves.)

6.  Ability of Shortkey preset behavior such as scale transform on a layer, (without creating additional art.) would make certain actions faster.

7. Ability to send renaming and structure information back to illustrator. (so that you don't lose your rigging)

8. Ability to open more than one instance of Character animator. This would be practical as there are currently no way to do a side by side comparison of your rigging.

    (I did a few test changes, and ended up using half an hour to get back to my previous state)

9. Last but not least, There needs to be some way of displaying your existing animations while you record and animate changes. Just guessing and trying to remember what animation was there is not super effective when layering added changes.

Great software!

Cheer's!

-Daniel

PS: Is it possible to export the tracking data to a 3d software?

This topic is closed to new replies. Start a new post to keep the conversation going.
Correct answer oksamurai

Thanks for the megalist!

  1. In the puppet panel, the visible mesh should match the yellow line that appears to the right of the crowns, depending on what's selected. This video talks a little more about this: https://youtu.be/nlcLp47lGiY?t=8m17s​. If you're talking about a live show mesh view, then yes, you will just see everything together - maybe color differentiation would be nice here.
  2. Agreed, we've talked about this too - having some kind of performer view that shows important stuff like draggable handles, key triggers, etc.
  3. We've heard this node request as well a few times - I'll add your name to the pile.
  4. Glad you figured this out. I'd say 99% of the characters I see are okay here, with the head connected to the body (or just making everything one big head group).
  5. Draggables should move with the artwork. I've heard of users putting draggables in the head, for instance, to add more movement to it.
  6. Stay tuned, we have some cool stuff around this that will probably be in the next release.
  7. Yeah, this is an interesting and challenging one.
  8. You could kinda do this currently - make two alternative versions of the puppet and bring them both into a scene.
  9. Agreed, we've talked about this before, whether it's onion skinning or something else.
  10. No 3D tracking data export...yet.

Thanks!

2 replies

oksamurai
oksamuraiCorrect answer
Legend
November 15, 2016

Thanks for the megalist!

  1. In the puppet panel, the visible mesh should match the yellow line that appears to the right of the crowns, depending on what's selected. This video talks a little more about this: https://youtu.be/nlcLp47lGiY?t=8m17s​. If you're talking about a live show mesh view, then yes, you will just see everything together - maybe color differentiation would be nice here.
  2. Agreed, we've talked about this too - having some kind of performer view that shows important stuff like draggable handles, key triggers, etc.
  3. We've heard this node request as well a few times - I'll add your name to the pile.
  4. Glad you figured this out. I'd say 99% of the characters I see are okay here, with the head connected to the body (or just making everything one big head group).
  5. Draggables should move with the artwork. I've heard of users putting draggables in the head, for instance, to add more movement to it.
  6. Stay tuned, we have some cool stuff around this that will probably be in the next release.
  7. Yeah, this is an interesting and challenging one.
  8. You could kinda do this currently - make two alternative versions of the puppet and bring them both into a scene.
  9. Agreed, we've talked about this before, whether it's onion skinning or something else.
  10. No 3D tracking data export...yet.

Thanks!

Pendali
PendaliAuthor
Participant
November 15, 2016

Thank you for the reply!

In regards to point 4, and it's significance to point 1. and 2:

I layered several mesh objects on top of each other, (for the head) so that I got both Hinged/rotate behavor, and Translate behavior (XY). The upper part of the body also follows the head. with bend and translate. The benefit of this is that I can use Webcam input, and at the same time manipulate the puppet by mouse. (displaying and recording both at the same time)

What I found here is that I had to make the hidden Meshes different sizes (for less overlapping) so that I could click the correct manipulators,

as It's the mesh that manipulates the art. (as much as it is the handles). This is why I want them color coded.

Also, it would be nice if the Architecture in the tree got the same color code. Because it was very hard to troubleshoot this setup ^^,

And If I could see at a glance what layer all the meshes belongs to that would make things more easy.

Anyways thank's again for reading my wall of text. ^^, Great reply!

Cheers!

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices