Skip to main content
A
Anonymous
November 14, 2016
Question

Home Alone!

  • November 14, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 1743 views

I'm new to Character Animator... and as such one of the first things I did was join the Forum.

It seemed obvious that this would be the place to find lots of like minded people and those more in the know about Ch.

The first thing I noticed was that it was an empty and quiet place! I'm live in England and the American side is some 7 hours, or there abouts, behind... so now although it is just gone 10 here, it is about 3 in the morning there .. so lots of snoring going on! I did think there would be other!

I asked a question, or two,  and Dave, or Wombat replied and although I saw more views... nobody else spoke to me.... I started to think that I had landed at Ch at it's creation and it was just we few.... band-of-brothers...(sisters too) But, I don't think that is true... I think it is just in a lull at the moment... and maybe.. as others become aware of the potential of this great product... the lights will start lighting up all around the World! Maybe!? Don't let it go people!

PS. I soon realized that many of the questions I had been asking were so... naive and basic... that most would have thought.... You've got to be kidding.... this question again!?

      This topic has been closed for replies.

      2 replies

      oksamurai
      Community Manager
      oksamuraiCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      November 14, 2016

      Most people seem to treat this as a support forum more than a chat forum, so I think the majority of users are only coming here when they get stuck on something. But maybe that will change as we grow, who knows...

      A
      Anonymous
      November 15, 2016

      Hi Dave!

      I think you're right... this is a support forum, but I think people could, and would, get so much more it they were visiting more often, just to see what's going on!? I mean... there isn't anywhere else to go for Character Animator related stuff.. yet!

      El Wombat
      El Wombat
      Inspiring
      November 14, 2016

      As if I were proving your point it's me again… ;-)

      I'm in here every day and I have been asking so many basic and naive questions so now I try to give something back to the forum and share the humble bits I have learned so far.

      Yes, there will be more action in the future! The world is completely connected, information has no travel time any more, but that doesn't make information travel faster, but slower, because there is so much of it.

      Take me: I'm interested in computer animation ever since the first flash days (didn't really find a way through), then did stuff with "Anime Studio Debut", then with the Puppet Tool in After Effects, which is basically the seed of the stand-alone Character Animator software, and I'm a member of the Creative Cloud.

      Still, I only found out about this wonderful software a couple of weeks ago, after I had told a friend about the puppet tool and then he sent me this link asking if I meant this and that's how I found Character Animator - or it found me, to put it this way… =)

      And there are quite some people posting stuff, but they are not binge-learning like you and I are at the moment…

      A
      Anonymous
      November 14, 2016

      Hi It's you again... now there's a surprise!

      I've never been into animation, my interest was digital painting using Ps and Corel Painter. However, as my condition got worse I started to loose a lot of the fine dexterity with my right hand and being right handed, this was a bit of problem. So I started messing with video clips and Final Cut Pro and Music files with Logic Pro... and then I got this idea to get my dog singing. This led to me what to work out how I could make him talk.. I tried a phone app called, Talking Pet and although this did a reasonable job, it was limited. This is what I created first time:

      I got hooked on this idea and started looking online. It was obvious to me that it was going to be an animation process and I found CrazyTalk. This looked ok, but I soon found out that it was too, hit-and-miss, and very unstable with Mac. Then while looking on YouTube I found this:

      Thought this was the answer.. and as a big fan of Adobe... I thought it would be just the thing!

      Then I heard about Character Animator... so here I am...

      The downside... that After Effects Plugin is no longer used!

      It sounds like you're well into animation, so I no where to turn to when I need answers!?

      I've been involved with at few forums, but this is the slowest.... not a criticism, just a comment.

      I used to be with a forum with Corel Painters, before I stopped painting and that was amazing. Always someone you knew there and always making new friends. People would ask simple questions all the time and share ideas. I was often the case that people would sort an answer and take you through the process.. It just always seemed happy and busy place... ideal for a chatterbox like me... Here you... if you listen carefully, I think you could hear the wind blowing through the empty rooms!

      I suppose Adobe is big...

      This is also my first time with CC... so have a bit to learn about that too! Now I've made the commitment of joining CC, I'll stick with Ch and get head around it... in time!

      Thanks again and look forward to seeing you again soon!

        El Wombat
        El Wombat
        Inspiring
        November 14, 2016

        Hello again, :-)

        allow me to touch the sound of silence of this forum once again, for I am very impressed with what you have been creating. As a passionate hobby artist I am very sorry to hear about your condition and I am very happy about how you looked for and found new ways to express yourself artistically!

        You can ask me anything about animation but I'm still a beginner. What I have been doing was fun but not really what I was looking for.

        Take "Anime Studio Debut". The workflow for Lip Syncing was:

        1. Re-write a text into a special language that was better recognized by "Papagayo", a free software that can transform text into a pattern of mouth shapes that you had prepared accordingly.

        2. Let "Papagayo" translate my funny-language-text into (visual) visemes.

        3. Move around almost all of the visemes that Papagayo then created, deleting some, etc.

        4. Export a special file, import it into "Anime Studio Debut" which used that file as a guide for the puppet waiting there.

        5. Import the recording into Anime Studio and put in in line with the Papagayo file……………… 8-|

        In short: A three minute text to be Lip Synced in an acceptable quality took hours. In Character Animator the same three minute text takes those three minutes for a decent Lip Synchronicity to be created. You can imagine how much I am flipping now with this possibility…

        By the way: Did you know that you can also take import a previously recorded audio file? According to Dave in one of the videos this give better results than audio lip syncing directly.

        You go to Timeline->Split Audio into visemes.

        See here:

        Can you sync existing voice-over audio?

        Hear you soon, take care!

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