Skip to main content
P
ProfiSuchti
Participating Frequently
November 15, 2016
Answered

Do you recommend me to use Character Animator ?

  • November 15, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 2540 views

Hey dear guys,

after i asked here: Re: Where should i do my Characters for Adobe Animate ?  for some Questions and got answers, now i have a few more Questions about AE:

1.

As you can see here:

I made a Character on Adobe Animate (Based on Homer Simpson from the serie the Simpsons, just as a Test to see if i get the best 2D results with Adobe animate because i am thinking to buy Adobe Animate and i want to start to making my own Series on YT,)

Well, my Question is: Do you guys recommend me to use AE for Character Animator ? i have a Camera ready (Perfect Quality) for it.

2.Would i save time after i made my Characters, and would animate theyr Faces trough Character Animator ?

3. If i use Character Animator: would i be able still, to move my Character ? like the legs,arms etc. of my Character ?

If yes: how ? so i could animate a own created Character (Not drawed it yet, first i buy adobe, then i draw my whole "Story" / characters ^^) trough Character Animator in AE, and after beeing done with the Face Animate in AE, i could switch my Character back to Adobe Animate and Animate the Moves, Arms etc. for my Character to ready him up for the Stage <3.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer El Wombat

    It's hard to tell for no-one except you really knows anything about your intended results or workflow preferences, but what I can say from my own experience is this:

    For working with Character Animator (Chan) …

    …do I need Photoshop or Illustrator? YES with a small "but":

    If you want to create your own characters, you definitely need Photoshop or Illustrator.

    Alternative: Buy puppets from marketplaces or have them custom made by someone with Photoshop or Illustrator.

    The downside of this is obvious: Less control and you can't change the artwork without that third party. Also it takes time to develop a puppet proper which is time-consuming and you would probably need someone that also knows Character Animator so they know what they are doing. You CAN, of course, design a complete puppet structure on the whiteboard but that doesn't seem very promising to me, especially if you are new to ChAn.

    Keep in mind that since the "Beta" of Chan you have a new file format *.puppet and that you can change and in that new format save a puppet.

    So, in theory, you don't necessarily need those applications - in practice you probably want to have them at your disposal.

    …do I need After Effects? DEPENDS:

    Thing is: While you CAN compose scenes in Character Animator (Chan) you probably want a different solution.

    For cameras, lighting, etc., probably AE is recommendable.

    …do I need Premiere Pro? NO, but it helps a lot:

    Generally, for the final cut you can probably use any editing software. The "Dynamic Linking" between After Effects, Premiere Pro, and ChAn is a real thrill, though…

    I use a combination of Photoshop (or Illustrator), After Effects and Character Animator.

    …do I need Adobe Animate? DUNNO…

    Haven't worked with it, sorry, but with the four apps mentioned above I'm not missing out on anything at the moment.

    _______________

    Personally I don't expect the dependance on Photoshop or After Effects to lessen very quickly, because: Why would Adobe develop Character Animator for a lot of resources only to make it totally independent from their other products? If I were an Adobe marketing person I wouldn't do that… ;-)

    ________________

    Bottom Line: You probably want to rent the whole creative cloud if you want to really use Chan. And once you are a member you have "Animate" included in the price so you may find out what works best for you…

    1 reply

    R
    Community Expert
    Rick GerardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 15, 2016

    Everything you're talking about can be done with character animator but explaining that  on this forum would be like trying to cram a full semester of a graduate-level animation course into a single post.

    There are lots of good tutorials on character animator. I would check out the CA forums, the help files, and Adobe TV. I'm not sure, but I think Linda.com has a character animator segment.

      P
      ProfiSuchtiAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      November 15, 2016

      So i can do my own "Serie" too with AE ?. This is confusing.

      So what i buy now ? AE + Photoshop, or AE + Photoshop + Adobe Animate ?

      If i can make a whole Episode of a Serie on AE, i will buy adobe animate aswell too for the future (for making games).

      El Wombat
      El WombatCorrect answer
      Inspiring
      November 15, 2016

      It's hard to tell for no-one except you really knows anything about your intended results or workflow preferences, but what I can say from my own experience is this:

      For working with Character Animator (Chan) …

      …do I need Photoshop or Illustrator? YES with a small "but":

      If you want to create your own characters, you definitely need Photoshop or Illustrator.

      Alternative: Buy puppets from marketplaces or have them custom made by someone with Photoshop or Illustrator.

      The downside of this is obvious: Less control and you can't change the artwork without that third party. Also it takes time to develop a puppet proper which is time-consuming and you would probably need someone that also knows Character Animator so they know what they are doing. You CAN, of course, design a complete puppet structure on the whiteboard but that doesn't seem very promising to me, especially if you are new to ChAn.

      Keep in mind that since the "Beta" of Chan you have a new file format *.puppet and that you can change and in that new format save a puppet.

      So, in theory, you don't necessarily need those applications - in practice you probably want to have them at your disposal.

      …do I need After Effects? DEPENDS:

      Thing is: While you CAN compose scenes in Character Animator (Chan) you probably want a different solution.

      For cameras, lighting, etc., probably AE is recommendable.

      …do I need Premiere Pro? NO, but it helps a lot:

      Generally, for the final cut you can probably use any editing software. The "Dynamic Linking" between After Effects, Premiere Pro, and ChAn is a real thrill, though…

      I use a combination of Photoshop (or Illustrator), After Effects and Character Animator.

      …do I need Adobe Animate? DUNNO…

      Haven't worked with it, sorry, but with the four apps mentioned above I'm not missing out on anything at the moment.

      _______________

      Personally I don't expect the dependance on Photoshop or After Effects to lessen very quickly, because: Why would Adobe develop Character Animator for a lot of resources only to make it totally independent from their other products? If I were an Adobe marketing person I wouldn't do that… ;-)

      ________________

      Bottom Line: You probably want to rent the whole creative cloud if you want to really use Chan. And once you are a member you have "Animate" included in the price so you may find out what works best for you…

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