Help with fixing bugs in puppet

Report · Aug 26, 2025

I am looking for someone to help iron out the glitches & bugs with my puppets. I would like for them to walk properly and I'm close...but its not perfect yet.

Report · Aug 26, 2025

Hi maryg69652561,

Welcome to the community! To better assist you, could you please elaborate on the issue you're experiencing with puppets? Let us know more about your workflow, & whether you're encountering any error messages or unexpected behavior. We're here to help.

Thanks,

Sumeet

Report · Aug 26, 2025

No error messages. When I try the walk feature or motion library, the character will move..but it warps the feet or other areas of the body, or I have issues with parts of the body splitting weirdly. I also have an issue with one of the Characters faces...the puppet mesh only sees the mouth, nose & eyes, not the entire head. Even though all 4 characters are build from the exact same template.

Report · Aug 27, 2025

Are these puppets you made yourself or are they puppet maker puppets? Would it be possible for you to share a screenshot of the rigging hierarchy for any of the puppets that are giving you problems so we can try and see what might possibly be going on with them?

Report · Aug 27, 2025

Yes these are puppets I created myself. Based on templates from Adobe. I can share the rigging heiracrchy. Did you want anything highlighted?

Report · Aug 27, 2025

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, it would be helpful if you could highlight the specific parts that are getting warped, so I can see the nodes you have rigged there.

What I can currently see in the image you shared is that the face background is marked as independent, which could be causing problems you are seeing in the head. Usually, the eyebrows and eyes are set as independent (though not always). The mouth can sometimes be independent as well. There are no hard and fast rules about that - if a part is not independent, it will affect the mesh of the nearby parts. If it is, it will behave as if it is floating, unattached.

I am confused about how the body of this puppet has left leg and right leg AND a lower pants with its own right and left. I'm not clear on the purpose of those layers. Just so you know, Character Animator will continue to process all layers in your puppet, even if they are not shown. It's a good idea to remove any layers you are no longer using. Make a copy of your original art if you need to before doing so.

Report · Aug 27, 2025

ok...what I think is confusing me is why the Head & Body are highlighting the exact same area. The Head should only be the part that the face background is highlighting. The individual legs are for it to walk. The lower pants is a block to connect the legs..otherwise when the legs move the pants split all the way to the shirt....not ideal.

Report · Aug 27, 2025

Since the head and body are not marked as independenet, each part will show as part of the other's mesh. The reason the head is showing incompletely is because you have the face background marked as independent, so it is not included as part of the head mesh. If you want to make the head independent from the body, you should mark the face background as dependent and mark the head itself as independent. Bear in mind that if the head is independent, there is a posibility that it will float free of the neck. Also, be aware of where the origin point of the head is on the puppet - you will probably want to drag it down to where the neck is to make the head pivot more naturally.

It takes a little bit of practice to get a feel for how the limbs on your puppet should overlap with the torso. You could, for instance, include the lower pants art with the torso art and have the legs overlap where they connect to the torso. I haven't seen any of the rigging for any of the limbs yet. Have you done the rigging for that yet? It looks like you have, but I can't tell how you have those set up.

Again, what is the purpose of the hidden right and left layers at the bottom of the hierarchy?

Report · Aug 27, 2025

Yes, when I did the body & head as independent they floated around and were not attached to each other. The "hidden" right and left layers on the head & body are the left & right profiles, I have body/head turner on both. Here are the two arms....set up like the legs.

Also when I go to record, the other issue I have is the arms when I calibrate, the are always bent, they won't straighten out.

Report · Aug 27, 2025

The issue I am seeing with the arms are the fixed tags and the bars overlapping the shoulders. The fixed tags serve to pin the mesh down and prevent it from moving entirely. They will not work as a hinge. Remove the bar and the tag.

The alternate views for the head and body turner need to be part of the head and body parts for the behavior to work properly. A good puppet to look at for head and body rotation is Stardust, the unicorn.

Report · Aug 28, 2025

I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me before now, but it is likely that you have Body Tracking turned on when you are calibrating, and if your body is not in an ideal position, the calibration will come out distorted. You can turn off Body Tracking by clicking on the blue icon of a person located between the camera and microphone icons below the camera window.

Report · Aug 28, 2025

This is not an issue. I have a white blank wall behind me, and I make sure I am completely in frame when I calibrate. I have been using this program for over 5 years, and have gone through all of Okay Samurai's tutorials, and quite a few other people's tutorials & Adobe's. I built these puppets back in 2020-2021. They have been used quite a bit, I am working on fine tuning them, and working out little bugs that have cropped up over the years. I wouldn't call myself an expert..but I have extensive time & knowledge in Character Animator. But these few things are still cropping up and I wanted someone more knowledgable that me, to help me figure out what little thing I am getting wrong.