how are you guys modifying the original artwork ?

[Laousom]

I mean, after exporting your artwork and 

making triggers, behaviors and setting up whole stuff,

if you want to edit the original artwork how are you guys doing ?

(to add something or remove something or fix something)

because after editing the artwork most of the settings are malfunctioning 

so I have to fix them one by one like I am exporting the new artwork (even worse)

Are there any tips to edit the original artwork without breaking the

"Set-Ups" done to our puppet?

[Platty Puss]

Hi Patrick,

     The safest way is to Right click on your puppet in the Project Window and the bottom section of the menu is "Edit Original".  Click on that and it brings you to your puppet file.

   If a lot of things seem to be going whacky and you have to re-rig, I am not surprised. It has been my experience that after I have rigged a puppet and then make multiple changes I have to re-exame all the rigging. Sometimes CH gets confused as to what you are expecting it to do. Be patient. Be careful.

   I hope this helps. Be well fellow puppeteer.   - Platty

[Laousom]

Yeah I was following that step but even I do that I always have to redo everything :(( 

[alank99101739]

 As Platty said, the changes make a difference. I *think* changing the order of siblings is fine. Renaming layers and changing the nesting structure is almost certainly going to lose rigging.

This is where auto-tagging is so useful. Use the right names for visemes and who cares if it loses the rigging - it does it all automatically for you. Same true in eyes - get the layer names right, and there is nothing you need to do most of the time.

But if you have triggers, swapsets, or similar, then life is harder. If you change the structure too much you will have to redo it.

For that reason I sometimes suggest starting *all* puppets with a "Standing" layer under the root that only exists in case you want to later decide to add left and right profiles along side it. Otherwise you will lose all the rigging as soon as you want profiles and have to introduce the new layer. You can call it "Frontal" if you prefer, but for Walk it is really the first layer is special, and other layers are Left/Right Profile (unlike Head Turner behavior where Frontal does mean something). They reused the Left/Right profile tags slightly inconsistently in my opinion. Not a big deal, just confusion that could have been avoided. (Too late now - backwards compatibility is more important than fixing this.)

[Laousom]

I have already set-up correct vismes and name on my original artwork 

it is saving my time a bit and as you have stated above yep unluckily I am using lots of behaviors...

Too bad that we can't pre-set-up behaviors at photoshop stage 😞 

(before exporting to CA) 

[Laousom]

btw Alank this is not related to the post's question but please let me ask you one question :

Is there any tip or solution to avoid the body getting distortion when the "head is not independent" ?

I usually make puppet's head independant so until now, bodies were never getting any distortion yet 

but now I am trying new/another methods and now the body is getting distorted... 

I can solve this issue very easily by making the head independent, but it'd look like my previous puppets and new feature that I am trying is not going to work if I make the head independent... 

So if possible would you like to give me some advices or tip to minimize or remove body distortion ? 

(Theorically making puppet's body independent should remove distortion but

making my puppet's body independent always makes my puppet to float and fly lol...

(even though I've pinned and fixed them on the floor)

Seriously I've never had any luck with independent body...

That's the reason why I've always made the heads independent instead of bodies... 

[alank99101739]

Always feel free to start a new thread if a new topic. Forum members get an email per thread so it will be seen, and it helps others listen in if they are interested.

Sticks. I would put sticks along jaw line of head and sticks across the top of the shoulders. It does depend on artwork a bit - tall necks are easier. Short necks i experiement with sticks in different spots to see if i can get it good enough.

[alank99101739]

oh and sticks down the sides of the body can help too

[Laousom]

thanks but those are the methods that I already knew and didn't work pretty well :(( 

[alank99101739]

Independent layers is the ultimate solution for distortion. Sticks help you control where distortion occurs, to encourage flexing where you want it to occur. If you don't want distortion, then independence is the solution in Character Animator. There is nothing else that I know of. But if you find something, please share!

Oh, Magnets might be interesting ... no, that is independence again I think. Just a different way of attaching a child to a parent. So if you know all those techniques I hearby christen you as a forum expert! 😉 Its all I know too. CH only has so many features (which is not necessarily a negative!!) - the challenge is to get the best result from the features available.