How would you tackle the creation of a 2 headed puppet?

[juanr27669038]

Hi folks. I'm trying to create a double headed character.

Pretty sure Character Animator does not allow such thing so I'm just wondering if any of you have ever tackled such isue through post-production in AE or similar? Or perhaps haven't tackled it but have any suggestion for me?

Any help is appreciated.

[ebenheizerm28787053]

What do you mean by "doubleheaded? You mean like a head group with different, swapable, head poses?

Or a puppet consisting of 2 actual characters, hence, doubleheaded? I have tried this, but not so great and had a lot of limitations.

[juanr27669038]

Hi there,

Thanks for answering.

Yes, I meant the second bit (A puppet consisting of 2 characters, hence doubleheaded)

Not doable then?

[ebenheizerm28787053]

I saw Alank already help you with this, so just to support it.

Yes, it is doable/possible to do. I have tried it once, but it's very limited on what you can do compared to a single character in a single puppet. Many contradictions will happen if you have 2 actual characters in one puppet.

[alank99101739]

I have never actually tried it! What sort of problems did you face? Having two sets of draggers for hands and things I could imagine causing problems. Do you think having two sets of behaviors and arming one or the other would solve some of the challenges?

I had assumed 2 heads one one body, not two whole characters. E.g. Zaphod Beeblebrox. I cannot think of a reason to do two bodies and heads in one puppet - hmm, unless you want two characters holding hands or something?

Just curious where you found the limitations. I am just guessing.

[alank99101739 · Accepted solution]

It would I suspect doable, but there would be limitations and challenges. You would have to add extra behaviors so you can record the Face/LipSync/etc behavior on the first head, then disable it and record it on the second head. Rename the behaviors to "Head 1 Face" and "Head 2 Face" etc to make it clearer. Never tried it (unlike ebez), but theorectically sounds like should work.

[alank99101739]

That is, i think you can do inside ch. You just have to add more behaviors. puppets by default have a set of behaviors on the root. Delete the head related ones on the root and add directly to the two heads so you have two sets of behaviors

[juanr27669038]

Thanks a lot. I'll give it a shot

[joshuag86337383 · Accepted solution]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thDlCEuLzuY&t=517s

Edit: the two headed puppet can be seen at around 6:30

Here3 is a video of a two headed puppet, the two head functionality isn't talked about, but I have made one and I think there is another video out there by Dave where goes over making it work.

For live streaming, my puppet was very buggy, one of the heads would flip out and go crazy, but if you are just recording it works like a regular puppet.

Just make sure you Tag the second head correctly, (face, eye gaze, transform, etc.) and then arm/disarm everything on each head to make them work.

You can also change the parameters in the FACE behavior to negatives to make the heads move differently. Then you can record with both heads armed and they will both move, but in different ways.

If you really want a 2 headed character I think it's worth exploring. I always start out with simple shapes and colors to test the functionality before pouring lots of time in creating the artwork.

Good luck!

[juanr27669038]

Awesome! Will try that! Thanks a lot.