So uhh, graduating media student here, with adobe ch problems.

[KierreKikkeli]

Currently making a school project for youtube with vtuberisk style using adobe ch, and well, i've had a lot of issues with the eyes of this model, lots of research, learning and so on, but for the life of me i can't seem to figure this one out, i followed this simple written tutorial page, done everything as told also above and beyond of whats told, my current 2 problems are
1) For whatever reason my animated blink doesen't work when im facing directly the camera, also the closed blink state gets stuck every now and then
2) How do i make seperate eyelids behaviour from eachother, for example only closing one eye partially etc.?

-i have attached a gif of my blink problem below.

[KierreKikkeli]

Another mp4 of the blink state getting stuck

[KierreKikkeli]

On hindsight more information about the rig and how i have made it with illustrator could help -.-.

[alank99101739]

I am not sure, but some suggestions. 

I would try adjusting the light on your face. In the video one side is a bit darker than the other - I was wondering if that is confusing it (in which case you will find nothing i. the puppet itself!)

Blink layers normally fire instead of using eyelids to close eyes. I wonder if actually you don't want blink and just use eyelid closing instead, so you have finer control. But that would require different artwork.

I was not sure why you had the cycle layers pause tag on one of the layers in a screenshot. I don't think you need that.

You could but a keyboard trigger on the blink layers and try turning off the camera. Does it behave correctly then? If not, then it's not the webcam. Might help narrow down the problem.

I personally would go through every layer in the rigging hierarchy and check all the tags. A stray tag or a Left tag on the right side can causes havoc.

There is nothing wrong with that page you mentioned, but here is a blog i wrote a few years ago in case anything useful in it. https://extra-ordinary.tv/2018/04/21/debugging-character-animator-eyess/

But the fact that things work better for one eye than the other makes me think lighting or stray/wrong tags.

[KierreKikkeli]

I am not sure, but some suggestions. 

I would try adjusting the light on your face. In the video one side is a bit darker than the other - I was wondering if that is confusing it (in which case you will find nothing i. the puppet itself!)

Not sure what or why but it seems to be a combination of my posture, lighting and 720p droidcam (increased the reso to 1080)

Blink layers normally fire instead of using eyelids to close eyes. I wonder if actually you don't want blink and just use eyelid closing instead, so you have finer control. But that would require different artwork.

I want to use this exact artwork, as it has been made after me for me by a friend, also i want to create really expressive eye's, i couldn't achieve that with only eyelid layers, as they were either too agressive or not agressive enough, my plan was to use both, eyelid layers with less srenght to be able to do clearer face expressions, and blinks for simply to blink. Also is there a seperate eyelid/blink control possibility? As in closing only one eye and so on without keyboard bindings.

I was not sure why you had the cycle layers pause tag on one of the layers in a screenshot. I don't think you need that.

Followed the tutorial page, also i got the blinks somewhat working with only half animation... All tho they are way too slow animated.

https://gyazo.com/9f639e7bb778190078d54f0ed4618695

You could but a keyboard trigger on the blink layers and try turning off the camera. Does it behave correctly then? If not, then it's not the webcam. Might help narrow down the problem.

Great idea, did that and troubleshooted it, for  some reason the full blink animation simply refuses to work properly

I personally would go through every layer in the rigging hierarchy and check all the tags. A stray tag or a Left tag on the right side can causes havoc.

Been there done that, thanks for reminding tho. It's a common tip no matter what you search :D.

There is nothing wrong with that page you mentioned, but here is a blog i wrote a few years ago in case anything useful in it. https://extra-ordinary.tv/2018/04/21/debugging-character-animator-eyess/

But the fact that things work better for one eye than the other makes me think lighting or stray/wrong tags.

Oh no i was just too lazy to troubleshoot both eyes at once so i narrowed my workflow only to one and  after fixing it i'll apply the same to the other eye.

Sorry for late reply and massive thanks, also if possible can you help me out with the problems i wrote above :).

[KierreKikkeli]

Ah got it almost working, one other question, how do i move my upper eyelid layers upwards and still have em working? 

No clue how to describe the issue in eny other way than this looks whack as hell

[KierreKikkeli]

NVM realized the eyelids have to have certain space between em, otherwise they wont work, aka move em both at the same time.

[KierreKikkeli]

For g*** sake adobe let me post this, i just want to learn and work, how can a multimillion dollar platform be this badly bugged in every program and even on their own msg boards.

Alrit, so i got it almost completely working, the eyelids layers are just acting quite whacky, is there a way to make them less responsive or harder to trigger, for example, currently im practically not making eny expression, yet the eyelids wander around? Tried to adjust eyelid strenght, but all it does is limit how close they can get to each other. And with default value of 100% it deems me as chinese and almost keeps my eyelids perma shut. Also the blink seems to work only occasionally or every other blink, i have a 6w 2600K led bulb almost pointed at my face and yet it can't seem to pinpoint my eye movement normally -.-.... Damn racist piece of code xd.

[alank99101739]

Personal opinions here. I don't use the eye tracking from a web cam for anything (eyelids, pupil direction, etc) because of jitter. It does work, but I like more reliable control. Note: i use it for recordings, not live streaming, so i care more about recording with precision than live ease of use. So I use keyboard triggers whenever possible, with autoblink, then cycle layers for blink sequences. I use the mouse to control where eyes are looking. It is less flexible, but you can have multiple triggers for different eye expressions. 

There are other features you can use - like clipping. At the end of the video your eyelids were coming out the top of the head. You can use clipping masks to stop this if you want to. But if you want live with eyelid web cam control, you can livestream etc, but the quality will be less. I think you just have to chose between the two.

Note I see this jitter with many such tools, not only Character Animator. The technology is getting better, but it is not perfect.

[KierreKikkeli]

Ah, i see, in my opinion and goal i aim to not have any triggers regarding normal movement and expressions i can make myself, also i did get it working quite well after tons of fiddling, but i wonder, could one exponentially improve the cam eye tracking with tobii eye tracker,  same style as in vr headsets do eye tracking. Could potentially work quite well. Also certain cameras and equipment might work, for example a DSLR with face tracking could improve the facial recognition. Anyways thanks for the tips and help, ill share my projects current end result here for potential future references. Also noticed that using my samsung galaxy s6's front camera as a webcam on my eye level improved the tracking exponentially. Don't mind the picture quality with the DSLR, im not a photographer, nor have i used that camera before xd.

 

  

[KierreKikkeli]

Oh, actually one question more, is there a way to make these bottom eyelids not come on top of the eye's by default, without adjusting the eyelid strenght?

[KierreKikkeli]

Also is individual eyelid control possible with adobe ch? Without triggers that is.

[KierreKikkeli]

FOUND IT! 

[KierreKikkeli]

Hmm, seems like the eyelids are a bit funky tho, can't have one eye open and another closed without the lids being both closed, and as far as i can see they should already act as seperate but every once in a while they dont.

Eny tips for this one?

[KierreKikkeli]

I simply love it how i spam you with random questions and few hours later figure some bootleg solution myself xd, enyways, i fixed the eyelids having epilepsy attacks thing, simply squint tiiny tiny bit while adjust the rest pose and vóila, you have working expressive eyelids's on your puppet with a seperate blink. Also eyelid strenght adjusted to 30%.

[KierreKikkeli]

Huh, false alarm, seems like adobe ch eyelid layers work considerably better if they are non filled objects, if i fill those eyelid outlines they instantly stop working and freeze.

[KierreKikkeli]

Huh, black outline+skin color fill works tho O.o.