Illustrator or Photoshop

[shooterstache]

What are you guys building puppets in? Which is more user friendly?

I tend to use photoshop because I know how to use it but I think I am could be making better looking puppets in illustrator.

[alank99101739]

“User friendly” is probably a question of what you know!

I use Illustrator on the theory that vector artwork can scale more easily without pixelization (e.g. can zoom in on eyes).  But if you did a high res photoshop file that would probably work too (but I wonder if would be slower because of the very large raster file?)

I personally like that Illustrator I can add and remove things easily (I can add/remove groups, change layer orders, etc) - Photoshop if you modify a raster in a layer, you cannot disect it again later if needed (because its all in the one bitmap). So Illustrator feels a little safer in case I need to pull apart the artwork and I just did not realize it when I started drawing.

Illustrator also feels (to me) a bit more “structured“ in terms of the layers (like its normal to do), which aligns with CH’s importance on the structure - but that may simply be my ignorance of Photoshop since I don’t use it much.

[mark@headTrix]

I guess it can be a preference. But I prefer using Photoshop. I can create Vector shapes with the pen tool just like I can in Illustrator.... but I can also take a photo of a stuffed Monkey and Animate him, and create triggers that show him smoking, but adding a cigarette, and creating a frame by frame animation of smoke. With Photoshop you can cut up ANYTHING, a cartoon, a photo, 3D character, claymation looking character, stuffed animal, a plant, etc!

Here is a stuffed Animal cut up in Photoshop - Fun with Adobe Character Animator | Stuffed Monkey - YouTube

And here is a Cartoon Character also cut up in Photoshop - Happy Birthday from Dr. Laura - Created with Adobe Character Animator - YouTube

I guess preference or what application you know of course can help. But I can cut up any graphic in Photoshop so I feel like it expands my creativity a bit.

Hope this helps!
mark

[shooterstache]

you have some good points and I definitely like bringing in photographs to my projects (I have a really cool project I'm working on where my daughter draw colored and cut out characters that visual looks amazing). As far as some of my other projects though I notice the pixels from my photoshop graphic which was why I was thinking about jumping to illustrator. I'd prefer photoshop because I know how to use it though but how would I get rid of some of these rough edges? Just make my file size bigger? I've added a link below to one of my projects that I used character animator (plus AE) for.

So This One Time: Ocho Cinco - YouTube

[mark@headTrix]

Hi there!

I took a look at your video! I love the first two transitions in the beginning, and nice characters! The backgrounds look a little blurry. So next time when you grab images make sure they are LARGE! So you didn't use Premiere? Just CA and AE?

Glad I could help.... and YES... if you want to zoom.... you start your file large in Photoshop. I am almost done with this Music Video of an animated Geranium.... and I created the Photoshop file about 2000x2000 pixels. I ended up zooming, even all the way into the mouth.... and I think it looks just fine! the arms aren't staying connected now that I have the neck moving.....(trying to fix it now) but all else is pretty good. I used Photoshop to create it, Character Animator to edit Character and Premiere for editing, compositing, titles, etc.
I was thinking about bringing it into After Effects.... to spice it up, add transitions like yours, spinning backgrounds... it does help!.. but this took so much time as it is!

GERANIUM | Music Video

Cheers!
mark

[shooterstache]

Thats awesome, so that is probably a huge file? I'm running into limitations on my early 2015 macbook I've got to upgrade this summer to keep making things.

In my video I actually blurred the backgrounds on purpose to keep the focus on the character, something I've been messing around with a little bit. I do my characters in CH then move them to AE where I pretty much add backgrounds, most movements, and sometimes I'll just complete the video in there but I like to piece together scenes in Premiere lately...my macbook doesn't like all these files much though!

[mark@headTrix]

Funny, I was actually thinking you might have blurred them a little bit on purpose after I sent the post!
I like how you think of the details! I just upgraded my video some adjustments to the eyes and the blink.... after you watch something 20 times you tend to notice the little details!

So do you mean the Photoshop file is probably huge? Yes I wrote above that I started with about 2000 by 2000 pixels. Then I used dynamic linking into Premiere(thankfully). I think it might be a little slower, but its so cool that I can decide to change the eyes and blink in Photohop, save, and then it updates in Character Animator and updates into Premiere and BOOM, I have an updated movie! The only problem I had was creating a sequence from the imported CH file, which then made the sequence the wrong size.... Oops! You can do the same with After Effects, I wonder if I should do that next time.... do you find the editing to be up to par in After Effects?

My MacBook is a late 2012! I guess I need an upgrade too..... just always a pain.

Keep on sharing your work! Love to see it.

Cheers!
mark