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Misplacing puppet parts? (beginner)

Community Beginner ,
Nov 26, 2016 Nov 26, 2016

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Hello, I started using Ch just a couple days ago, with no experience on the animation field at all, and I must say that it's going pretty well so far, I'm amazed by the simplicity and effectiveness of this program and I'm totally in love with it.

I made 3 puppets already, which I'm still working on because I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I always tend to challenge myself more and more.

So the problem I'm having is that, I make the basic structure on Photoshop, grouping and layering everything properly (I hope) And it works great....

Until I get a new idea and I want to add more stuff into the basic puppet... let's say, more hair strands or a dress.

At first I was having no problems whatsoever, but after a while Character Animator decided that after every single Photoshop edit, it will misplace everything... and I would have to manually place the parts back together myself.

Am I missing a step?

This is confusing and very time consuming, so hopefully I'll manage to fix this. I hope someone can help.

Thanks!

Example:

dolly.png

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Contributor ,
Nov 27, 2016 Nov 27, 2016

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I can't offer any solutions... but can tell you they are aware of this.. Dave mentions it in one of his video.. and they say that they will be fixing this problem. No it doesn't help you now!

Here is the link to Dave's Video that I mentioned: it's about 18 1/2minutes in.... when he talks about the structure...

Making Your First Character (Adobe Character Animator Tutorial) on Vimeo

Files do tend to grow quickly and can get a bit complicated, so I use SnapShots in History when using Photoshop... If you right click on the Snapshot you can save it as a psd and then you've always got a record of what your project was like at a given time. This could be a good practice whenever you're about to make changes to the structure of your puppet.

Your Project is looking good!

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Adobe Employee ,
Nov 27, 2016 Nov 27, 2016

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For a layer that you've edited in PS and is now offset in the wrong position, try right-clicking on it the layer name or group name in the Puppet panel in Ch, and choosing Reset Layer. That should make it match PS.

Another option is to re-import the artwork, but that requires re-adding any manually-applied behaviors and setting parameter values.

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 27, 2016 Nov 27, 2016

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Awesome, thanks for the tip!

Reset layers seem to work  mostly good....except for the Left Arm layer....a bit odd?

Still easier to fix.

Also why is the area around the arm so big? it isn't as big on the other arm.

dolly2.png

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Adobe Employee ,
Nov 27, 2016 Nov 27, 2016

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Maybe due to one of the layers or groups _within_ the Left Arm group needing to be reset?

Or, when the bounding box for a layer is too big, it can also be due to a stray pixel. In PS if you select the layer and hit cmd-T, do you see the same big box? One way to clear out stray pixels in a selected layer in PS: draw a selection box around the expected pixels, hit cmd-shift-I  to invert the selection, then hit backspace/delete.

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Adobe Employee ,
Nov 28, 2016 Nov 28, 2016

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Yes, someone recently found this bug too and it will be fixed in the next update. Sorry for the trouble!

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 29, 2016 Nov 29, 2016

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Ookay. I was able to reset all the layers successfully but now the scene doesn't work?

failed.png

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Adobe Employee ,
Nov 29, 2016 Nov 29, 2016

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Are you able to add the puppet into a new scene, or does this always happen? Did this scene have anything else in it?

If it always shows up, can you please share the exported .puppet file via google drive / dropbox / creative cloud / etc, either posting the link here or DMing it privately to me?

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Contributor ,
Nov 29, 2016 Nov 29, 2016

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Hi... I'm sure you've probably tried everything I'm going to suggest, but might help!?

I have this fairly often when I'm flitting around, adjusting this, trying that... think it just messes with memory a bit.

This is my first try:

2016-11-29_18-42-38_01.png

If no good.. I go for removing the Scene and reloading..

2016-11-29_18-42-38.png

If this doesn't work... i remove the Puppet and Scene, then restart Ch and do a fresh import... cmd+I

Good Luck.. the team will sort it for you!

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Contributor ,
Nov 30, 2016 Nov 30, 2016

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There is this problem when you change the structure in Ps, that you loose tags in Ch and this is being looked into.

However, the problem with Monklyn's issue seems to be something different. I found it hard to crash Ch from anything I changed the structure of the character I was creating in Ps however, if I changed the structure in Ch... Ch crashed!

You can only change the position of objects in Group... be that other groups or layer, but if you do, Ch will generate errors and Scene will no longer be available. I wonder if Monklyn changed the structure in Ch?

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Adobe Employee ,
Nov 30, 2016 Nov 30, 2016

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Hi Richard. Can you send me the project? dramirez_at_adobe.com

Thanks,

Dan R.

CH QA

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Contributor ,
Nov 30, 2016 Nov 30, 2016

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Hi Dan... sorry I dont save these as project. I just use them as working/tutorial, then delete.  I was just working on how groups and layers work with Tags. I usually work with as few groups and layers as possible that will allow me to experiment in my attempt to understand Ch.

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Contributor ,
Dec 01, 2016 Dec 01, 2016

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Hi Dan .... had this problem again... I've sent .puppet to you.

2016-12-01_11-33-30.png

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Adobe Employee ,
Dec 01, 2016 Dec 01, 2016

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Got it. Thanks.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 05, 2016 Dec 05, 2016

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Quit and restart the program has worked with varying success for me. Seems like CA gets tired after a while and just can't deal anymore. Of course, if you haven't saved your puppet, or you're still editing in IL or PS, you'll have to re-import and set all your puppet tweeks again. SESO.

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Contributor ,
Dec 06, 2016 Dec 06, 2016

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I know how Ch feels.... I often get to feeling.. 'I just can't deal with it anymore!'

Just like me, I think it's a memory issue... doesn't like dealing with too many things at once!?

Good hint of what we all need to do when using Ch... Save Often!  Am I right in thinking Ch auto saves?

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Adobe Employee ,
Dec 06, 2016 Dec 06, 2016

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Actually, Ch saves on every mouse click or keyboard press, so you never need to save. And the entire history is also saved (see the History panel to access it). History is cleared via File > Clear History, when updating from a different version of the app, and via Save Project As. However, only the latter case actually reclaims the disk space.

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Contributor ,
Dec 06, 2016 Dec 06, 2016

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No worrying about crashes then.... just pick up where you left off!

I take it when the crash is a memory related problem, stepping back in via History Panel wouldn't work, you would have to shut down and start again.... clearing History, but if I open Recent, this would be the stage i was at prior to crash?

I like the History Panel... I use it a lot in Ps, so having it here is a big bonus.

So.. if I, Save As.. this clears the History?

When you close down... this also Clears History  too, but if it saves the last click.... you have an up-to-date iteration of your work to start next time!?

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Adobe Employee ,
Dec 06, 2016 Dec 06, 2016

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Quitting & relaunching does _not_ clear the history!

> So.. if I, Save As.. this clears the History?

Yes.

So if you crash, just relaunching should be all you need to do (Ch will start with empty panels when it detects a crash, in case the displaying of the panel would again crash).

If you have a reproducible crash, please report it so we can fix it. This may require submitting your zipped up project folder, which we'll keep confidential.

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Contributor ,
Dec 06, 2016 Dec 06, 2016

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Many thanks for your time and advice.... all these snippets of information help a lot!

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 07, 2016 Dec 07, 2016

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The automatic click by click saving is one of my favorite things about this program! Since I often forget to save.

I fixed my problem by editing a random  layer on Ps. So I can't tell what happened.

I'm having a bit of issues with layering right now. I don't know whether is best to start a new thread or just post the problem here.

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Contributor ,
Dec 07, 2016 Dec 07, 2016

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Hi!

Some of these discussions can go on a bit..... I would start a new discussion, or question, especially if it could be something different!?

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Adobe Employee ,
Dec 07, 2016 Dec 07, 2016

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Either works for us!

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 07, 2016 Dec 07, 2016

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I'm just gonna post here.

So I have a little of an ''organization'' problem here.

I had a few puppets saved with slightly different structures to see what works best or worse but, every time i switched between them I didn't realize I was actually creating so many different scenes. I actually just deleted like 10 of them.

And it's getting confusing cause I can't figure out which scene belongs to which puppet, and sometimes I change lots of things and see no changes because I'm looking at the wrong scene!!

Very confusing.

How can I avoid this?

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Adobe Employee ,
Dec 07, 2016 Dec 07, 2016

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If you're trying out different structures to compare, it may work better to add multiple puppets to one scene. So instead of clicking Add to New Scene for each one, drag them into an existing scene and reposition them with the Transform behavior. Then if you select multiple puppets at once you can see them all work at the same time, which is helpful for comparing.

The File menu also lets you make folders, which can help with organization. Then you could keep puppets and their scenes together.

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