How To Animate Your Head (Adobe Character Animator Tutorial)
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- Опубліковано 3 лип 2024
- I've been experimenting a lot with creating cartoon animated heads and adding them over top of my real life face. It's a unique technique that leads to a lot of fun creative possibilities. In this video I'll walk through some tips on how to optimize a head performance in Character Animator, and then show how to use motion tracking and color matching in After Effects to add it to a body.
0:00 Intro
1:27 Character Animator Setup
7:38 After Effects Motion Tracking
14:14 After Effects Color Matching
17:35 Outro (w/ surprise cameo)
Download the free Character Animator Mouths Pack: adobe.com/go/chresources
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Get free puppets: adobe.com/go/chexamples (official adobe puppets) / okaysamurai.com/puppets/ (okay samurai puppet pack)
Check out the official forums: adobe.com/go/chfeedback
Share your creations on social media with #CharacterAnimator!
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Twitter: / okaysamurai
Website: okaysamurai.com - Навчання та стиль
I have a friend who became a great animator by just watching the tutorials on this channel, keep up the great work! Keep sharing mastery! ❤
Me too
Been working in Character Animator for the last few months and just want to say, you've got the most engaging, cogent tutorials for almost any program I've learned. Thank you for all the work you put into these.
This a great idea. Thanks for sharing with us
A big thanks to your efforts with these tutorials. Must be a lot of work! They are clear and easy to follow. As a school teacher during online learning, they have helped to engage my younger students in novel ways. Thanks!
Thanks for thisssss will definitely use this to improve my animation
Well, this speaks to me a lot 🙃 Thanks again for all the work you're doing, Dave, it's awesome! Can't wait to find a way to integrate these ideas to my project! (great singing btw!)
You are hillarious, and a the most inspiring animator educator. I always look forward to you videos.
Everyone says it, but I also will. Youre an amazing teacher and the time and effort you put into these tutorials is PRICELESS. You're incredible sir.
I loved it man! Great job and thank you for sharing
Love this, works so well 👏🏽
THANKS FOR IT REALLY ENJOYED AND LEARNED
Sometimes i forget about how to use Ch, thanks for this, i got a couple of new puppets and i feel more confident about how to record a scene, i use to follow your videos back then 2016/2017
Great Tutorial as Always👍👍👍 ! Really great idea , can be implemented in so many different project. Thank you for this!
Amazing tutorial! I've read many of the official adobe books for the programs and I just realized there's not a character animator book. I think it would be a great book to create for beginners, one day.
I am going to learn from your channel. Hope to see a great character from your teaching
So cool!
Excellent I loved this technique, I'll try to use it in my videos. I loved congratulations you are very good with it. Adoro seu canal.
Hello! I was trying to do the same thing as this tutorial. However, it was difficult to adjust the details, so this video was very helpful for me. Thank you ☺.
This is great man! I especially loved the Nintendo jacket! :D
Keep up the great content.
THANK YOU!!!
This is a great idea. love it and I will try it out in the future. Keep going. I love your videos. I really learned a lot from your videos. you have beautiful voice by the way.💚🌼👌
Brilliant
I caught this on your Instagram story!
thats a great ideal Make a show !!!!!!
Is it possible to record head movements from a video or is there a place where I can copy and paste 15 mins of head random head and body movements into the scene?
Yes - ua-cam.com/video/ofA7JFYfLlM/v-deo.html
Okay Samurai, I must confess that I've been using crack Adobe Products for a while but I felt ashamed after watching your tutorials and now using legal version. You rock!
Nice tutorial i have already thought about it. But i ain't got time to try it hhh
wow ,you rock
Still trying to finagle a way to make this work for a livestream. Turning down that Head Position Strength is gonna help a bit I’m sure. 👻 Thanks for all you do, Dave!
Another great video. Adorable pup by the way. My caviler King Charles turned 9 this summer, so he's an old man
Nice! Our first dog ever, she's great - kids are especially loving her!
@@okaysamurai our boy is very sweet and super smart. House trained over a weekend, and knows audio cues and hand signals for 5 or 6 tricks
Thank you so much as always. Could you explain how does the change of mouth trigger works? I haven't seen that yet
This video has a whole section on it (among other mouth stuff!): ua-cam.com/video/sc9S65Zn9XQ/v-deo.html
I feel like I limitations on CH then I do in AE, Things such as limb control and such. However there are some features that CH has that Can't be done in after effects. Such as Lib sync. What I like about this is I can technically Animate the head in CH, Import it into after effects and then animate the body there with more manual controls.
I recommend avoiding condenser mics and opt for a more directional mic like Shure sm58 to cut down on ambient sounds triggering the mouth.
hi samurai sensei, thank you very much for everything you teach and do for us, you are the best, now I'm about to finish my project, but I have a problem: my file has three views, front, right and left, well, at first I created the file and it only has the front view , I followed your steps very well at the last video about using limb ik and dragger to make poses, and it worked 100℅, now I add the other two views, and I want to add on them like I did with the standing view, I mean draggbel, to also make poses for the two side by dragger & LIMB Ik, and the second thing I want to add also for the two views , is walking & head turner, I know it's really complicated bec I want to collect three features in the same body, but I really need it if I can as it possible, so how can I do this without any mistakes? thank you firstly🌹
Combining all these things can be tricky. I would check out Walker on www.okaysamurai.com/puppets/, who has walking and head turns. I would start there, without Limb IK, to get that working correctly. Then, if that works, I would try adding Limb IK only to the standing view - otherwise, Limb IK and Walk will fight because they're going for the same tags. If you can't figure it out, please post a screenshot, video, or File > Export > Puppet (.puppet file) to adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more direct help.
hello mr Sam can u make a vid about a character sitting ?
Check out Alex here: ua-cam.com/video/-kHiUV7ZLdA/v-deo.html
Thank you for your good information.
I have a question. Maybe you explained it but I couldn't understand which software for what word you used.
For example, for making head which software for moving head which one and for putting on the real body which one.
And which one is free?
Thank you in advance for your answer.
I used Photoshop or Fresco to make the head, Character Animator to record the performance, and After Effects for the compositing. I believe to do this you would need the paid All Apps Creative Cloud plan. I think Fresco and Character have free paths, but only partial workflows.
what if you made a tracking point with makeup on your neck? would that help?
You definitely could! Just make sure you're well-lit from the front because the neck tends to get a lot of shadows from your head, which can make picking up those spots difficult.
i tried using after effects to get two characters with the consoles explained but it is not working pls help
For every character you have in CH, just import the chproj file into AE and drag them into a composition. The Complete Cartoon Workflow should explain this pretty well. If it persists, please post a screenshot, video, or File > Export > Puppet (.puppet file) to adobe.com/go/chfeedback for more direct help.
I think if I put the character on a green background and sent it out to obs and key it out then composite back to the Video in OBS, So I can record a live performance and will be easier than composite and track in Afte Effect..
Does OBS have face tracking? If so I think that's a great idea, otherwise you would need to make sure the head is big enough or you don't move enough so the real face doesn't show up behind the cartoon one. The tracking step helps ground the head to the neck and make it look more connected.
@@okaysamurai I think, from Adobe Character animator, we can unlock position and cartoon will follow real head movement when we bring it live to OBS and composite it back to real live footage, it will work.
How would I go about turning off one audio track for the lip sync (e.g. guitar) while syncing another track (e.g. voice)?
If you did a multi-track recording, you could just mute the guitar track and export a version with only vocals. But for me I recorded them both at the same time, so I had to do the thing I explain here where I re-recorded myself singing.
@@okaysamurai Thanks! I thought importing the instrumentals would also affect the lip sync, but I guess that comes after so it wouldn't.
Hey dave, hello!! how can I export my puppet without the black background? I made him in PS, with transparent BG, but in CA have the black BG
Exporting a basic video will always show up on black. For transparency you should use dynamic link into Premiere Pro or After Effects - see ua-cam.com/video/1mTSNfMSFck/v-deo.html. Or you can import and drag a background into your scene. ua-cam.com/video/7pgm_u4VkQk/v-deo.html
Hello Okay Samurai, I've been watching your tutorials for years now, you are awesome man... Is it possible to edit the in-between created by Adobe Character Animator when you use the Dragger? When you drag the timeline while the puppet is selected, you see the in-between, but it reset to default position once left... This is not helpful sometimes as the in-between created by Character animator breaks my Character...
Currently no, the only thing you can do is make another dragger take and blend it in. With performance based stuff like the dragger, it's either the performance and blends work, or they won't and you may want to record a new take, or multiple inbetween takes to blend. So if you don't like an inbetween transition, I would record a short 2-frame take or something of what you want it to look like and blend that between your two positions. Hope that helps!
@@okaysamurai thanks alot man... I will do that
hi dave..i want to add layer picker behavior on my puppet to change his hairstyle..i have arrange every single layer of each hairstyle correctly in the illustrator..however, when i open character animator in the rigging section, i cant see the layer that i arranged in illustrator..can u guide me on this problem.. thnk u..
In Illustrator, try renaming each layer or group to something custom - that will let it show up in CH as an individual piece.
@@okaysamurai noted.. Ill try it.. Thnx for the reply..
hello sir, i am just waned ask that if i have made any character in adobe animate then how i can use that for future use. please reply
The best way is to export as a SVG from Animate - in their export options there is an "optimize for character animator" checkbox - check that to bring over layers and names. You will still need to probably do some adjustment in Illustrator to make it work though.
Wauuu
For a non-human character like a monster that has no torso and the head is essentially the torso what can I do in that case to animate and add anchors to. I am going to apply the character to live action, I am also going to do activities with it. Is it possible for me to add like a cartoon ball that the person and the character play with? Do you also know how to make a character do other custom, actions. Such as kick. Pat someone, do a dance and what not.
In a case like that I would probably put the facial features only in your head group and the rest (torso, arms, legs) into the body group. For a ball between live and cartoon characters, I'd probably do that in After Effects. And for custom actions I'd do that via draggers/replays. Check out the ninja on the homepage of the app as an example of triggered punch/kick animations.
Wow, I didn't know After Effects has a tracker. I usually do it by manual keyframing, such a game changer! Also, cool tutorial about combining ChA with AE
Hey mate. Do you have a video that covers having full head swaps? So I can flip between 2 or 3 heads and the mouth etc will also move. I'm guessing having multiple head folders and flicking between? Thanks in advance
Yep! This should do it: ua-cam.com/video/g1wbw6-7zM4/v-deo.html
@@okaysamurai thanks. Can I swap set these different heads? Instead if using the head Turner? Want drastically different emotions rather than looking around.
Yep absolutely, instead of adding head turner, just make a swap set trigger group with all of your heads in there. ua-cam.com/video/WzYJbZYhxmk/v-deo.html
@@okaysamurai thanks man 🤌
Is there any way to get this very head used in this tutorial please?
Sure! Here you go: drive.google.com/file/d/15XI-uGIO7YfXcr2eqBjEfQ_JRwqxpnkW/view?usp=sharing
@@okaysamurai Gees thanks!!
Is it possible to livestream with this particular setup?
I've only tried it in post processing in AE, but I'm sure there has to be a way... (Sorry for the late reply, just got back from vacation!)
@@okaysamurai no worries thanks, I'll have a look myself and let you know if I figure it out.
I should really get a better computer I've been using Character Animator at version 2.1.1. And this makes it look so much easier
Oh wow yeah, a LOT has improved since then! You should!
Hello! I want to do some music videos similar to this video but I want to make balloon art faces. Crop the balloon art face on Photoshop and export to Character Animator to add moving eyes and mouth . Basically adding eyes and and mouth to an inanimate object and then motion tracking on After Effects. Would you be open to doing a simple tutorial as to how I could pull this off?
Nice! I don't have time to make a video, but I would suggest drawing dots on the balloon where you want the eyes and mouth, and use the motion tracking techniques I talk about here to track and add those elements. So it's basically what I'm showing here except only eyes & mouth instead of the whole face, and on a balloon instead of a human head.
@@okaysamurai hello how to import character animator file into AE? Thank you
Samurai, I think it’s time for yet another compete animation workflow. This time please do focus on tips/tricks for quick edits. Basically getting the first draft done in as less time as possible.
Aimed at talking head UA-camrs who would like to spice up their videos with a talking head animated version. The ones who are shy to put their mugs on the internet. Sorry if it’s oddly specific. But believe me it’s not minority by any means 😅
Hey, question. I want to do a character in a wheelchair. But I want to utilise after effects to animate the actual wheels. To achieve this I need the wheel to be above the legs and body but below the arms in after effects. This is impossible when character animator sends a single layer to AE. Is there a way to seperate a single performance into the arms and body as two seperate layers?
Great question. I guess you could record your performance, duplicate the scene, and export or dynamic link out two scenes, turning the visibility off of the parts you don't need. Then you could sandwich the wheel animation between them in AE. That's what I would try at least!
@@okaysamurai Thanks for the idea. Yes that makes sense. If I give all the layers I need to hide a transform property I can create a grouped slider control to turn down the opacity.
I also had another idea potentially doing it all in Ch, by using layer cycles for the the wheel animation and having a keyframed layer picker slider for the ramping up/down of speed.
But I think given there's an auto wheel rotation from position script in AE I'm going to try use the scene duplication method so I can take advantage of things like motion blur based on speed. I'll be sure to # it when it's done.
hey dave, my head/dynamic link shrinks while playing along top of my video. in the video, it zooms in. how do you fix?
Make sure Face > Head Scale is set to 0% inside Character Animator. If the problem persists, please upload a screenshot, video, or your File > Export > Puppet file to the official forums at adobe.com/go/chfeedback so we can take a closer look.
@@okaysamurai okay! ill check & make sure. Thank you so much
@oksamurai you play the new pokemon unite game on switch?
Not yet. You know, my kids haven't gotten too much into Pokemon - we've dabbled with Pokemon Go and got Let's Go Eevee on Switch, but they were lukewarm with both. Now Breath of the Wild on the other hand...my 10yo is obsessed.
Any way to do an easy shoulder shrug with a puppet?
Yes - with body tracking in beta this is now possible! Try it with some of the example characters. If they have their neck and shoulders tagged and tracked, it works pretty well!
@@okaysamurai would be cool if the eyelid tracker wouldn't distort the pupil when squinting or making wide. (just random thought)
The eyelids shouldn't distort the pupil if it's independent...see face 4 here: ua-cam.com/video/5SxNChhm0jo/v-deo.html
@@okaysamurai you are a hero and a saint sir.
Some of your videos have the characters jaw drop slightly down as the character talks with each word, I can't seem to find this in any tutorial unless I've missed it?
If you tag something as a jaw, it will move with the Lip Sync > Jaw Movement parameter. ua-cam.com/video/p05NNzb0lzo/v-deo.html
Hi do you offer this as a service? I want a custom cartoon head like that created of myself so I can use it when I do my youtube videos on my channel.
I don't but check out these third party CH creators: pages.adobe.com/character/en/third-party
i am making a rig just like this but I used the rig blank's head, and now I don't how to get it in chracter animator pls someone help
File > Import in CH will let you bring in any PSD.
@@okaysamurai can you tell for AI
Exact same thing. File > Import and select your AI file.
@@okaysamurai thank you it worked
sorry for any problems i caused keep up the good work
Why is Proteus and other puppets by the same author unable to be downloaded. All other character downloads are fine.
The link for Proteus on pages.adobe.com/character/en/puppets is working for me - if I click the download button in the upper right I'm able to get the puppet file. Which other ones aren't working and do you see the download page at all or not?
Have you used animaze?
Yep! Very cool stuff.
Hi, Is this puppet available for download?
Sure: shared-assets.adobe.com/link/469d5106-db0c-4a99-5e60-293bc619464e
@@okaysamurai thx
heloo sir
can you help me with the background how to create a background can you create a video were i can create my own background can you show how to create our own background
Yep, here: ua-cam.com/video/7pgm_u4VkQk/v-deo.html
@@okaysamurai thx
CAN YOU MAKE A NEW VIDEO ON HOW TO ANIMATE A SKETCH TYPE ANIMATION IN ADOBE CHARACTER ANIMATOR
Already did - see Scribbles on okaysamurai.com/puppets - there is a video about how he works linked in the description.
@@okaysamurai thx and ya i missed on video how to add our own backgroup i missed the link you gave me before can you give me the link again
@@LegendsReload Yep - ua-cam.com/video/7pgm_u4VkQk/v-deo.html
Oops my comment has disappeared ! I suppose I can't share a link here ? I wanted to thank you for all the help. I followed several of your tutorials and i have just finished a 26min TV Special called Alma and the Ice Shadows. I animated the main characters with #characteranimator !! The rest was animated with TVPaint. I would like to show you the teaser !!
Maybe if i put the video on UA-cam !! ua-cam.com/video/wpfTjXSAHGQ/v-deo.html
Thanks for sharing - this is is absolutely beautiful! If there's any way I can see the final piece one day I'd love to!
@@okaysamurai thank you so much !! I will send you a link when the English version is totally finished (I’m French ;) I have had a lot of fun doing this and it wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for CA and your tutorials ! For the past 6 months I have focused on making the movie so I am sure there are a lot of new tutos to catch up !
Awesome thanks! Can you email me at werner at adobe dot com? I shared this with our product manager Erica and she wants to learn more too...
@@okaysamurai Of course, with great pleasure !
How to animate like in ben 10 omnitrix???pls tell
Haven't seen it so I'm not sure!
@@okaysamurai you itself replied to me,I can't believe it,if you get to know,pls tell me
#adobeEducationCreative