There is something so magical about animation, how we can move an inanimate object one frame at a time to give it the illusion of movement. Things get difficult and consume a lot of time very quickly. Especially when you need to time a script with your puppet's mouth.
What would happen if you could do all this digitally, without effort and in little time, applying the movements of your face to a virtual puppet? This is the goal of Adobe Character Animator. Similar to 2D-focused Adobe Animate, this motion-catch animation tool is ideal for content authors and marketing departments to easily create character-based clips.
Adobe Character Animator Starter: costs and plans
- Free is great, but you need to create a Creative Cloud account to use the software
Adobe Character Animator actually comes with two plans: Starter, which we're looking at here, and Pro. Starter is free and offers only some limited features compared to its paid counterpart, but that's not to say you should rule it out. Away from.
For one, Pro is just part of the Creative Cloud All Apps subscription package, which starts at $XNUMX / $XNUMX / AU $XNUMX for a subscription. monthly billed annually. This includes many other Adobe applications, such as Premiere Pro and After Effects, the company's VFX software. Character Animator isn't even one of the apps you can pay for separately, so it's a lot of money to spend on tools you might not even need in your current workflow.
Then Starter is the way to go. However, you cannot simply download the app, as you still need to create a Creative Cloud account and download the Creative Cloud software. This is where you can download, install, and update your Adobe software. Forcing yourself to use this control center seems like a lot, but once it's there, you can ignore it and start Character Animator right away.
Adobe Character Animator Starter: Introduction
- Very basic interface: everything is reduced to the essentials
You'll find the interface overly basic, with a primary focus on the digital puppets on offer taking up the majority of the interface. On the top right is a reminder that Pro is free. The sidebar on the left shows you your recent projects and various other information.
Interestingly, you will find that there is no button to create a new project. This is because clicking on the chosen puppet is the trigger to do it.
If you are not satisfied with the offered selection, there is an "Import puppet" button. But first you must achieve certain. You will find a "See More" button on the right side of the interface. This opens a browser window where you can request free auxiliary puppets directly from Adobe. Once downloaded, use this import feature to import them into the app.
This automatically creates a new project for , which is highly recommended. Unfortunately, your new puppet is not added to the default character list. It seems that you will still need to go through the process of importing said puppet if you want to use it more than once, which is not very easy to use.
Adobe Character Animator Starter: Animation
- Very easy to use, potentially conflictive, but there is a practical solution
This is where the magic happens. The chosen puppet of her is now front and center, with a generic background behind. This can be replaced by using one of the icons to the right of the box, where you will find a selection of forty-eight funds. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be an alternative to bring your funds.
Alongside that, you'll find options to change the aspect ratio, controls for your webcam, and a "calibrate" button. This ensures that the motion catcher animation software knows which parts of your face are which. You can see the result at the top right, where there is a thumbnail of your webcam. Once calibrated, a green outline appears around your face and features.
And with that, you're ready to roll; click on "Record face and voice", and his head movements will be applied to his puppet that will lip-sync with what he says.
Except maybe that was our setup, but while the microphone was chosen appropriately and worked with other apps on our machine, we couldn't get it to work here. However, if you encounter the same problem, all is not lost: there is an alternative to "Import recorded voice".
This is great if you don't work well under pressure and tend to inflate your lines when recording "live". Record the sound in a separate audio editor, edit it until you're happy with the result, and then import it into Character Animator. Note that there is no support for .m4a and .mp4 formats on import (which is honestly surprising these days). On your site, you must import an .mp3 or .wav file.
Once imported, hit play and your puppet will chat in time for your script, but it's a pretty sturdy puppet.
Help is at your fingertips with the "Save Face" button. After a brief recessive count, you will listen to your monologue. While doing this, move his upper body as you would when chatting, and these gestures will be preserved and applied to your puppet.
The only video editing software you have here is for trimming the beginning and end of your footage; it's not a million miles from the Adobe Express video editor in its simplicity. It is better to click on "Go to edition" to work a little more.
Adobe Character Animator Starter: Perfect Animations
- Triggers add a fun touch of animation to your character.
It's time to bring your character to life. You will find, on the right, a series of 'Triggers'. They're short animations, unique to each puppet, that let you add more actions to your character, like anger, bewilderment, arms raised, aiming, that sort of thing. Hover over each one to see how your puppet chooses the trigger attribute so you can decide if it's right for your needs.
You drag the ones you like onto your timeline one by one, reposition them, change their duration, and simply play your clip until you're happy with the result (keep in mind that you can always change the ratio of appearance and background of the painting throughout this stage of the creation process).
When you're done, the "Share" button is on the top right. By default, it will save your file as a high-quality clip, but you also have the option of ending up with a smaller file if you prefer, but with loss of resolution.
Adobe Character Animator Starter is a great introduction to digital animation. You could have fun making short clips with it, keeping in mind its rather significant restrictions. Pro obviously offers more features (for a fee), but that's a story for another day.
- Refining animations: 4/5
Adobe Character Animator Starter: Board
Swipe to scroll horizontallyPricing and plansFree, with subscription upgrade4Getting startedBasic interface with essential elements3AnimationEasy to use, can be glitchy4Improved animationsLots of options to add puppet fun4Should I buy?
Buy it if...
You're looking for a way to create simple animations effortlessly for free, you like to play around with fun features, and you don't mind restrictions.
Don't buy it if...
You need more control over your creation, you need better editing tools, and you wish you could animate more than just your face.