Adobe Character Animator is a desktop application
software
Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications.
The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...
product that combines real-time live motion-capture with a multi-track recording system to control layered 2D puppets based on an illustration drawn in Photoshop or Illustrator. It is automatically installed with
Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Inc.; it is used for animation and in the post-production process of film making, video games and television production. Amo ...
CC 2015 to 2017 and is also available as a standalone application which one can download separately as part of a
Creative Cloud all-apps subscription.
It is used to generate real-time
2D animations to produce both live and non-live animation.
Description
Character Animator imports layered
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc., Adobe for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital ...
and
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and Computer-aided design, design software developed and marketed by Adobe Inc., Adobe. Originally designed for the Apple Inc., Apple Mac (computer), Macintosh, development of Adobe Illustrator began ...
documents into ''puppets'' which have ''behaviors'' applied to them. The ''puppets'' are then placed into a ''scene'', which can be viewed in the Scene panel and Timeline panel. Rigging is set up in the Puppet panel, though basic
rigging
Rigging comprises the system of ropes, cables and chains, which support and control a sailing ship or sail boat's masts and sails. ''Standing rigging'' is the fixed rigging that supports masts including shrouds and stays. ''Running rigg ...
is fully automatic based on specific layer names like ''Right Eyebrow'' and ''Smile''. Properties of selected elements can be examined and changed in the Properties panel, including behavior parameters. Live inputs include a webcam (for face-tracking), microphone (for live lip sync), keyboard (for triggering layers to hide/show), and mouse (for warping specific ''handles'').
Final output of a scene can be exported to a sequence of
PNG files and a
WAV file, or any video format supported by
Adobe Media Encoder. Live output can be sent to other applications running on the same machine via the Syphon protocol (Mac only) or Adobe Mercury Transmit on both Mac and Windows. Scenes can also be dropped directly into
After Effects and
Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is a video editing application developed by Adobe Inc. and is distributed as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. It is primarily used for producing high-quality videos across various industries.
History Original Ado ...
, using Dynamic Link to avoid rendering.
History
Character Animator was originally code-named "Animal".
The following is the list of versions of Character Animator.
See also
*
Aniforms
*
Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Inc.; it is used for animation and in the post-production process of film making, video games and television production. Amo ...
*
Adobe Animate
Adobe Animate (formerly Adobe Flash Professional, Macromedia Flash, and FutureSplash Animator) is a multimedia authoring and computer animation program developed by Adobe.
Animate is used to design vector graphics and animation for television ...
(formerly Macromedia Flash)
References
External links
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{{Animation editors
Character Animator
Character Animator
2015 software
2D animation software
Animation software
Motion capture