Adobe Character Animator Keyframes

1. Creating Animation Keyframes In Unreal Engine
2. Animate A Puppet Using Starter Mode

Adobe’s Character Animator is getting keyframes later this year, which will allow users to tweak movements and create more controlled animations. The new keyframe feature will let the characters move around the screen and give artists more control over what’s happening in the scene.

Character Animator may be one of the lesser-known Creative Cloud apps, but it’s still a powerful tool that lets users create puppet animations with real-time motion capture using a microphone and a webcam. The app is streamlined for making videos quickly, so until now, it hasn’t been equipped with features beyond making simple characters that talk and move in one place. Keyframes, which place markers on the timeline to signify the beginning of a transition, will bring the app’s features closer to those offered by other Adobe apps, like After Effects or Animate CC.

The video above shows some examples of the kinds of keyframe parameters that are available, like changing the scale, position, and rotation of the character. There’s an inline graph editor that lets you control the speed of movement and lets objects ease in or out of placement. You also create “replays” and “triggers” from keyframes, meaning that pre-animated sequences can be set off by a button.

Adobe Releases Character Animator 3.3

Character Animator is especially useful for capturing facial expressions and syncing up animations to dialogue, which is why it’s used on TV shows with tight deadlines and quick turnaround times. For instance, The Simpsons used it for a live-animated segment where Homer took calls from viewers. The software lowers the barrier to entry in creating animated characters, making it simple enough to use for young students in schools and animation camps. By introducing keyframes to such simple software, Adobe has created a place where these students can learn about a feature that’s an essential part of most animation software. And that might mean they move on to Adobe’s more sophisticated software once they’ve mastered it.Keyframes are used to set parameters for behaviors, usually changing them over time. A keyframe marks the point in time where you specify a value for a layer property, such as the position of a puppet. Values between keyframes are interpolated by default. When you use keyframes to create a change over time, you typically use at least two keyframes—one for the state at the beginning of the change, and one for the new state at the end of the change.

To set up keyframes, click the stopwatch icon next to the property name in the Properties panel that appears when you hover over it. This changes the color of the stopwatch icon to blue. Character Animator creates a keyframe at the current time for that property value.

When the stopwatch is active for a specific property, Character Animator automatically adds or changes a keyframe for the property at the current time when you change the property value. Enabling the stopwatch for an armed parameter disarms the parameter.

Creating Animation Keyframes In Unreal Engine

When the keyframe navigator box is filled with a diamond, the current-time indicator lies precisely at a keyframe for that layer property. When the keyframe navigator box is not filled (

Open the twirl down to the left of the parameter name in the timeline to see the visual representation of the applied transitions as shown below. Drag the tangent handles to adjust easing interpolation. Option -/ Alt drag  tangent handle  control one side of a keyframe independent of the other.

Drag curve points vertically to change a parameter’s keyframe value or horizontally to change keyframe time. Note that Linear keyframes do not have tangent handles. Handles are also not visible when you toggle hold keyframes. 

Animate A Puppet Using Starter Mode

) icon and select Enable Parameter Recording. When enabled, a red dot appears next to the parameter.  If you modify the value of the parameter during a recording, a new take will be created that contains all the changes. For more information about takes, see Record takes. When a parameter has both keyframes and takes, the takes have priority.The Adobe team is working on keyframes for Adobe Character Animator! This major news was released with an alluring sneak peek video on YouTube and hyped thousands of creatives who have been eagerly waiting for this feature. The huge update which Adobe prepares now, promises more precise and fluid animations in Adobe Character Animator. Currently,  animators have to do this by exporting their work to After Effects. Once the update is officially released, this won’t be necessary anymore – animators will be able to do a more advanced animation right inside Character Animator.

Adobe Character Animator’s new update will provide animators with much more control over the animation without leaving the software. Creatives will be able to keyframe traditional controls like position, scale, and rotation, as well as other character and behavioral parameters. Animators will be able to create keyframe specific values that will synchronize with specific points in the timeline.

The principle of working with keyframes will be easy and seamless, especially for those who are already familiar with keyframes from other software like After Effects. In the video published by OkaySamurai who works closely with Adobe, you can see a quick demonstration of the new feature.

Read On To Know How To Work With Layers In Character Animator

In short, once you hover over a keyframable parameter, a stopwatch icon will appear. By clicking on it, you create a keyframe in the timeline. The next step is to get familiar with the additional controls which appear in the timeline header area. They allow you to create multiple frames fast and easily. Adobe will also provide an inline graph editor which will generally give you a greater control over the timing factor.

Right-clicking on the keyframes also gives you options for customization, such as create a replay and trigger, create a take from keyframe, etc. This powerful customization options will allow you to turn any set of keyframes into a trigger. An amazing function which will help you create animated sequences simply by pressing a single button.

The release date of the update is still unknown, unfortunately. The good news is that Adobe will reveal more of it at Adobe MAX in November 2019, so we can’t wait!

Animate Using Keyframes

Introducing keyframes and the precision that comes with them combined with the ingenious technology of performance capture which lays the foundation of the software will make Adobe Character Animator even more powerful software for creating complete animations. What awaits is really brilliant and will provide animators with infinite possibilities for creating impressive animation work.

Iveta is a passionate writer at who has been writing for the brand ever since the blog was launched. She keeps her focus on inspiring people and giving insight on topics like graphic design, illustrations, education, business, marketing, and more.

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