This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Recording animation
Changing the position of each pin at each keyframe worked, but you probably found the process to be slow and tedious. Instead of manually animating keyframes, you can use the Puppet Sketch tool to drag the pins into position in real time. After Effects starts recording the motion as soon as you begin dragging a pin, and it stops recording when you release the mouse button. The composition moves forward through time as you move the pin. When you stop recording, the current-time indicator returns to the point at which you began recording, so that you can record the path for another pin during the same time period.
Experiment with this method of animation as you re-create the pincers’ movement using the Puppet Sketch tool.
Choose File > Save As > Save As, and name the project Motionsketch.aep. Save it in the Lesson08/Finished_Project folder.
Move the current-time indicator to 1:27.
In the Timeline panel, select the crab.psd layer, and press U to display all the keyframes for the layer.
Scroll down to the Left Pincer and Right Pincer pins. Drag to select all keyframes for those pins after 2:08, and then delete the keyframes.
TIP
By default, the motion is played back at the speed at which it was recorded. To change the ratio of recording speed to playback speed, click Record Options in the Tools panel, and change the Speed value before recording.
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The animation for the other pins remains, but you’ve removed the keyframes that animate the pincers. Depending on where you placed Starch pins, the pincers may move slightly in response to other pins’ movements.
Select the Puppet Position Pin tool (
) in the Tools panel.In the Timeline panel, select Puppet to see the pins in the Composition panel, if they’re not already visible.
Select the Left Pincer pin in the Composition panel, and press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (macOS) to activate the Puppet Sketch tool. (A clock icon appears next to the pointer.)
Continue to hold down Ctrl or Command as you drag the Left Pincer pin into different positions for the length of the video. Release the mouse button when you’ve finished. The current-time indicator returns to 1:27.
Press Ctrl or Command, and drag the Right Pincer pin into different positions. Use the outline of the crab and the other pincer’s movements to guide you. Release the mouse button to stop recording.
Preview the final animation.
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You’ve used the Puppet tools to create a realistic, engaging animation. Remember that you can use the Puppet tools to deform and manipulate many kinds of objects.
EXTRA CREDIT
Act it out with Adobe Character Animator
If you identify strongly with your characters, you might want to use Adobe Character Animator instead of creating cumbersome keyframes. It’s especially useful if you’re creating a long scene or you need to match the character’s mouth to speech. It’s also a lot of fun.
Character Animator is included in an Adobe Creative Cloud membership. With it, you can import a character you’ve created in Photoshop or Illustrator, and then act out facial gestures and head movements in front of your webcam; your character mirrors your gestures on the screen. If you speak, the character’s mouth moves to match your words.
You can move other body parts, such as legs and arms, using keyboard shortcuts or your mouse or tablet. And you can set up dangling behavior so that, for example, if a rabbit’s head moves to the left, its ears dangle with it.
Character Animator includes some entertaining interactive tutorials to help you get started. To learn more, go to https://www.adobe.com/products/character-animator.html.
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Tips for a smooth animation experience
Create different layers for different moving parts: draw the mouth on one layer, the right eye on another, and so on.
Name layers so Character Animator will recognize them. Certain words, such as “pupil,” help map the character to the image in the camera.
Practice facial and other gestures before recording. Once you’ve set your Rest Pose, try different mouth shapes, eyebrow raises, head waggles, and other movements to see how subtle or exaggerated movements translate for your character.
Speak into the microphone as you record. Many mouth shapes are triggered by audio cues, such as “uh-oh,” and the character’s mouth movements will be synced to your words automatically.
Especially at first, consider using an existing character file as a template. It’ll be easier to get the layer names right.
Try animating objects that don’t have faces and bodies. For example, you can use Character Animator to animate clouds floating, a flag waving, or flowers opening. Be creative and have fun!
