We computed lipsync for each puppet based on their dedicated dialog track and usually exported immediately. We edited each character audio on a separate track and exported those separate tracks to Character Animator. That whole idea of live capturing audio and facial animation data is laughable now, looking back, since we usually spend a week editing the dialog before we do any animating. So during that first session, we switched over to Adobe Audition, and planned to animate as a separate process, once the audio was edited. We initially attempted to record live in Character Animator while capturing the animation motions as well, but we didn’t have the level of audio editing functionality we needed available to us in Character Animator. We had been writing the scripts during that time, parallel to generating the puppet art, so we were ready to record the dialog by the time the puppets were finished. The puppets had to be finished and fully functional before we could start animating on the digital stages we had created. We controlled facial expressions and head movement via webcam, and the mouth positions were calculated by the program based on the accompanying audio dialog.
We created arm movement by mapping each arm position to a MIDI key. The walking was accomplished by cycling through various layers, instead of the default bending of the leg elements. Once we had our source imagery organized into huge PSDs, we rigged those puppets in Character Animator with various triggers, behaviors and controls. The only thing that was synthetically generated was the various facial expressions digitally painted onto their clean yellow heads, usually to match an existing physical reference character face. So we took lots of 5K macro shots of our sets and characters in various positions with our Canon 60D and 70D DSLRs and cut out hundreds of layers of content in Photoshop to create our characters and all of their various possible body positions. There are ways to generate the underlying source imagery in 3D animation programs, but I wanted the realism and authenticity of sourcing from actual photographs of the models and figures. The biggest challenge to using Character Animator is creating digital puppets, which are deeply layered Photoshop PSDs with very precise layer naming and stacking. Animation gives us more control and flexibility over the message and dialog, lowers production costs and eases collaboration over long distances, as there is no “source footage” to share. Once everyone else realized the simpler workflow possibilities and increased level of creative control offered by that new animation process, they were excited to pioneer this new approach. Ultimately, after being inspired by the preview releases of Adobe Character Animator, I decided to pursue a new digital approach to brick filming (a film made using Legos), which is traditionally accomplished through stop-motion animation. When we first started planning for the series, we considered using live action. Back in October I presented our workflow during Adobe Max in LA, and I wanted to share it with postPerspective’s readers as well.
The show is created with a workflow that weaves through a variety of Adobe Creative Cloud apps. The show takes place in Grounds of Freedom, a coffee shop where a variety of animated mini-figures gather to discuss freedom and its application to present-day cultural issues and events. After a year of meetings, experimentation and work we finally started releasing finished episodes on YouTube.
Over the past year I have been directing the effort and working with a team of people across the country who are helping in various ways.
Adobe character animator online series#
In a departure from my normal film production technology focus, I have also been working on an animated web series called Grounds of Freedom.
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