Hello, Team!

I thought I'd share my experience in building an actor for CrazyTalk Animator 2. I put this character together with Illustrator. I'm not sure how to complete the process after porting it to Flash (including the part on adding the pivots and patches). Here is a turn-around, and parts break-down.



I'm not sure about the scale of the character's body, so I'd like to ask for some input on what is thought of these alternate scales. I mean, with the original scale, the Head is wider than the shoulders, so I think that posing will be limited.



So, team, what do you guys think? Is this a good design?

I constructed the above digital puppet with this template I created. It's not complete, but it has enough to build off of.



Also, I build this template puppet for a male actor.



What do you think of these as a foundation for building an entire cast of characters?

very nice work!! :w00t:

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Wow, very cool. I hope you get it working in a character and post a video later.

-Erik

Thanks Planetstardragon and Erikh2000! I built these puppets with Illustrator. I know they can be transferred to Flash, but I haven't figured out some of the subtle details on rigging them for import into CrazyTalk Animator 2.

I used the Template Female Puppet to build another character.



I also drew her dressed in an anime staple, the sailor fuku school uniform (both summer and winter versions).




What do you think, team?

Some very nice characters. Since you asked about the proportions I would say the original version is my preference. The others feel like the legs are starting to be too long.

If you have the pipeline version of CTA2 then I would imagine using the DrawPlus White paper as a guide for how to set up your characters in AI would be the way to go - as I imagine DrawPlus and AI would be similar in how they handle Flash Illustrations/exports.

If you don't have the Pipeline version then you won't have the dedicated button for importing a character template which means you'll have to go through the process of exporting each body part individually as a flash file then re-constructing your character piece by piece in the CTA2 character composer.

- TET
Animation and Video Life
The Lazy Animator - Tutorials for Cartoon Animator

Thanks for your input, Etourist! The legs are a little long, in some of the other models! XD I didn't even notice that, I was focusing mostly on the shoulders.

I was a bit unsure about creating my own characters, because the models had a bit of different proportions, and the established pivots couldn't work with my design.

I do have the pipeline version of CrazyTalk 2 Animator, so I can eventually do a mass import. I haven't even thought of looking into the Drawplus white paper (even though I have that software), so I'll study up on it.

BTW, Etourist, I looked at your webpage; you have a lot of great material! I'm so happy to receive advice from an expert like you! :)

Have you ever wondered how nuanced and subtle the position of the eyebrows are in the expressions of animated characters are? I didn't, until I started drawing them. Check it out.

I know I should be building additional assets to improve the utility of the puppet (like mouth, eye, and hand shapes), but I have a stack of designs for costumes that I really want to finish.

I have learned, that one of the hardest parts, conceptually, of character design is the waist pivot connecting the lower and upper torso. It's even mentioned in the white papers that special care needs to be taken when drawing these parts because of the "torso-twist." Because of this, many of my puppets 90/270 degree profile view upper torso looks a little too "flared-out" Oh, well. It was the solution I was able to find, but I'm also still learning.



She's not a real nurse; she just likes to play dress-up. ;)