A client wants some short animated videos, and actually pointed me at the Campus Hero characters as being "absolutely the look" that they want (which is great!). I've never used CTA/Cartoon Animator before, but I spent a long time working in Adobe Flash & Animate, so I'm familiar enough with animation processes.

So I was all set to buy the Pipeline & the Power Tools vol. 2 Bundle, however  the client has just sent over the rough storyboards and there's a few scenes where the characters either have their backs to the 'camera' or are walking away (so, 3/4 view, but in reverse). I can see that the Campus Hero G3 characters are available in 0, 45, & 90-degree angles; but I also need 135 & 180-degree angles.

I've done a lot of reading up on this, and I believe(?) that the character skins can be modified via Photoshop; I've also seen characters available in the store that have 'reverse' views - for example Cast&Crew Crash Sue Behind - so what I'm wondering is if it's feasible for me to be able to modify the Campus Hero characters to add 135 & 180-degree rotation (I'm comfortable enough with animating, drawing & coding; I'm just not great at drawing characters from scratch...). And, crucially, would those additional views are also animatable within CTA4? And if not, are there any other recommendations?

Hi...

Although the Campus Hero pack doesn't come with the angles you require, it is possible to create them yourself if you have drawing experience. You would need to export the front or side facing character into your image editor or drawing software and then edit each individual body part image. Import and Export of PSD files is only available in the Pipeline version of Cartoon Animator 4 so you would really need that version.

Once you have made the changes and brought the character back into CTA4, you will be able to animate the character using keyframe animation or use preset motion clips. Note: You may need to tweak some motion clips to make them more suitable to a back facing character. For example hands that are in front of front facing character will now be behind the back of back facing character. You can easily change this using the Layer tools provided in CTA4.


                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

Thanks for the reply, Peter.

Just so I understand: It is possible to add these extra angles to G3 characters? I only ask because I saw that the G2 actors can have 360 rotation, but all of the G3 only seem to have front & side (with possible 360 heads). Would I have to do any fudging to make characters turn their backs or walk away, or would CTA4 deal with that 'naturally'?

I did find some G2 base characters with '10 angles', and their source files available in Flash which I am super comfortable with... but I don't know if I'd be able to do as much, or make them work with the G3 motion moves?