|
By Joe F - 4 Years Ago
|
Hello Everyone,
I'm new to Reallusion and Cartoon Animator 4. I am very impressed by the Trial version, all of the character capabilities in the Program to create 2D/3D animation rather easy and quickly, all of the tutorials, forums, help videos, and the outlook for new features in 2020 and beyond. VERY impressive!!
There are a lot of topics posted so you probably answered this tons of times. I apologize, I couldn't find one that was relevant to my questions!
I have 2 (and soon 3) new characters that I want to at first 2D animate and then later 3D animate. I am planning on initially purchasing the CA4 Pipeline Suite but I want to make sure the capabilities are there for what I want to do. These 2 characters are currently in 1 pose in a transparent color front facing PNG file. I would like to animate them to be able to do all sorts of motions for future videos (i.e. wave hi, clap hands, walk, run, dance, do exercises like squats, drive, etc), as well as, facial features like blink and talk. I followed the tutorial for how to create a character using free bones. This works pretty good for some basic moves but is very limited for what moves can be made by the characters (i.e. can't clap or squat) and I can't use the built in "Animation" motions by dragging them over (i.e. via the Motion, Perform, Action selections). I couldn't find a way to easily add the facial features to blink and talk with a free bone character. I have seen many ways to create new characters (i.e. using individual body parts, free bone, etc) but I don't know the best approach for my characters.
To have very mobile and facial 2D and 3D flexibility for my characters, how should they initially be created and then updated later to move, blink, and talk? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!! Please share ideas and point me to some tutorials/videos to accomplish what I'm looking for.
Many thanks and stay safe,
Joe
|
|
By vepop - 4 Years Ago
|
To my understanding, before using those pre-made motions, you have to ascertain first that the bone structure is the same as what the motion is intended for.
Usually it works with a human bone template.
So if you are creating a human cartoon character, use this template.
|
|
By Joe F - 4 Years Ago
|
Thanks vepop!
OK, I'm starting to get the hang of this. I will use "Philipp" who is a G3 360 character template to create my 2 new characters.
I see from the tutorials that I have to re-map all of the body parts and replace the sprites. Is this correct? If so, do you know of a good tutorial for how to save all of the individual body parts (i.e. hip, left arm, left hand, left thigh, left foot, etc.) using either Photopea or GIMP? I have high res front facing transparent PNG files for both characters. What program do you use for this type of image editing?
Thanks again,
Joe
|
|
By vepop - 4 Years Ago
|
Tutorials:-
Part 1 :https://vimeo.com/372782250
Part 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdfeyRjjBwE
Hopefully, these two tutorials help.
|
|
By vepop - 4 Years Ago
|
How to convert a Freepik character into a Cartoon Animator 4 character.:-
youtube.com/watch?v=Dps0D4GVu3U
|
|
By Joe F - 4 Years Ago
|
You're the best vepop!
Prior to posting my previous reply, all of the videos that I found didn't show exactly what I was looking for. I'll give all 3 of your videos a try and hopefully I'll be all set so I can leave you alone.  I'll be sure to let you know the results when I try them over the next couple of days.
Many thanks again for your time,
Joe
|
|
By Joe F - 4 Years Ago
|
Thanks again vepop!
Unfortunately, these 3 videos do not address what I need to proceed.  I'm looking for videos/tutorials for how to take one high res PNG image and cut out/save each of the individual body parts. In other words, I have 1 PNG file for both characters and I want to create separate PNG files for each body part as I "cut" them out of the original full character PNG file. I currently have Photopea from the CA4 Pipeline Trial and GIMP for my image editing software on Windows 10.
I look forward to hearing from you again,
Joe
|
|
By Joe F - 4 Years Ago
|
Hello vepop,
Yay, I found a way to extract all of the body parts from my 2 characters using GIMP. I would still be interested to hear what software you use and if there are any videos/tutorials for this type of image editing.
Thanks, as always,
Joe
|
|
By vepop - 4 Years Ago
|
Hi Joe,
I've done tutorials on converting a Freepik character into a CA4 character.
I believe they will address your problem.
ps. I use Affinity Designer for my CA4 character creation.
Thanks.
|
|
By KPVSK2 - 4 Years Ago
|
I can't understand why CTA 4 is now bundled with Photopea but all demo videos use Photoshop?
Not very helpful for new users.
|
|
By vepop - 4 Years Ago
|
Users have been asking for suggestion on which free programs that work best with CTA4.
Photopea has been chosen when they made the upgrade.
|
|
By Peter (RL) - 4 Years Ago
|
|
KPVSK2 (6/12/2020)
I can't understand why CTA 4 is now bundled with Photopea but all demo videos use Photoshop?
Not very helpful for new users.
The reason we partnered with Photopea is to give CTA users a FREE image editing option. Photoshop is still the recommended choice but not everyone can afford (or want) a monthly subscription. Photopea is a great alternative for those who don't use Adobe products.
|
|