Is it possible to have a hotkey make the character stand sideways?

[Jon Chambers]

I know the answer is yes, but there is more to my question:

My character has puppet arms stapled from the shoulders, so for the character to stand side on, both shoulders would have to come closer together.

Is that even possible?

My first instinct was to have it work frame by frame, giving the character maybe 20 different pairs of arms to tween from one to the other. However, those arms wouldn't know they're the same arm, so wouldn't behave as one.

My next thought was maybe there was a way of just moving the shoulders, but I couldn't think of a way.

The only way I can think of, is if I were to animate the entire body turning on its side as a fixed animation, and have the arms turn from a preset resting position, however that is a lot of work for very small payoff.

Is there any other approaches?

[KJerryK]

The easiest way I've found to do this is to drag the scene into After Effects, make a 3d comp, and then rotate the puppet along the y-axis. The face, shoulders, mouth all look pretty good so long as the rotation doesn't get too close to 90 degrees. I can post an example if you like.

[oksamurai · Accepted solution]

One other idea: If you dig into the tutorial the way they did this for Andrew and Dr. Funkenstein was just to have new separate arms for each body position. If I remember correctly, some arms are draggable while others are key-triggered to only show something specific (like playing the keytar). I believe there was a little practical skewing and positioning in the original file to give it more of a realistic turn effect.

[Jon Chambers]

Oooh! Two different approaches, but I can only award one correct answer.

KJerryK, yes, I'd love you to post an example.

Oksamurai, I'll check out the tutorial. I'm assuming I'll find a link to the source file, yes?

[KJerryK]

Here is an example. It is an easy and quick way to add a little "3D" feel to a puppet with only one body/head shape. Not quite as realistic as the puppets in the tutorial.

[Jon Chambers]

Disregard. Just realised everyone has that source file

[Jon Chambers]

Looking through that file, and I can't find what you're talking about. Could you please reference a specific puppet and layer?

[oksamurai]

In the project, try Assets > Incidental Assets > Funkenstein_Rig_081016_sc10. She's got frontal and left/right quarter views.

[Jon Chambers]

Odd, it was loading fine yesterday, then the tutorial stopped loading. It still doesn't work. This is the error I get when I try to open. Microsoft OneDrive - Access files anywhere. Create docs with free Office Online.

Cool trick KJerryK, though probably not the solution for my particular project right now.

[oksamurai]

Weird. If you delete the project in your documents folder ("Getting Started" or something similar), does that help if it tries to regenerate the project fresh?

[Jon Chambers]

I deleted the project file. (The one that's 0kb) Nothing has changed. There is still no project file, and the error message is identical.

I could get someone to remote desktop if you want. I understand this sort of information is very useful for a project in beta.

[Jon Chambers]

Tried to open up my own project. Got this message now: Microsoft OneDrive - Access files anywhere. Create docs with free Office Online.
Yeah, my software has bricked.

[Dan Ramirez]

When you said you deleted your project file, were you referring to the Tutorial project, or one of your own? In either case, the "project" is that file(0kb) AND the folder it's contained in.

In the case of the Tutorial, if you want to get a "fresh" version of the tutorial, just click "start here" in the Welcome panel. That will create a new copy of the project.

As for that error message, the software is probably fine, it's the project that has a problem.

I'm happy to take a look at it if you zip the entire folder and attach it to this thread(or email me directly at dramirez|at|adobe.com)

-Dan

[Jon Chambers]

Ah, the welcome panel was hidden from me. I'll take things from here and drop another line if things go wrong again.

[Jon Chambers]

New error this time Microsoft OneDrive - Access files anywhere. Create docs with free Office Online.

[oksamurai]

Did the refreshed project help? Is that new message blocking you like before or just a temporary thing showing up on that puppet?

[Jon Chambers]

It's the strangest thing. I went to bed thinking "crap, I forgot to delete the project files entirely, like I was instructed to".

So I had a plan this time. Delete all files, go to welcome screen, load, navigate to the correct puppet, open the puppet"

Well, I opened up the app just now, and first thing I see is exactly the puppet I wanted to look at, so I didn't have to do any of the steps above. I can't explain why.

If I figure out how to replicate the error, I'll let you know, but I have absolutely no idea why it's working now.

[Jon Chambers]

However, I can't get it to display the scene now. I'll try refreshing now

[Jon Chambers]

Sorry, I thought I replied ages ago, but I didn't.

The software works perfectly since the full refresh (deleting project folders), though back to my original question, it seems there is no way I can drag a hand while moving the shoulder. The solution presented here will only drag the hand associated with that angle, and won't drag the hands of the other angles.

[oksamurai]

Ah okay, I think I understand what you're going for. Yeah, I don't know of an easy way to do that.

Personally, if this were for a recorded piece (non live) I would just record and position the arms for each position to look like they transition nicer. So if I had a character pointing with her left hand and moving from a frontal to a left quarter and then finally a left profile view, I'd start the point in frontal, then record a take in both left quarter and left profile to serve as a smoother transition. So instead of the arms in the default "A" or "T" position, they'd be bent and pointing in every view.

Honestly for a sideways character, an easier way to go might be recording with the rotation parameter under the Transform behavior. Arm that and drag over the numbers during recording for the character to rotate 90 degrees or something.