How to use the puppet with another video

[Fendiwhippet]

I was trying to figure out how to put together this animation.  I would like my puppet to interact with another video that running.

If I animate the puppet in Character, then do I put the puppet in after effects and build the video.  I haven't worked with after effects, yet. 

Can I put together the video in premiere and then put it into after effects?

Thanks for any help.

[KJerryK]

A couple questions to better understand your workflow:

Is the puppet going to interact with a video that's already made?

Or are you going to do the puppet first and then make the video?

[Fendiwhippet]

kjeRRYk,

This is what I've done so far-- still working on puppet--got to tweak the eye range, eye brows.

I've put together still photoshop files that will make the video.  I have not put them together.

I would like my puppet to interact with the video by talking while the video is running. 

I would like the puppet in the frame and the video in a smaller frame. 

I'm not sure how to put this together.  

Thanks.

[KJerryK]

That sounds like a fun idea. If I did something like that, my approach would be to use Premiere Pro with Character Animator. If you do a story board -- just a rough script -- of how you want the puppet to interact with the photos, then you can do the Ch animation first. The puppet actions and voice would correspond to how the script went. Then bring the puppet scene into Pr Pro and make a sequence. Make a sequence of the photos, and match the photos to the puppet activity. It's much easier to do that then the other way around. Then you can make a separate sequence to the desired size and bring in both the puppet sequence and the photo sequence. Adjust the size of each to your liking, add any music you want. And there you have it.

[oksamurai]

Yes, Jerry has the right idea. Here's how I use the products personally:

• CH: My actors & actresses.
• PR: Editing video.
• AE: Compositing everything together.

So for me, usually everything ends up in AE.

[Fendiwhippet]

Hey Dave,

If you make the video in PR and you need to make changes to match your character. Can you make the changes in PR and will they sync into after effects?   

Any tips on getting the timing right?

[oksamurai]

Yes, Premiere, CH, and AE all have dynamic link.

If this were me I'd edit the video in PR first, record audio of me talking against the edit in Audition, use that audio to drive a character in CH, and bring the dynamically linked PR video & CH scene over to AE for final compositing. If you weren't doing anything extra though you might be able to just get away with keeping everything in PR.

I'd say do a short 10-second test run and see how it works before digging in deeper.