Isolation mode won't tag, plus...

[VladThePainter]

Windows 10.  Adobe CA 2017

Rigging my character in Adobe Character Animation.  Very new to program.  Trying a walk cycle with a created character. Body. Two arms. Two legs.  Very simple.  While watching tutorial - I want to tag the left leg (rear leg) with the handle symbol and when I go into isolation mode so I can get to it - it still asks me to 'select a group' and I am unable to place the handle tag.  I have the plus signs correctly placed at the beginning of each body part layer I want to move.  (I tried both the left leg with the Crown Symbol, and the Left Leg below in the layers panel.)  Left arm works fine and is able to be tagged, but the left leg won't.

(ALSO) When I do see the walk cycle... in the STREAM panel to check it - my character is much to large (its very high res) to fit within the confines of the screen given.  How can I resize character to fit?

If I could attach the actual CA file, I will - but I don't see where I can...

Many thanks in advance!

Message was edited by: Gerald Hapeman

[oksamurai]

For isolation I think you have to click the bar above it to add the tag? The little puppet icon with left leg? It's not obvious, we could do a better job of showing what to do.

Selecting the same in the main level (BOUD_Trial_Character4) should show transform, which should let you resize the character with Scale. You can also select the scene in the project panel and change the scene dimensions from the properties that show up on the right.

[VladThePainter]

Here is a link to the puppet.  It has more complex problems now then last I wrote.  Though the CNTRL+W sees to work, sometimes...  But now, the character is moved into a slanted position - whereas before, she wasn't and ready to walk - other than the problem with left leg.  I don't know.

Dropbox - BOUD_Trial_Character4.puppet

[oksamurai]

Try this: https://adobe.ly/2rAFuf7

The main issue was where your body tags (waist, hip and neck) were. You put them on a Body group inside your main Body group, but they should be on the group that all the legs and arms are attaching to - the main Body group.

I also added some staples and sticks to get it working a little better. Hope that helps...

[VladThePainter]

Thank you for your help, very much!  I do appreciate your time and effort.  Yet, the character is more bonkers now than ever... so I don't know.  My main goal was to figure out why I couldn't select the back leg - and I see you fixed but unaware how.  I originally did have her walking except for her back leg, so I assume where I placed my tags were okay - as now, her body is incredibly warped and - not walking.  I'm very green to your program but not to After Effects, so do you have a more detailed beginners guide - tut that takes one through creating a walk cycle and getting set up?  I really love what I'm seeing in your vids but can't seem to pull it off...

[oksamurai]

I'm not sure which walk videos you've seen but you can try these (the first is probably the best):

Teach your character to walk |

New Features - April 2017 (Adobe Character Animator CC Beta) - YouTube

Character Animator: Breathing Life into 2D Animation (NAB Show 2017) | Adobe Creative Cloud - YouTub...

The main issue I saw before was just those body tag placements. The arms and legs should be inside a group that has at least hip and waist applied, and you'll need neck somewhere for the arms to work too.

Your character has the dress, which complicates things a little - do you want the legs starting their connection right where the dress is, or more realistically up higher against the hip? How long the artwork goes up and where you staple will have a significant impact on how the walk looks.

The Maddie example from http://adobe.com/go/chexamples is probably your best guide - she also has a dress and is also from a photographed source (albeit a doll instead of a human). If you deleted the left and frontal views from her and just focused on the right profile, and compare that to what you have, I think that could help.

[VladThePainter]

That Maddie tut is extremely helpful.  It works now... but because I had to figure out something it appears you leave out in the video tut... and appears crucial in completing, or at least getting the character to walk and not fly around.  See my jpgs.  Why is it when you open up MADDIE for the first time in ChAn and there is a number 1 already at the Torso spot.  I have mine set exactly the same way (with a less complicated character this time...) and no 'torso 1' is placed already for me as in your Maddie tut is.  As well, when you suggest click Head but no target, and apply by clicking circle tag on the body - it places a number 1 (all these of course I understand referring to tags placed) by my head but not on your tut.  Regardless - I placed a lying around body tag that was hanging outside my character (it's never mentioned in your tut what or why its there)

and placed that on the body of my character and was able to get it to jump up and down finally when I placed it in a scene - otherwise... the legs and arms did not stay connected.

[VladThePainter]

Actually... Never mind.  I give up.

This shouldn't be so complicated for me, and yet it is.

Thanks for trying.

[CoSA_DaveS · Accepted solution]

We agree it's too complicated, and we're working to make it simpler!

Here are the things I changed to make it walk:

* removed the "+" in front of "+Body" in PS (& then saved in PS) -- this prevents the Body from creating an independent group. This helps because it gives a mesh for all of the limbs to staple to. Not strictly needed, but improves the look of the movement to coordinate through the body.

* moved the origin of the Right Leg to be near the top of the leg; same for Left Leg

* moved the origin of the Left Arm to be near the top of the arm (Right Arm was already correct)

* selected all three of those groups and stapled them to their parent (Body) using Puppet > Staple

* changed the Attach Style of the CHARACTER group from Hinge back to Free -- this allows the top-level Transform behavior to Scale (hinged things don't scale with their parents; we're re-considering this).

* changed top-level Tranform's Scale to 21% to see the whole character

* to work around a bug in Beta 6, I had to place the origin of the CHARACTER group (where the Walk was applied) to near the hip -- without this the legs are way too far forward (over the origin)

* to get the arms to swing, I added a handle to the BODY group between the shoulders, and tagged it Neck -- this is what the arms swing around

* increased Walk's Elbow Bend to stop bending her elbow backwards

* added sticks to forearms & shin (in their respective groups)

Dropbox - BOUD_Trial_Character4_fixed.puppet

[VladThePainter]

Thank you for your time - all of you - for helping me through this and mostly, creating what appears to be an animator's dream tool!  I just hope I can get it working properly.  It appears with what you've done, modified, seems to work a bit better.  Still clunky, but some more tweaks on a more stable character may be needed.  I guess I'll keep on trying.  Here's to moving forward... (and walking forward too!)  Thanks STAFF!  Truly appreciate the kind responses and killer customer support!

[oksamurai]

And in helping demystify why those numbers are appearing with Maddie - the numbers in that circle column mean the number of "handles" that appear on that particular group/layer of the puppet. For the Maddie view that shows 1 in the first two screenshots, that is a staple that is used for the key necklace connected to the torso - not critical to walking. For the other one, it's showing that two handles were applied - in this case, the hip and waist handles and tags added to the Body group - and yes, those are critical to walking. These numbers are just meant as a guide to help identify and understand where handles are in your puppet.