Inverted variables
One thing that I could see to be helpful, not only in my puppet designs, but just generally in character animator is the option to invert the way the camera reads the facial movements. How I see this working is to create a little check box that says "invert" next to it, and all it does is invert the way the assets of your puppet reacts to your face.
Nutcracker Jaw: Invert [ x ]
Examples:
Nutcracker jaw closing when your mouth is open.
Eyes looking left when you look right.
Eyebrows moveing down when you rais them.
It's a very little thing, but I can see some very intersting applications that this could be used for.
Austin Bowers
shared this idea
Hey @Austin,
You can accomplish this by using nutcracker jaw with negative camera flappiness setting in the parameters. Does this resolve your issue?
5 comments
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IBREC
commented
Ok !
I've sent you an email.
I'm trying to make a fake 3D face without using the orientations steps, just with the tracked positions and some tricks. -
Dan Ramirez
commented
IBREC, that parallax video looks GREAT! If you'd like to be part of our beta program, feel free to contact me directly at dramirez/@\adobe.com
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IBREC
commented
Here is a good example where inverted variable can be very useful for my project :
I'm looking for reversing the Ears movements of my character to create a fake 3D displacement.
What I need : Negative value for the "Head position Strength" variable.Currently to make this effect possible, I'm using a negative value of the X scale of the "Ears" group.
I don't know why but Character Animator reverse the tracked position with a reversed scale, so.. I'm using it for now.
But it's not a good technic because after each modifications of the Photoshop file, I have to re-set the scale that is automatically go back to 100.But it can be very cool to be able to have inverted variables, and maybe to disociate X, Y, Z tracked positions.
Here is a video to resume all what I've said :
https://streamable.com/al895(Sorry my Character Animator is set to French thanks to Adobe that don't give an easy way to switch the language without re-install...)
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Austin Bowers
commented
Sure,
So one character I've made is a mimic from dark souls. For those who don't know, a mimic is a living treasure chest with arms and legs, and a large mouth with sharp teeth.This is what it looks like: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/darksouls/images/a/a8/Mimic.png/revision/latest?cb=20130714135545
For this character's mouth to work, I am using the top part of the chest as the jaw, not the bottom like you would usually do. The problem is, for the mouth to be closed, mine has to be open.. can't really talk properly that way. So if the mouth was down when mine was closed, and move up when mine opens, that would be perfect.
The fix I have at the moment is a creative one, but not an efficient one. I named the top layers of the mouth +Left Eyebrow and +Right Eyebrow. So the mouth starts in the down position, and when I raise my eyebrows, the mouth opens. Problem fix... well that is if you don't mind talking a lot with your eyebrows, while also saying things with your mouth.
So, long story short an invert option would be nice here, and could help create more interesting characters for the future.
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Hey Austin,
Can you give a few more ideas of how this might apply to your work?
