import video to scene as background
as that user can perform to match the timing of the background video
346510943 Selina
shared this idea
While the heading of this post is “import video as scene background”, and you can’t just grab any video file to do so, you can accomplish the requests of both comments in Character Animator now. By importing a PNG sequence. Once you’ve turned the video background you want into a PNG sequence, using an encoder/transcoder like Adobe Media Encoder, then, in Character Animator, go to:
File→Import Cycle→
(browse to PNG folder and click on first image of your PNG sequence)
→Import
You will create a puppet in your Project panel with the name of the sequence folder. Open this puppet in the Puppet panel (Rig workspace) and apply the Cycle Layers behavior to the root puppet layer. In the Properties panel, under ‘Behaviors’, you’ll see your Cycle Layers behavior and an item that says “Start” with a corresponding drop down menu that defaults to “Immediately”. Click on the drop down and choose “Synced to timeline”. At that point, return to your ‘Record’ workspace and add the puppet to a scene. It will appear as an item in your timeline. When you press play, it will play in sync with the CTI (play head) and you can use it as a background or like any other scene puppet. Hope that helps!
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bmw789
commented
Can we get it to import like mp4's and formats other than PNG sequence? Seems like a hassle to either convert to png sequence or constantly go back and forth between Premiere Pro and Character Animator for things that require precise timing.
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Alan Kent
commented
What is the longest 1080p video sequence you can do this with before Character Animator runs out of memory etc? My recollection was cycle layers has a real restriction - like all the frames were kept in memory. So useful for short clips, but not for anything of reasonable length.
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Anonymous
commented
Agree. This would make the pairing of real life footage with an animated character much easier!
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Anonymous
commented
I am desperately trying to use a video file (or even a PNG sequence!) as a reference to line up animations in the timeline. Currently, you can add a PNG sequence as a puppet, but it plays automatically and isnt synced when scrubbing on the timeline. Having a frame accurate option would give a TON of flexibilty.