New Starter mode is now available!
Character Animator 22.5 (released June 2022) introduces Starter mode to get you started animating now without any prior experience. Update now to the latest version to try this out.
New Starter mode is now available!
Character Animator 22.5 (released June 2022) introduces Starter mode to get you started animating now without any prior experience. Update now to the latest version to try this out.
A scene contains puppets, audio files, and recorded takes. You can view the contents of a scene in the Scene panel. You can also pan and zoom the panel’s contents for better viewing.
To create a scene, do either of the following:
Newly imported puppets are positioned at the center of the scene by default. Use the Transform behavior option to reposition a puppet in its scene.
The new scene defaults to the same frame rate, duration, width, and height as the last-created scene or the last scene whose settings you modified.
Scenes also include a Recording Speed parameter, but it always defaults to 1x.
To duplicate a scene, select it, then choose Edit > Duplicate (Command/Ctrl+D).
To edit the contents of a scene, double-click the scene item in the Project panel. The scene opens in the Scene panel.
To manually update the scene in the Scene panel, click the Refresh button at the bottom of the panel. You can also double-click the scene in the Project panel to update it. Refreshing a scene is useful if you want to reset simulations (for example, Dangle or Particles behaviors).
To pan the contents of the Scene panel, hold down Option/Alt while dragging in the Scene panel.
To zoom the content to fit the bounds of its panel, choose Fit from the Zoom Scene menu in the lower-right corner of the Scene panel.
To change the displayed background color of a scene, click the Background Color button (a small color chip) at the bottom of the Scene panel. It cycles between black, white, and dark and light transparency grids (checkerboards). The color is ignored during export.
To close the currently open scene in the Scene panel, press Command/Ctrl+W. You can also choose Close from the panel’s tab menu (opened via the blue scene name in the tab). Choose Close All to close all open scenes.
The duration is visualized as a lighter background in the Timeline panel.
Use snapshots of a scene to reference a specific pose of a character when modifying the pose at the current time. For example, you can compare or align the positions of a hand between shots of a character. A snapshot appears as an onion-skin display. You can show or hide, update, and adjust the visibility of this display relative to the live version of the character. A snapshot can even appear in a different scene, if the scenes have the same dimensions.
To take a snapshot of a scene, select Scene > Take Snapshot (Shift+F6).
While a snapshot is displayed, Scene Snapshot Enabled appears in orange in the upper-left corner of the Scene panel.
To hide or show the snapshot, select Scene > Hide Snapshot or Show Snapshot (F6).
The opacity of the live puppet decreases as the snapshot’s opacity increases. To change the visibility of the snapshot, choose Scene > Increase Snapshot Opacity (Command+Option+=) or Decrease Snapshot Opacity (Command+Option+-).