Adobe Character Animator: Tips & Tricks

Adobe Character Animator: Tips & Tricks
OkaySamurai is a training resource for a range of tutorials including Adobe Character Animator. The instructions are well explained, and the overview later in this video is well worth watching for anyone considering trying out this software for the first time (n.b. it is still in beta).

The following is from: OkaySamurai on YouTube

“This month we’ve got a couple of new starting Photoshop templates (blank and basic face), how to create a manual or automatic camera system, a great community spotlight with three incredibly creative puppets, and a walkthrough of the app along with some custom workspace tips”.

0:00 Intro
0:57 New Free Templates
2:08 Making A Camera System
5:39 Community Spotlight
10:43 More About Shareable Puppets
12:55 A Tour Through Character Animator
19:52 Outro

Download Character Animator: https://www.adobe.com/products/charac…
Download free example projects and puppets: http://adobe.ly/297v7Wg (okaysamurai puppet pack, includes the blank templates seen in the video) and https://forums.adobe.com/docs/DOC-6029 (official adobe pack)
Check out the official forums: https://forums.adobe.com/community/ch…

Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c…
Twitter: https://twitter.com/okaysamurai
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/okaysamurai
Website: http://okaysamurai.com

How to Warm a Voice and Improve Diction using EQ

Source: Larry Jordan’s tutorial on ‘warming a voice’. Utilises step-by-step instructions/visuals to guide you through the process.

Summary: To “warm up” a voice, we boost a range of bass frequencies. To improve diction, we boost a range of higher frequencies. And the tool we use to accomplish both these tasks is called an EQ filter (EQ is shorthand for “equalization”).

Link: Warm a Voice and Improve Diction

Improving Audio Recordings in Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Source: Larry Jordan’s tutorial on how to improve audio recordings especially of the human voice within Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

Video recordings with variable audio quality is a very common problem, and this step-by-step tutorial is a very useful guide on how to ‘smooth’ those variables out and to achieve the best quality recording possible. Well worth the time to read it.

Link: Premiere Pro CC: Boost and Smooth Audio Levels

Adobe Media Encoder: Loudness Normalisation

 

 

Source: Larry Jordan’s tutorial on how to normalise video in Adobe Media Encoder.

This tutorial is really only for those of you who might have material to be broadcast. If you are web video producers then this is less important, but regardless it would still be worthwhile to be aware that such a standard exists for broadcast, as you never know when your own masterpiece may end up being broadcast.

There are a few guidelines that are technical at the start, but don’t worry, they are so you just know which option to choose depending on your country of origin/distribution. After that there is a visual step-by-step guide to the ‘normalization’ process.

Link: Loudness Normalization Tutorial.

Color correction In Premiere Pro CC (older 2014 version)

The following tutorial is from Adobe Premiere Pro Help  and is a useful guide to getting started with colour correction in Premiere Pro.

• Adjusting color and luminance
• Set up a Color Correction workspace
• Apply the Color Correction effects
• Apply SpeedGrade color-correction within Premiere Pro
• Quickly remove a color cast
• Make quick luminance corrections
• Color balance, angle, and saturation controls
• Show All

To the top

Adjusting color and luminance

In video, color correction encompasses adjusting both the hue (color or chroma) and luminance (brightness and contrast) in an image. Adjusting the color and luminance in video clips can create a mood, eliminate a color cast in a clip, correct video that’s too dark or too light, or set the levels to meet broadcast requirements or to match color from scene to scene. Effects can also adjust the color and luminance to emphasize or de-emphasize a detail in a clip.

You can find the color- and luminance-adjusting effects in the Color Correction bin inside the Video Effects bin. Although other effects also adjust color and luminance, the Color Correction effects are designed for making fine color and luminance corrections.

You apply the Color Correction effects to a clip the same way you apply all Standard effects. The effect properties are adjusted in the Effect Controls panel. The Color Correction effects and other color effects are clip-based. However, you can apply them to multiple clips by nesting sequences. For information about nesting sequences, see Nest sequences.

Adobe Speedgrade CC “Quick Guide”

Adobe Speedgrade CC “Quick Guide” / Color correct a zombie!!

Site: “In this tutorial I will show you how I would color correct a scene with a zombie and the basics of finding your way around the new Speedgrade CC. See below for all the topics covered:

1:00 – Setting up the scene
3:31 – Scene detection
7:30– Setting exposure
12:10 – Creating masks
15:15 – Secondary layers
22:33 – Object Tracking
26:26 – Isolating luma ranges (shadows/mids/highlights)
29:55 – Creating “looks”
33:23 – Rendering out”

Source: Dave Andrade