Character Wizard Presets

[neeters_guy]

While reading the various threads on v10, I was surprised at the amount of interest in CW, particularly with presets. As an aid, I made up a thumbnail sheet of the presets included in 9.5:

One of the complaints about CW are the "ugly" characters, which I agree with to a degree, but it's not hard to tweak presets. After a bit of fiddling, I came up with 4 decent-looking (imho) characters:


Here are the anme files. I'm sure you all could come up with something better. Feel free to share any cool CW example here (preferably with screenshots). This would really enhance CW, especially for nonartists.

Thanks.

[ddrake]

Hey, nice idea neeters. This might be very helpful for non-artists or for those new to the program looking to experiment a little before tackling character design and rigging on their own.

I agree that there are some passible components in the wizard that could be paired together for a decent look. I've spent some time thinking about the concept of character wizard and have come to the conclusion that it in an almost genius sort of way is exactly as it should be.

I think there may be a tendency in our video game culture to get used to the "create a character" kind of formats that have every detail custom adjustable by a slider (and CW still has this to a degree) and then be able to spit out a great looking character with hundreds of flawless preset actions. But I think that undermines the spirit of animation, which is what the software is for. Not a machinima substitute. There's something to be said for keeping character wizard just on the cusp, so that without a least a bit of dedication and effort the "ugly" CW characters and actions still stick out like a sore thumb.

Although personally I wouldn't mind if the wizard was designed a little better to facilitate incorporating personal artwork back into it. Of course it can still be done, but a draw-in template to creat a custom asset library or something would be nice. Though then again, how much handholding is too much?

[wizaerd]

I just previewed the Character Creator in the GoAnimate website, and they actually look pretty good. If the Character Wizard in ASP could even get to be this good, I could see a whole lot of use in it... It's important to remember, some people just want to animate and learn the intricacies of animation and good story telling, and not be bogged down with creating characters. I know that for the best bang, it's good to create your own characters, but sometimes animation and story telling could be a persons focus...

[neeters_guy]

Thanks for the thoughtful input, guys. My hope is that by showing the potential with CW, it'll encourage the devs to keep improving it.

So continuing my exploration...

Here's a thumbnail of the presets in 8.2:


And some variant anme I came up with as well:

[hammerjammer]

Those are some nice preset tweaked characters Neeters_guy.

This might be very helpful for non-artists or for those new to the program looking to experiment a little before tackling character design and rigging on their own.

I agree. As a self proclaimed NON-ARTISTS, I think the character wizard is great for two reasons. The first being the NON-ARTIST stuff you mentioned and the second for learning how to rig. Early on when I was trying to learn the basics, especially for rigging, it was great to see a character already built. Not just in one view, they are they built with a front, side, 3/4 or more. And since I have no real drawing skills it was great to have something to start with or to study how it was put together. Now don't get me wrong the Character wizard is a great tool, but it has its flaws. The characters are really boring looking, even though there are all those options for changing the body shapes, sizes and stuff, at the end of the day, not counting the creature and the Mannequin they are the same basic rig, maybe with some resized body part and with a few cosmetic changes like eyes, hair, gender and clothing colors... BUT still great to have. Im glad it was included. I do think the characters in the character wizard could use some modern touches like including smartbones and a few others I guess. Its just that its probably a little dated now. If your lucky enough to have upgraded to Anime Studio 10, There are five great characters included that really show off the software's NEWEST capabilities. Selgin made and animated all five...

One of the complaints about CW are the "ugly" characters, which I agree with to a degree, but it's not hard to tweak presets. After a bit of fiddling, I came up with

So now that I have a good understanding of how to rig a character. I sometimes still find it easier to do just what is suggested here in the quote above. I just tweaked the presets. Its really not that hard, even with my weak drawing skills. Below is a still shot from My latest animation. It was a music video actually. Both of the characters in the picture were tweaked presets. In fact, If I remember correctly both the old man and the lady were the "BALD MAN" from the Character wizard. Its most obvious in the old man. The old lady I changed a lot of stuff. (I'm quit proud of them for being a NON-ARTIST type of guy.)

Here are the presets. I'm sure you all could come up with something better. Feel free to share any cool presets here (preferably with screenshots). This would really enhance CW, especially for nonartists.

I would love to share them with the forum and other NON_ARTIST. (I have no secrets, ulness you guys think the cartoon networks will be beating on my door and shoving money in my face I'm Just kidding!) ANYWAY, I'm not quit sure how to share them. Unless its ok to just post each of them as a anme. file!
Now that would be something I could probably easily do. I think anyway. Its sound easy in theory anyway.
On a side note they were both only done in the view seen in the picture above, I thinks its a 3/4 view. Baby steps, maybe someday I'll work up to the other views too.

HammerJammer

[neeters_guy]

Good work there, HammerJammer. Just little changes here and there can make a big difference from the generic CW characters.

Your comment got me thinking that encouraging folks to copy preset files to and from hidden user folders may be a bad idea. So I've changed the links to anme files instead. Probably safer that way; I don't want anyone to inadvertently erase an important system file. Sorry about that.

Anyway, maybe in the future I'll post mods of some of the presets...

[hammerjammer]

Hello Neeters_guy

Good work there, HammerJammer. Just little changes here and there can make a big difference from the generic CW characters.

Thank you, I'm glad you liked them. I will post the .anme file's of the old man and his wife for everyone who would like them when I get a chance later tonight.

HammerJammer

[hammerjammer]

Hello all
Here is the Old man and Wife file that I said I would post in the post above. I think they are far from perfect, But they are something you can add to you character collection if you like. They both have a few small issues that I would of liked to have fixed, but I didn't know how to.
NOTE: These were made with AS Pro 9.5(they probably will not open in any older version, Due to the use of Smart Bones). They will however open in AS10, BUT something funny happens with the old lady's breast.(I cant figure out why)

Anyhow, without further delay!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ivvncxhefzsof ... 209.5.anme

I hope you like them.

HammerJammer