WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.330 --> 00:00:03.642 If you plan to combine the power of character animator 2 00:00:03.642 --> 00:00:08.500 with After Effects or Premiere Pro, using the Dynamic Link 3 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:11.520 feature can save you a lot of time. 4 00:00:12.690 --> 00:00:17.194 Okay, so now we have Rob and he's rigged 5 00:00:17.194 --> 00:00:22.050 and animated and we are ready to export him. 6 00:00:22.050 --> 00:00:26.098 So before we jump, jump in and go to File 7 00:00:26.098 --> 00:00:29.190 and export as a video file or a png sequence. 8 00:00:29.770 --> 00:00:31.788 If you are going to do any kind of 9 00:00:31.788 --> 00:00:34.732 work in After Effects or Premiere Pro with this 10 00:00:34.732 --> 00:00:39.160 content, I would strongly recommend using adobe Dynamic Link. 11 00:00:40.010 --> 00:00:41.210 Why? 12 00:00:41.210 --> 00:00:44.054 Well, what if I needed Rob to be placed 13 00:00:44.054 --> 00:00:46.688 with some live action video in Premiere and we 14 00:00:46.688 --> 00:00:48.896 find out that the timing isn't quite right? 15 00:00:48.896 --> 00:00:50.112 Well, it's going to be a lot 16 00:00:50.112 --> 00:00:53.338 easier to actually have it dynamically linked. 17 00:00:53.338 --> 00:00:59.226 That is, this file live linked with Premier, 18 00:00:59.226 --> 00:01:01.044 and to just change the timing and it 19 00:01:01.044 --> 00:01:04.548 will automatically update in Premiere, which saves me 20 00:01:04.548 --> 00:01:06.720 a lot of importing and exporting time. 21 00:01:07.350 --> 00:01:09.166 Same thing could happen in after effects. 22 00:01:09.166 --> 00:01:11.592 We could make a 3d background, we could have 23 00:01:11.592 --> 00:01:14.168 animated text, and if we needed to make a 24 00:01:14.168 --> 00:01:17.752 change to the character animator content, we could do 25 00:01:17.752 --> 00:01:21.710 that without ever having to reimport. 26 00:01:21.710 --> 00:01:24.310 So let's do it with after effects. 27 00:01:25.210 --> 00:01:28.322 Before I do that, I would want to just double 28 00:01:28.322 --> 00:01:32.304 check that everything is kind of in good order here. 29 00:01:32.304 --> 00:01:34.608 The one thing I'd probably change is that 30 00:01:34.608 --> 00:01:36.736 right now we've been playing with essentially one 31 00:01:36.736 --> 00:01:39.542 scene that we've kind of used multiple characters 32 00:01:39.542 --> 00:01:42.634 with, and it's called magnus, and that's Rob. 33 00:01:42.634 --> 00:01:46.180 So as a matter of Good housekeeping, probably a good idea 34 00:01:46.180 --> 00:01:52.450 to hit Return and call this scene and rename it Rob. 35 00:01:52.450 --> 00:01:54.952 Okay, so little things that you might want to do 36 00:01:54.952 --> 00:01:59.128 first, once you've got your scenes and everything kind of 37 00:01:59.128 --> 00:02:04.286 in good order, if you launch After Effects and simply 38 00:02:04.286 --> 00:02:07.128 go to the project bin, you can double click. 39 00:02:07.128 --> 00:02:09.804 You could also hit Command I, or if you like to 40 00:02:09.804 --> 00:02:12.892 go to two menus, you can go to File and Import. 41 00:02:12.892 --> 00:02:15.644 These will all give you the import option. 42 00:02:15.644 --> 00:02:22.220 So I can go to the folder, in this case, 43 00:02:22.750 --> 00:02:29.568 my documents, where I created the initial character animator project, 44 00:02:29.568 --> 00:02:33.230 and you can see that we named it magnus. 45 00:02:33.810 --> 00:02:38.714 And the file types for character animator are ch prod files, 46 00:02:38.714 --> 00:02:42.776 and when I hit open, it's going to look for any 47 00:02:42.776 --> 00:02:47.246 scenes in that project like the one we just named. 48 00:02:47.246 --> 00:02:49.300 So I'll hit OK. 49 00:02:50.070 --> 00:02:52.344 Now all I have to do is drag it to 50 00:02:52.344 --> 00:02:57.240 the new composition icon, and behold, there it is. 51 00:02:57.240 --> 00:02:59.068 If you're wondering about the quality issue here, 52 00:02:59.068 --> 00:03:00.508 it's just because the quality is set to 53 00:03:00.508 --> 00:03:04.600 a quarter for the sake of speed. Okay? 54 00:03:05.930 --> 00:03:08.428 But there are some really cool things going on here. 55 00:03:08.428 --> 00:03:12.848 So let's say we've done a bunch of edits and 56 00:03:12.848 --> 00:03:15.952 we suddenly decide in our After Effects project, we really 57 00:03:15.952 --> 00:03:19.184 wanted rob's eyebrows to have that kind of funny kind 58 00:03:19.184 --> 00:03:22.210 of tilt like this the whole time. 59 00:03:22.210 --> 00:03:24.538 Okay, well, I can go back to Character 60 00:03:24.538 --> 00:03:28.452 Animator and I could say, let's do that. 61 00:03:28.452 --> 00:03:31.540 I'm going to make some changes. 62 00:03:31.540 --> 00:03:34.050 So I'll make him have that trigger. 63 00:03:34.870 --> 00:03:38.340 Yeah, there the whole time. 64 00:03:39.110 --> 00:03:40.872 Now, sometimes you might get a little 65 00:03:40.872 --> 00:03:42.952 weirdness with the live preview here. 66 00:03:42.952 --> 00:03:45.864 If I uncheck record there you go. 67 00:03:45.864 --> 00:03:47.720 We can see the new change. 68 00:03:47.720 --> 00:03:50.802 Maybe I want his eyes to be closed when he talks. 69 00:03:50.802 --> 00:03:51.682 That would be weird. 70 00:03:51.682 --> 00:03:54.252 But just for the sake of test 71 00:03:54.252 --> 00:03:57.122 driving, let's go back to After Effects. 72 00:03:57.122 --> 00:03:58.668 When we go to the part where he 73 00:03:58.668 --> 00:04:01.042 is talking, his eyes are now closed. 74 00:04:01.042 --> 00:04:03.450 I did not have to hit save. 75 00:04:03.450 --> 00:04:05.852 And this again, saves me a lot of time. 76 00:04:05.852 --> 00:04:08.172 Especially if I'm trying to read time. 77 00:04:08.172 --> 00:04:09.970 Maybe live action. 78 00:04:09.970 --> 00:04:12.612 Some prebuilt animation in after 79 00:04:12.612 --> 00:04:14.370 effects or premiere pro. 80 00:04:14.370 --> 00:04:17.028 So that is how you can dynamically link 81 00:04:17.028 --> 00:04:20.820 Character Animator with After Effects or Premiere Pro 82 00:04:20.820 --> 00:04:22.460 and save you a lot of time.