Adobe Character Animator (2024) review
Adobe Character Animator is a very easy-to-use 2D motion-capture animator. Looks great, and when we last reviewed the tool, we were impressed with the way it lets you create and animate digital 2D characters with the help of your webcam.
We wanted to see how the useful software for marketing teams, content creators, and animators who create content just for fun performs in 2024.
Adobe Character Animator: Pricing and Plans
- The basic model is free, and you can only get 'Pro' if you subscribe to the full Adobe Creative Cloud package.
Considering the fact that this is an Adobe product, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that there are two versions of this app: Starter, which is free to use, and Pro, which is part of a Creative Cloud subscription. . For the purposes of this review, we will focus primarily on the Starter edition, as it is the most accessible.
Not surprisingly, we found the tools in the free version to be very limited compared to Character Animator Pro. But you can create basic and fun animations, and see how the software works without paying anything, which is always welcome.
If you're not already subscribed to Creative Cloud, you can try Pro for free for seven days, after which you'll start your subscription. And unlike many Adobe products like Photoshop and Premiere Pro, this animation app is only available through the Creative Cloud subscription package – and that's disappointing to see.
Creative Cloud All Apps plans are available on a yearly, monthly and yearly billed monthly basis (effectively a 12-month contract). The annual contract can be canceled within 14 days if you change your mind.
Adobe Character Animator Starter: How it works
- Very easy to use, simple 2D animation with pretty nice automatic lip-syncing and head movement mirroring, plus a bunch of fun additional animations you can add anywhere on your timeline.
Adobe's Character Animator is a 2D animation package that comes with a set of pre-designed digital puppets. If you are not excited by the models on offer, click on 'See More' to be taken to a webpage where you can browse all the available packs and download the ones that interest you. Again, everything is free. Although it's a shame that once imported, your new puppets don't appear in the app's default list.
Once you've chosen a puppet, you have to animate it. Your first step is to give your speech. You can do it live through your webcam and your computer's microphone, or import one that's already recorded. If you do as before, your puppet will mimic your head, eyebrow and eye movements and lip sync to what you say. If the audio is pre-recorded, you get the option to 'Record Face' to add all that while the audio is playing (although lip syncing will be based primarily on the recording). It's a far cry from the complex seamless Animoji animations you get on your latest iPhone, but it's good enough for some casual entertainment.
After that, you will reach the 'Edit' section. Editing is a bit generous word. Don't expect anything on the level of the best video editing software for beginners, let alone the best video editing software overall. Premiere Pro, or even Adobe Express, doesn't have this, because it's not about cutting clips and making edits. Well, yes, you can trim the beginning and end of your recording (if you can call it editing), but most of the work involves inserting additional motions into your puppet, known as 'triggers'. .
Don't misunderstand: it's actually quite a bit of fun and your available triggers will vary depending on your chosen puppet, but if you're looking for more complex 'proper' editing, you'll have to look elsewhere.
These additional 'triggers' can be found on the right side of the interface. You add them by dragging them onto the timeline. They will appear as icons above your recording. You can move them wherever you want, and also extend or shorten their duration. All the movements we played with were seamlessly integrated into the animation, and it's a great way to bring your puppet to life.
Finally, when you're done, it's time to export your work. Adobe Character Animator will provide you with three types of .mp4 files: high quality (by default), medium, and low, which you will be free to share as you wish.
Adobe Character Animator: New Features
- There's barely anything new for 2024, but one feature is welcome for Starter users: being able to use any image as the background.
The last major update to Character Animator came in August 2023 – a few months after our initial review – with stability issues fixed in a February 2024 update. We didn't notice too many differences in 2024's Character Animator compared to the last time we tested the Starter version of the app. However, there is at least one welcome addition: custom backgrounds.
Before this tool arrived, you were limited to a handful of cartoon backgrounds bundled with the app. Now, the sky's the limit and any photo you take, or artwork you create (or anything you find on the web), can be used as a background for your project. Of course, these will be custom background images, not videos, but it's far better to have your own unique background than a handful of generic backgrounds. Unfortunately, for 'Starter' users this is all new.
Pro subscribers have a few more new tools, but the 'professional' side of the app has always been more feature-rich anyway. For example, you can create your own puppets using layered Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator documents, or apps like Puppet Maker or Characterizer. The best part is that you can add multiple characters to a scene, and not just play with one puppet, as is the case with 'Starter', and the interface is much more complex. For 2024, you have some new advanced tools to use – editable replays to modify the timing, and the ability to make selections within or overlapping work areas.
Overall, Adobe Character Animator is a smart, simple animation app that lets you learn 2D digital puppetry, even at the free level. We found it incredibly easy to use – sometimes bordering on the basics, but always welcoming for beginners and pros alike. If you're serious about creating content with the software, you'll need a Pro subscription. Does it offer value for money, and it would have been nice to see a standalone subscription option for the app. But in a sense, it's like the Adobe Express of animation software. Happy, easy to use and highly accessible.
Adobe Character Animator: Scorecard
| row 0 – cell 0 | Row 0 – Cell 1 | Row 0 – Cell 2 |
| Pricing and Plans | Limited free version, subscription only as part of Creative Cloud | 3 |
| how it works | Simple to use, creating 2D character animation is easy | 4 |
| new features | Not much in terms of major updates, but custom backgrounds would be very welcome | 2 |
should I buy?
Buy it if…
You'll love having fun with simple animated 2D puppets that can lip-sync to your audio file or live recording.
Don't buy it if…
You're an animator who would love to have more advanced editing options.
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