No More Monkeying Around! Let’s Get Serious About Animation!

Happy Spring from the Character Animator Team.

Face tracking with the new Cornelius puppet brings a whole new meaning to the saying “Monkey see, monkey do!” Cornelius includes triggers and replays. He can look sad, mad, or unimpressed, and more! He’s got gestures like thumbs up and down, point, and wave. He has props including a game controller, spoon, fork, and knife (he likes to eat while gaming). And you can dress him up with shorts and a cool Ch T-shirt! The T-shirt is editable, so you could rebrand it with your own logo. You could even take the eyes, mouths, or hands to use in a puppet of your own creation.

Cornelius is the first release of several puppets created by Digital Puppets, a cartoon studio based in the U.K. Started by design partners and brothers Scott and Antony Evans, they offer custom character designs in both 2D and 3D renders. They have been providing their services to individuals, businesses, and other studios all over the world since they began working with Adobe Character Animator back when it was still in beta. This brother duo does not monkey around!

Scott and Antony recommend Cornelius for fast character-driven promotional videos for social media and beyond. “With the increase in social media marketing, there is now a huge demand for regular content to keep customers engaged and up to date with your latest offers. Using digital puppet technology, you can produce animated promotional content faster than traditional animation, keeping the costs lower for you without loss of quality,” Scott says.

They are big proponents of live interactive characters. And they recommend you interact with your audience too. “With digital puppets it is now possible to use your branded character to talk directly to your customers. You can do this with Facebook Live, Twitter, or YouTube. Create a live talk show, animate a podcast, create a character for your gaming channel on platforms such as Twitch and Mixer, or bring our characters into a live environment such as exhibitions, talk panels, or into schools. It’s a great way to engage with your audience and stand out from the crowd!” Antony says.

“With just a webcam, a mic, and Adobe Character Animator you can animate the design yourself using face capture technology. With the addition of animated triggers you can make your character do whatever you can imagine,” Scott says.

Who will be the first to introduce and animate the Bongo puppet (located in the Start workspace) and Cornelius? What will they talk about? Does Bongo have a kitten? How did Cornelius learn to use a fork? Is Cornelius good friends with Roddy McDowall? What games do they play? Donkey Kong, Time Splitters, Ape Escape, or Super Monkey Ball? And who will explain the difference between a monkey and a chimp?

Go Bananas, animators!

Okay Samurai and Digital Puppets have created this video to tell you more about Cornelius!

Download the Cornelius puppet here.

Want to learn more about using Character Animator? Here you go!

In additional to the new Cornelius Monkey puppet, Digital Puppets offers several free puppets including a new Robot puppet that has blinking eyes, sad and smile expressions, draggable arms, a selection of hands, customizable chest screen for text, image or logos. Check out all their puppets here.