New year, new Puppet Maker styles

Film strip of new puppets created from Puppet Maker.

Getting started with Adobe Character Animator has never been easier. The new Puppet Maker allows everyone to create their own custom characters with just a few clicks. With Puppet Maker you can create a unique puppet and start animating your own project in minutes. Select from a variety of character styles and then customize hair, skin tones, accessories, and more. Your unique puppet can then be animated.

Crafty is a Puppet Maker style created from physical materials common to kids’ arts and crafts projects like construction paper, yarn, pipe cleaners, pom poms, buttons, and pasta. Imagine all the puppets you can generate from this style. Download Crafty here.

Crafty was created by Dovid Taub: writer, illustrator, puppeteer, and video editor, as well as the founder and creative director at Shmideo. Taub shares, “As a kid, I always thought I’d be an animator, but the distance between idea and the finished product was often overwhelming. I discovered puppetry in my 20s and was drawn to the spontaneity. I loved that you could pick up a puppet and instantly bring it to life.” While working on Crafty he went to his local art supply store. “The person working at my local art store was curious what I was planning on doing with all the kids’ arts and crafts materials I was getting. Telling him I was, ‘making a template for a 2D animated digital puppet that allows people to make a virtually infinite array of characters and animate them in real time’ didn’t seem to alleviate the confusion. Basically, you have to see and play with Character Animator to believe it. And now, with Puppet Maker, jumping in and animating is so much easier.”

Nikki Goldberg shares a similar passion for animation. Goldberg is a versatile artist and works as an illustrator, storyboard artist, character designer and production assistant. She developed her expertise with Character Animator while working on 72 episodes across two seasons of the animated show Your Daily Horoscope. She created the new Kyo Puppet Maker Style and says, “The collaboration with Adobe was a dream come true and I hope my passion for character design is reflected in this new puppet.” Kyo was created in a Kawaii style and is bright, colorful, and full of great accessories from hair, glasses, tops, and chokers. Download Kyo here.

Along with Crafty and Kyo you can also find three additional new character styles on the Puppet Maker page. Check out Rampy and Jump Kid created by Konee Rok. These unique styles use Cycle Layers to add motion to the styles. Okay Samurai brings us Puppetbot, a flame throwing robot.

Have you always wanted animate? There has never been a better time to get started. Make an animated explainer video or a social media post. Make your own puppet using the Crafty or Kyo styles and get your audience animated too.

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