Creating a G3 Monkey Character for CrazyTalk Animator 3

This sketch only took about 10-15 minutes. Using a
symmetrical ruler meant I only had to draw
the left side of the image.

Last post I mentioned my intention to develop an animation series based around my color monkey characters.

Recognizing that just saying something won't make it happen, today I started work on actually drawing and rigging the color monkey characters themselves.

It's definitely a task that comes with some trepidation and a definite sense of déjà vu as I've been here before. A few years back I attempted to rig this same character in CrazyTalk Animator 2 as a G2 character. It was a lot of work that I ended up being overwhelmed by.

This time I'm rigging the character in CrazyTalk Animator 3 as a G3 character. It's less work but still not a complete cakewalk. Unlike multi-angle G2 characters, G3 characters are only single angle. In theory you could draw and rig one from scratch inside a day (including all the additional hand and face sprites)

Anyway, I'm not going into too much detail here. This isn't meant to be a tutorial since I've never fully rigged a G3 character from scratch myself. I just wanted to show that I've started on this idea I had.

Day one progress. Main
character drawing complete.

If you are wondering, I'm using the G3 human, front facing, Photoshop template that comes with CTA3's Pipeline edition. However I'm doing all my drawing in Clip Studio Paint (which supports Photoshop files) because, a) I don't have Photoshop, and b) I like to do my line art with vector tools. The vector layers will be converted to raster in the final template. I just like being able to edit and manipulate my line work even after I've drawn it.

By the end of my session I have my complete base rig drawn and colored. Next up I have to draw and color all the hand and face sprites. I'm hoping that won't take too long. If I can get through them, this character rig will definitely get finished.

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