About this release
Character Animator takes a completely different route to 2D animation. Instead of drawing frame by frame or keyframing a rig by hand, you perform the character. A webcam tracks your face and a microphone hears your voice, and the puppet mirrors it live, matching your head turns, your eyebrows, your blinks and your mouth shapes as you talk. What took an animator hours happens as fast as you can act it.
The puppet comes from a layered artwork, built in Photoshop or Illustrator and imported with its structure intact. Layers named by convention become the parts the rig understands, the mouth shapes, the eyes, the limbs, and from there behaviours bring them to life, physics driven dangle for hair and clothing, automatic lip sync from the audio, and triggers that swap a hand pose or an expression on a key press.
It is used for live streamed characters, quick explainer animation and cartoon production where volume matters more than frame by frame perfection. Recordings capture the performance and can be layered and refined afterward, and it links to the rest of the Adobe lineup for finishing. The build here is the full 2026 release with the behaviour set and the starter puppets included.
What it does
- Live performance capture from a webcam and microphone
- Face tracking for head turns, eyebrows, blinks and expressions
- Automatic lip sync generated from the audio
- Puppets built from layered Photoshop and Illustrator artwork
- Physics driven dangle for hair, clothing and props
- Triggers to swap poses and expressions on a key press
- Walk behaviour for automatic character locomotion
- Record and layer takes to build up a performance
- Live streaming output for real time characters
- Links to the rest of the Adobe lineup for finishing
Changes in this version
- Improved face tracking stability in uneven lighting
- Better automatic lip sync accuracy on fast speech
- Reworked trigger panel with clearer organisation
- Faster puppet loading for complex rigs
- New starter puppets added to the bundled set
What the package contains
- Adobe Character Animator 2026 offline installer
- Starter puppet set and example projects
- Behaviour library including dangle, lip sync and triggers
- All interface languages
- Readme with the install order written out step by step
Installation notes
Follow these in order. Most reports of a failed install come from skipping a step rather than from the package itself.
- Disconnect from the network before you start.
- Pause real time protection for the length of the install.
- Extract the archive to a short path such as C:\Setup.
- Run setup as administrator and pick your interface language.
- Let the installer finish, then open the application once.
- Close it and reconnect to the network.
System requirements
| Operating system | Windows 10 version 22H2 or Windows 11 |
| Processor | Intel or AMD 64-bit multi core processor |
| Memory | 8 GB minimum, 16 GB recommended |
| Graphics | GPU with 2 GB VRAM, 4 GB recommended |
| Storage | 6 GB free during install |
| Camera | A webcam and microphone for performance capture |
Things worth knowing
- Good even lighting on your face makes the tracking far steadier, a lamp in front of you beats an overhead light.
- The puppet is only as good as its layer structure, follow the naming convention when you build the artwork.
- A webcam and microphone are needed to drive a performance, though you can also animate with triggers alone.
Questions about this title
Do I need to draw every frame?
Where does the puppet come from?
Can it stream live?
Does the lip sync work automatically?
What people are saying
Performed a whole explainer character in one afternoon. Lip sync straight off the audio saved me the worst part.
Drive my live streamed avatar with it. Light your face evenly and the tracking is rock steady.
Build the artwork to the naming convention and it just works. Fight the convention and it does not.
Listing information
This entry is catalogued under Video & Motion and carries the tags below. Language coverage is Multilingual, 20 interface languages, and the supported platform list is Windows 10, Windows 11. Version 26.0.0.50 is the current catalogued build, last checked 2 days ago, and the entry has been in the index since it was added 1 year ago.