Using Adobe Character Animator, along with a few additional resources, you can make it happen. Better yet, you don’t even need to be a professional animator. Here’s how to get started.

1. Selecting Your Puppet

Before you can appear as a cartoon on your live stream, there are a few things to do. First, you must import the puppet you wish to use and place it on your Timeline.

When selecting your puppet, make sure it has simple controls and has a diverse selection of expressions. A great example puppet to use is Adobe’s free puppet, Bluster.

You can use any puppet you wish. However, puppets with a large number of trigger expressions with easy and clear activations will allow you to create a rich experience for your viewers. It will also make it much easier for you to activate each expression.

To check the available triggers for your puppet, switch to Stream Mode in Character Animator, and review the options available in the Perform panel. Our example puppet, Bluster, has 19 trigger options, allowing you to animate your puppet easily.

2. Set Your Scene Size

Once you have selected your puppet and added it to your Timeline, you will want to make sure the scene size is optimized for your live stream. The recommended size is 1280x720px.

To make this adjustment follow the steps below:

Select your Scene from the Name window. In the Properties panel, change the dimensions to the recommended 1280x720px.

To enable Character Animator to stream live, you will require two things in addition to Character Animator and access to your live stream platform. This includes a streaming software, as well as a plugin to send your scene to the streaming software.

3. Installing the NDI Plugin

For this step, you’ll need to use Newtek’s Network Device Interface (NDI) plugin. To download and install the NDI plugin, follow the steps below.

Download the NDI plugin. Extract and install the plugin. You will need to ensure that you select the Adobe CC and Studio Monitor options during installation. Now, you’ll need to ensure that the plugin is now enabled in Character Animator. To do this, head to Character Animator. From here, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac), and then select the Stream Live icon to the bottom right of your Scene Panel.  This will open your Live Output Preferences. In the Preference window, ensure that the boxes for Enable Mercury Transmit and NDI Output are checked.  At the bottom of the window, uncheck Disable Mercury Transmit output when the application is in the background. Select OK. Open the NDI Studio Monitor plugin that you just installed. Select the Menu icon to the top left corner of the screen. Select your computer name from the menu, and choose Adobe Character Animator.

You should now see your Puppet in the NDI Studio Monitor.

4. Installing the Streaming Software

There are many options on the market for streaming software. In this article, OBS Studio will be used.

OBS Studio is a free and open-source program that’s compatible with Character Animator, however, it does require an extra plugin to make OBS and NDI work well together.

To download and install OBS Studio and the required plugin, follow the steps below.

Download and install OBS Studio using the default recommendations. Now, you will need to download and install the OBS-NDI plugin from GitHub. When downloading this, you’ll want to download the latest version listed for your operating system. After that, open OBS Studio. Select the plus (+) button under Sources. Select NDI Source from the list that appears. Select OK in the popup window. In the Properties for NDI Source window that appears, open the Source Name dropdown list and select your computer name source. You will also want to ensure your mic is working in OBS Studio. You can do so by selecting the gear icon next to Mic/Aux in the Audio Mixer panel. Now, select Properties. Select the microphone you wish to use from the Device dropdown list and select OK. To ensure that the audio and puppet movements are synchronized, you will want to once again select the gear icon next to Mic/Aux in the Audio Mixer panel. Then, select Advanced Audio Properties. Now, change the values in Sync Offset.  The recommended setting is 300ms, but you may wish to experiment with this offset to ensure that it works with your system. To test your settings, hit Record in OBS studio to make a local copy on your computer. You can then evaluate if the offset needs to be more or less for your system.

You should now see your puppet in OBS Studio. Only a few more steps until you are ready to go live!

5. Streaming Live

Now that everything is set up and configured, you will need to decide which platform you want to stream live to. For this article, Facebook Live is the selected platform.

To connect your puppet Facebook Live, follow the steps below.

Ensure that Character Animator is open in Stream Mode. If it isn’t, click Streaming from the Modes menu. Review the triggers available for your puppet in the Perform panel. You will want to use these during your live broadcast to bring your puppet to life. In OBS Studio, select File > Settings. Select Stream from the menu on the left. Select the Facebook Live option from the Service dropdown. Now, open Facebook and select Live Video from your Status Update options. Select Use Stream Key, and copy the code provided in the Stream Key box. Return to OBS Studio, and enter the Stream Key into the box provided. You’re ready to go live! Just select Start Streaming in the OBS Studio Controls Panel to go live on Facebook.

There are a lot of other platforms you can broadcast live to such as Twitch and YouTube. Each platform will store its Stream Key in a different location, but the process of going live will be the same as the steps above.

Many Options to Get Creative During Live Streams

Now that you have created a simple live stream with your character, it’s time to get creative! Character Animator allows you to add a background, additional expressions, and movements, making it easy to customize your puppet further.