User Guide > Chapter 9: Creating a Cut-out Puppet > Choosing Your Character

Choosing Your Character

As you start building your puppet, the first thing you need to do is to select your character. If this is your first puppet, it is always better to choose a simple character. A simple character is a character with two legs, two arms, a head and torso. To start with, you should avoid a character with too many loose clothes such as a cloak or baggy pants. Once you are used to constructing puppets, you will understand how to cut them apart and loose clothing will not be as much of a challenge for you.

The character we chose for this cut-out demonstration is a turtle.

You could also create your character from a picture. Instead of drawing a turtle, you could use a photograph of a turtle and break it apart in Toon Boom Studio or another third party software, such as Adobe Photoshop.

Creating a New Project and Importing a Character

The best way to break down your character is to create a new scene and import the character into the scene. There are several ways to import your character in a scene:

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Create a template using the Library and import it into your new scene.

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Import a bitmap image.

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Scan a drawing.

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Import a picture, etc.

If you import a picture, make sure to import it as a Vector element and not an Image element in order to erase portions and cut pieces.

Related Topics

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Creating and Opening a Project

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Scanning Images

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Importing Bitmap Images

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Library

Creating a Colour Palette

Once your drawing is imported into your new scene, you need to create a new colour palette for your puppet, unless, of course, you are using a photograph.

Related Topics

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Palettes

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