I'm working on a stealth level and need the custom character to use a paintinator or creatinator, but neither will shoot. They can be equipped and the animation will play, but no paint will come out. Please help

I had the same problems with sackbots. They don't shoot like a sackboy. Weird.

 are there any solutions or work arounds?

If you dont fear the drag then make your own custom powerup.
How good are you with logic?
If you use sackbots, than you cant equip powerups as far as i know.
They will walk through without picking it up.
In this case, use a invisible material with follower and reciver controlinator on it.
Unfortunatly you will need to create custom ammo for it.
I hope that this gives you enough hints since i am bad at explaining in english.
Have fun creating, playing and sharing.

A sackboy with a powerup could also be a solution.

I will take a look at this problem very soon, because I want to use it as a powerup for a sackbot too.

I tested this out in LBP Vita with sackbots. The sackbot you control is able to shoot into every direction, but when he looks at a tag, he will shoot once and then he won't shoot again. You can fix this by not using the 'looks at tag' option in areas where you need to shoot with a controlinator.

I never used a custom character in LBP3 though. Nearly senseless for me. I just know the solution for sackbots.