Vector Animation – epi toons 😎

Duik 15, Autorig Tutorial by Wesley Meeks

Uncategorized / AE Character Rigging, After Effects, DUIK, Inverse Kinematics, Vector Animation / October 7, 2015

Wesley Meeks shows you how to set up a simple character for use with the Autorig in Duik 15. Duik is a script with flexible rigging tools comparable to what 3D animators are used to working with. Kinematics, bones, controllers, and deformers are all bundled into this little slice of sunshine. Duik 15 affords the user even more control to refine animated Ae characters.

Wesley is an animator, designer and not afraid to show his 3d chops. In this tutorial, Wesley walks us through the setup of an adorable character using the autorig in Duik 15. And because he’s a nice guy, Wesley included his project file so you can easily follow along, and have a character rigged within the hour.

I don’t tend to autorig much. I prefer a bit more customization, and I find very few autorigging tools work well. But let me tell you, I’m impressed with how well the autorig works in Duik 15. It is kinda magic.

Go test it right now for free. Donations encouraged. See if you like it, then turn around to your friend, and say:

“Hey Adam, I have a project I’d like to work on together.”

And when he’s all:

“No way man, I am cheap! You are not gonna trick me into buying a script I know nothing of.”

You can be like:

“Listen up! This shit is free, okay? How about you shy the attitude, and sit down with Wesley Meeks’ tutorial. You might just learn something.”

Bam!

You got your independent animators, corporate motion designers, and even ole’ aunt Bess out there downloading the script and learning to animate like the cool kids do.

https://vimeo.com/141359966 ‪

#‎duik‬ ‪#‎aftereffects‬ ‪#‎characterrigging‬ ‪#‎2dcharacterrigging‬

AE Help! How do you link comps like references in Maya?

Uncategorized / AE Character Rigging, After Effects, Vector Animation / September 28, 2015

If you want the internet to care put a cat on it.

How do you link comps across Ae projects like References in Maya?

I learned character rigging in Autodesk Maya. Now, I’m teaching myself character rigging in After Effects and I want to learn a good workflow for a complex file structure. I’m used having a folder structure wherein there are set folders for scene files, props, and rigs each containing project files one can import as a reference. This way any changes to the rig file will be applied in all scene files referencing the rig. BOOM! Magic stuff.

I done googled this for 25 hours and no luck. I believe shows like ‪#‎Archer ‬use After Effects for character animation. I have yet to find resources online that can point me on how to accomplish a comparable animation workflow like what I understand to use in Maya.

Lynda.com has some wonderful introductory training but it doesn’t quite have the necessary training materials for advanced concepts in 2D character animation. I noticed this in their tutorials for Toon Boom and Cinema 4D as well.

So, as one working on a short film in After Effects with the express purpose for learning more about Ae Character animation where can I turn to answer this question and ones like it?

Please leave your helpful comments!

paz,

epi

‪#‎aecat‬ ‪#‎putacatonit‬ ‪#‎animation‬ ‪#‎ae‬ ‪#‎aeusers‬ ‪#‎aftereffects‬‪#‎aftereffectsquestions‬ ‪#‎aftereffectshelp‬ ‪#‎cat‬

SOLVED! AE DUIK HELP: Disappearing Ik objects

Uncategorized / After Effects, DUIK, help, Inverse Kinematics, troubleshoot, Vector Animation / September 27, 2015

WOOT! Update on a previous post about an issue with the ik objects in my duik rig disappearing when I moved the root and supermover. I posted over at the Duik forum and luckily the creator of the script, DuDuff himself, answered my query.

Thanks for the assist and for the awesome animation script.

Question: When I try to move the root/torso controller of my character, or the supermover (move all) the IK rigged assets, in this case arms and tail, disappear.

Answer: In your project, just unlick the arms and the tail, leaving them without parent, and everything works fine. What’s going on is that if the arm is linked to the torso, AND the bones are linked to the torso too (in any way, not just parenting, could be IK, controllers…), both the puppet effect and the layer move with the torso, which “doubles” the movement, and the layer goes “out” of the puppet. That’s what causes this weird issue 🙂

AE DUIK HELP: Disappearing Ik objects

epi life, Work In Progress / AE Character Rigging, DUIK, help, Inverse Kinematics, troubleshoot, Vector Animation / September 23, 2015

Update: DuDuff solved the problem. Here’s how.

This folder has a video and gif showing the problem, and copies of my AE files.

When I try to move the root/torso controller of my character, or the supermover (move all) the IK rigged assets, in this case arms and tail, disappear.

It’s almost as if they are cutout and visible through a mask of the original placement of those assets. I’ve run into this problem before but I don’t understand how to fix it or even why it happens. Not sure if Zero-ing out parts would help, frankly, I don’t understand those aspects of the script well enough to make the fix.

This is “learn to fish” moment. I’d love to hear how I can fix it, and maybe an explanation of the underlying issue so I can grow as a DUIK user and can contribute some useful info to others down the line.

epi