After Effects: Character Animation Techniques

Learn how to bring your characters to life with the character animation functionality in Adobe After Effects.

Introduction

• Design creative character animations in After Effects

1. Traditional Layered Setup

• Set up anchor points
• Link body parts with parenting
• Group body parts with nested comps

2. Rigging and Structures

• Set up Master Properties
• Use Controller layers
• Graph Editor and keyframe interpolation

3. Puppet Tool

• Motion capture with the Puppet tool
• Use bend pins and advanced pins
• Fix issues with Starch pins
• Create depth with Overlap pins
• Tweak Puppet tool animations

4. Advanced Rigging

• Use layers as adjusters
• Rig the Puppet tool
• Rig with Master Properties

5. Rigging Scripts

• Overview of RubberHose
• Overview of Duik

6. Audio Tricks

• Automate lip sync
• Trigger animation with audio

Conclusion

• Next steps