Animate a skeleton with the puppet tool

[Roei Tzoref]

the problem is that your skeleton has a lot of gaps and puppet is giving you the mesh based on an alpha channel.

you could:
1. in photoshop, create a border for the skeleton, roughly something like this.

2. in Ae use that psd as footage and create your mesh

3. when you are done with the pins, just replace the footage with the transparent (either hide the layer in photoshop and save, or use the transparent layer and replace them as a source)

or alternatively, create a mask around your transparent skeleton like this:

to not go insane, check the rotobezier option for easy rotoscoping process
now take the puppet pin and place it anywhere on that boundary like this

Roei Tzoref
2D/VFX Generalist & Instructor
♫ AeBlues Tutorials ♫
http://www.tzoref.com

[Bernhard Walzl]

Fantastic. I have noticed that replacing the footage would keep the mesh but i was worried that maybe after restarting or upgrading the machine to a newer version would imply a recalculation of the mesh but apparently thats the way to go.

Thanks a million, that was indeed helpful. This case is closed.

Cheers,
Bernhard

[Roei Tzoref]

Great. yeah we have outsmarted the machine! for today….

Roei Tzoref
2D/VFX Generalist & Instructor
♫ AeBlues Tutorials ♫
http://www.tzoref.com

[Bernhard Walzl]

Well, so there is an update to this story.

I have tracked the hands and elbow etc of a real person dancing and linked them with the puppets of the skeleton. (Lasso from the puppet to the position of a null object with tracking information)

This works just fine, however the movements are not very accentuated and a bit too small. How can I amplify the movements? Any ideas?

Cheers,
Bernhard

[Roei Tzoref]

I would ask in the expression forum, you have a good chance they will find an elegant solution for this.

Roei Tzoref
2D/VFX Generalist & Instructor
♫ AeBlues Tutorials ♫
http://www.tzoref.com