• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  Dynamic Character Rig

  Posted by Russell Hirtzel on January 26, 2015 at 2:35 am

  Hey all,

  I’m trying to create a dynamic character rig in AE using expressions, and I’m having a tough go at it. It’s a fairly simple character made to look like a paper cutout puppet attached to a wooden stick (kind of like this https://bit.ly/1CVxhOn). It has no legs, just the stick, and I’m trying to make it’s body, arms, and head dynamic… so that when I move the stick around, the body, arms, and head will react.

  Here’s an example I made in C4D of how the rig would react. This 3D test is just simple boxes to get the idea across. Only the “stick” is animated and the rest of the body reacts via hinge joints and dynamics.
  https://reels.creativecow.net/film/3d-dynamic-rig

  I know something like this in After Effects would be a pretty complicated setup (at least I think it would be), but I’m just curious if anyone has any insights into useful expressions.

  I tried using Newton, but I can’t seem to get the control over the pivot points that I need in Newton… and I’d like this to be an “on the fly” effect, and not a baked in effect like Newton does.

  If I can’t get it to work, I’ll probably just do the animation in C4D using a similar setup as in the above linked video… I’d just love to keep this all in AE if possible.

  Anyway, just curious if anyone has any ideas or even directions to look into.

  Thanks!

  Russell Hirtzel replied 11 years, 3 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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