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Ragdoll like animation in AE
I’m animating a short bit that needs a characters limbs to swing with momentum. the character is a puppet made by a child who zips around the screen. I know I could animate each limb’s movement each time, but I would love to carve hours of work off of this thing.
I’ve created the character in a psd with each segment parented to the next layer up, ie shin bone is connected to the…thigh bone, we all know the song.
Anybody a have any ideas?
Thanks!
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5 Replies
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I’ve found the puppet tool isn’t so good by itself. I haven’t successfully puppeted a whole character with JUST that tool. Its not bad for elbows/knees, but its not so hot for shoulders/hands/feet/heads. A hybrid setup is the way to go if you have time. Seems like ‘puppet pin tool’ isn’t exactly the best thing Adobe as created. If it was done more like the new ‘bone tool’ in flash, I could see it being a VERY valuable resource. (I’d use it A LOT from what I’ve seen in the new flash demos — )
If you break a character down as per how Ebbert instructs you, use the IK setup, do some custom mods if you have to, he did an amazing job on that breakdown!
Don’t forget, its a simple equilibrium. The more time you spend rigging your character the less time you spend animating. And the less time you spend rigging your character the more time you spend animating. Find the zen point!
Nicholas Toth
Freelance Animator
nicholastoth.com -
I appreciate the responses from everybody. Ebberts expression is some really great work. Although I’m wondering if anyone has any ideas to take it further. I’d like to create a sense of gravity, orienting all limbs in the same direction automatically. Hoping there is something I don’t know about that I can use to effect the limbs in a nested comp. I will have somethign like 10 characters on screen, each one a nested comp in the maincomp. With four limbs each, means animating my effectors 40 times.
Anyone know of a way I can affect ALL of the limbs with one object in the final comp? I’m sure there is something silly I’m not thinking of, but forgive me, I’m a bit of a newb.
Thanks.
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Ask the expression man himself, in the expressions forum!
Nicholas Toth
Freelance Animator
nicholastoth.com
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