[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Did you try adding noise on the blur?

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Like Stephen I like having all my elements in my main comp, with the minimum control layers visible. If Adobe would listen to the layer folder/grouping request this may be easier, but I guess we work with shy layers for now.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

It looks like a compression artefact – I see it in the reel too even if it’s less obvious (I think you posted the links in reverse order to the text).
Try adding some noise in the background – it may be that you still have a gradient/vignette that shows a bit and that throws the compression off. Try compressing with a constant bit rate and upload- your video is re-converted anyway, but with CBR you may get a better chance of a clean final VBR compression from Vimeo or YouTube.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

There’s more than one way to do this: draw a path and use write on effect to create one element and then use FreeForm Pro or ShapeShifter A(the Generator inside) to multiply and offset instances of the same weave.
Use 3D Serpentine from Zaxwerks.
Create a shape in AE or AI and use a mask to reveal it, precomp and then use Trapcode Echospace tp multiply and animate (offset) them.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

z depth matte – you actually can use that in Ae:
https://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103a9d3c597-7bd9a.html

Not knowing your shot it’s hard to say what can’t be done in AE. From what you described I find AE suited for the job in all aspects.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

You can also use the technique from the tutorial below- just replace the snake parts and animate on a path that matches your shape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZz8ihtnoTA

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

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[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

ShapeShifter AE can do that quite easily with no need for layer duplication. Just apply SSAE to each of the 6 layers, use Generator to multiply and offset your instances in a spiral and animate the position and scale.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

“To zoom to fit or to zoom to a preset magnification, choose a zoom level from the Magnification Ratio menu. To change the magnification of all views in a Composition panel, hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) while choosing a zoom level from the menu. Choose Fit to make the image fit the Composition panel; choose Fit Up To 100% to limit the zoom level to 100%.”

https://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7eafa.html

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

One way I can think of is to create a wide comp and loop a horizontal “curvy thing”, precomp and bring that in your main comp. Then you can use FreeForm or FreeForm Pro distortion tools to distort the precomp to fit the shape you are looking for. Puppet tool may also work for this.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

The english tutorials on the duduf website can help you do a proper character rig – it looks though that you got that down from your example.
As far as preparing the body parts, the trick is to round the ends of each part and make it overlap the other creating a disc. Set the anchor point in the middle of this disc and you should get decent results.
Your walking cycle looks more like a running cycle. It’s quite ok, just need to slow it down.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist