An ULTIMATE guide to After Effects Character Rigging
There are so many tools for character rigging in Adobe After Effects. With so many tools to pick from, we'll help you know which one is best for you and your situation.
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00:00 - Intro
00:31 - Is the puppet pin tool worth it?
1:37 - Duik Bassel Overview
3:28 - What I like about DUIK
6:08 - Why DUIK might not be the right choice.
6:53 - Rubberhose Overview
10:59 - One of DUIK's pitfalls that Rubberhose solves
11:42 - Some of the limitations of Rubberhose
13:06 - Limber Overview
16:55 - Some of the Limber's shortcomings
19:22 - Character Tool Overview
20:05 - My biggest gripe with Character tool
21:17 - Puppet Tool Overview
22:42 - Puppet tools biggest weakness
Character animation for Motion graphics is becoming more and more popular. If you've ever try to delve into character animation in Adobe After Effects, you've probably heard of Duik Bassel. Duik Bassel is the de facto character rigging tool for Adobe After Effects used by people all over the world. But did you know that there is a plethora of different character rigging add-ons available for After Effects? Each tool has it's own unique approach to character rigging in After Effects.
Rubberhose: www.battleaxe.co/rubberhose/?...
Limber: dash.aescripts.com/limber/?af...
Deekay Tool (previously called Character tool): aescripts.com/character-tool/
Puppet Tool: aescripts.com/puppettools/
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This video was super helpful, thanks for taking the time to edit this! ✨
I was searching for a character rigging tutorial, and I found this gold. Thank you man
No problem!
and which one do you prefer?
firstly I would like to wish you well and to say a huge thank you for uploading these videos as they have been an invaluable resource to
God bless you for not having a shitty intro.
LMFAO!
It Worked perfectly after trying other methods this one was the best one, Thanks.
Thanks for the tutorial, it's much faster than any other method I came across.
Thank you so much for your tutorials It went from 'nice tutoet science' to simple logic! You have a new subscriber
Excellent work. I am already choosing one. I choose limber and roberhose. Thank you for such informative and visual video. It’s great that you showed the differences and wick sides.
Good choice!
One of my favorite aspects of Rubberhose 2, and one I haven't seen in anything else, is the auto-flop aspect. The fact that it smoothly changes the directions of the bend as you go above or below the threshold is a game changer.
True that!
This is a feature of Character Tool too :) Although in my opinion, Rubberhose is still superior.
I've been animating a simple character for a series of videos without any rigging tool pretty much all year now. It's time for one of these, lol. *It's between Rubberhose and Limber for me.* They both seem like the best balance of intuitive and powerful.
Wow. You're the best. I couldn't understand what you were saying but I just followed instructions. Thank you so much
I got every one of these tools, and sometimes I'm more comfortable with Rubberhose. But I have to say, in the beginning, Duik was a great discovery for me, complex but great. Now I work with the Battle Axe's tools and I'm super happy with it. Great Video!!!
Fair enough!
Very helpful! I've been looking for a thorough comparison of these tools before purchasing. Thanks!
Glad you found it!
This works. Recommended to try this out. Thanks a lot for your help
What a legend only one ad in the beginning . Your so damn underrated
Thanks for making this! I had no idea these things even existed! I have been moving and rotating arm and leg pieces individually for a while with just the position and rotate settings lol. This looks like it would help out a lot!
Glad I could help! And I'm glad you finally found this!
@@TheKeyframeAcademy thank god for youtube, i wouldn't know how to animate anything without it....
The video that I have been trying to find
I'm glad you finally found it!
same here
Beautiful, thank you for the knowledge!
"What intro?" Brilliant. This is the first video I watch on this channel, but it took only 20 seconds to hit Subscribe
Glad you've joined us!
Very informative as I'm just starting character animation in AE. Thank you! 😁
This tutorial is amazing! Life changing 💙
Glad you think so!
Another beautiful video! Love it, thanks :)
Much appreciated!
One of the best informative video on youtube 😍
Glad you found it helpful! Thanks for watching!
Thank you for this guide! I am working with Duik Basel for a year, thinking move to Rubberhose in near future.
Glad it was helpful!
What a video bro! Can't thank you enough! Thank you so much you made life so much easier!
Glad it helped!
Very Helpfull Video! Thanks a Lot!
what a refreshing video. Thank you. Very Helpful
Glad it was helpful!
Brilliant tutorial, thank you.
Yoo tnx dude, everytNice tutorialng works. I LIKE IT
This is incredibly helpful, we can now see what does what, and also see the correct way to set them up. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
I was looking for this one tutorial for days and now finally it's here
Glad you finally found us!
Bro! it's Amazing You solved my problem! Thanks!!!
this is EXACTLY what i needed, thanks
You're welcome!
my guy, thank you for the tutorials. I'm broke and cant afford online courses. your tuts is a very big help!
Happy to help!
Hi ..Mr. John ...Very helpful tutorial you made ...for me it is a new ideas about Rigging app ...as new member of animation world ...very interesting notes ..Hats of you bro.
Glad it was helpful!
Respect to your good work, thanks a lot
Amazing video, deserves a lot more views.
Glad you think so!
you got a sub bro loved it
Super helpful! Thank you
Best intro I have ever seen
Oh stop, you're making me blush.☺
Fantastic video, very helpful!
Glad you think so!
I love your tutorials
Great video man, extremely helpful
Glad it helped
Thanks for the vid!
Thank you! Very informative and helpful.
Glad it was helpful!
man this videos just so good and helpful.
Glad you think so!
that is a great video, and it would help others a lot on choosing their tool .. thanks
Glad it was helpful!
thank you so much you take my life to another level thank you thank you so much i was gone leave the motion graphic business and I'm just beginning you can see my channel from Egypt i said thank you man
Thank you! It was exactly what I needed
Glad it helped!
Love your videos, thank you so much, they are so informative, i also love the fact that you don´t have intro, is like, i don´t need it because my content is so cool for itself :D
Thank you so much!
thank you so much , it worked
Thank you, it helped but i had a little bit of problems. Good Tutorial
Amazing video. Thank you!
Glad you liked it!
thanks, bro for the freebies.
You bet
Good Vid. Thanks!
Amazing video Thank you i will try Duik
Best of luck
Exactly what I was looking for... thanks.
Glad I could help!
Ultrasupermegahyper Guide bro! Thanks for this video ;)
Glad you enjoyed!
Nice! Thanks for your review. I've been using Bao Bones too. It's a great rigging in my opinion.
Yeah, I've seen Bao bones but have never personally used it (why it wasn't included in this list) But I'll have to check it out!
@@TheKeyframeAcademy Yep, I use Bao Bones as well, when I'm really in a rush and just have to animate ai layers for 5-10 seconds, otherwise Duik is King! Cheers! :)
man this was super great!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Nice tutorial
YOU ARE A GOD... NO QUESTION ABOUT IT
Having spend a lot of time with both Duik and Rubberhose I'd say your remarks are spot on. I mostly use Rubberhose for all the limbs, Duik for the chest/hips and JoysticknSliders for facial precomps. Small caveat when using Rubberhose: it uses the comment section of each layer to store parameters. Dugr (the amazing layering system from the Duik guys) uses this comment section also so the two are not usable in the same comp. Adam told me he'd look into it but I haven't checked if he did. Cheerio!
This might be random. But, do you know how to make the outline of the limbs connected between shapes on the rig? When I rotate it the outlines overlap.
This was good gave me options.
best intro till date!
Thanks!
thanks, great video .. really helpful!
Glad it was helpful!
It’s very useful lecture.. 감사합니다..!
Thank you
I have been sitting with DUIK since last night, and I just COULDN'T get the right "smooth" animation effect with it. Even went so far to go back to After Effects default pin tool 😅 But Rubberhose solved it for me perfectly hehe. Thanks a lot for the video overview 😊
Thanks for sharing!
Thats for professional
Really helpful thank you so much 🙂🥰♥️
You’re welcome 😊
- "Let's roll that intro." -"¿What intro?" you've got a new subscriber
Cool music, and really good introduction È nois
Glad you like it
Impecable! gracias!
Nice to see an entertaining tutorial 🔥 this may be a dumb question but is there an equivalent for character animator ? Or will duik work with it too ?
Character animator is basically Adobe's attempt at something like DUIK. So duik would be redundant inside character animator. I can't comment on which is better. I haven't seen very many things I like that have been created from Character Animator.
Thanks man!
You bet!
يارجل انت الافضل
I like your window on the computer case.
Thats my old case
I really love this video, it's very helpful, but it's been more than 3 years since it was published and a lot has changed in these tools since then. Have you thought about doing another comparison with these new features in mind?
YES!! There is one major update coming to one of these tools that I am waiting on, and then I will produce that video!
@@TheKeyframeAcademy Something tells me it will be an update for Limber 😄 I used to mainly work with Rubberhose before, but your videos made me see the amazing potential of Limber, so I hope to use it in my next project! Anyway, can't wait for that new comparison video, glad to hear you already had it in mind, keep up the good work!
todo funciona, eres el mejor
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
You are so welcome!
Thanks love em all
do a full animation making process tutorial...
Nice & help full video thx
Happy to help
just... THANK YOU!
Just....you're welcome
Really cool! Would love to see an UPDATED comparison with addition of DEEKAY TOOL!
I have one in the works, but actually Deekay tool is the rebranded version of character tool with some small updates.
nice tuto, I had the sa issue
Thanks bro 💜💜
No prob bro!
Nice 👍👏👏👏I love❤ it...
Thank you! 😊
Amazing
Thanks for this comparison. It was very helpful! One other rigging tool I would be interested in is the "Bao Bones" plugin from "Bao Plugins". Leaving a sub in case you do another one of these videos.
I am strongly considering it as many people have suggested I take a look at it. I initially left it out because A. I didn't think it was that popular and B. It's really expensive compared to these others. But enough people have asked about it that I might need to bite the bullet and review it.
@@TheKeyframeAcademy Awesome. Thanks for the answer. Your channel is a gold mine, so excuse me while I'm living out my personal gold rush. So much to explore - much appreciated.
Excellent info, thank you! Rubber Hose didn't have mid point adjustment, for foreshortening. Character Tool does as well as Limber. Correct me if I am wrong, with latest updates.
Rubber hose does, but it’s a experimental feature that you have to enable in the settings
Thanks for the video! I've used both RubberHose and Duik on two separate projects and played around with Limber and Joy Sticks N Sliders. I really liked RubberHose but hated the lack of tools for foreshortened limbs and tapering. Of course, tapering was added to RubberHose 2, but the Project was already done. I played around with Limber for foreshortening, but it felt like a hack and I wasn't getting the results that I wanted. For a future video, can you show how to do foreshortening with RubberHose or Limber? Can you also have a detailed focus on different parts of a character rig? Like a hand rig, arm rig, face rig, mouth rig, etc? I've done a full character rig, but I did a "replacement rig" for the hands, feet, mouth. I want to add more control to my rigs. Thank you in advance!
All good ideas, and be on the look out for future videos because I have varying opinions on the usefulness of a hand rigs for most situations. Foreshortening is certainly limited no matter the tool you use, but I think you get the best results with limber. You can kind do forshortening with rubberhose, by shifting the middle joint (although I think that feature is an opt-in/experimental feature) But good ideas for future videos!
Respect bro
🌷🌷Great Video, Can u make a tutorial video about rigging the leg using Combination of duik and rubberhose as to have both the rubberhose limb and feet controls of duik as shown at 12:41 in your video... really appreciate ur work🌷🌷
Hello John! Thank you for the detailed review. As a beginner, I found all this information very useful. Understanding what makes them different from each other is awesome knowledge!!! I use the Character Tool. Is there a workaround to parenting shape layers to the controllers when using Character Tool? Thanks
I'm not sure what you mean? Do you mean like I did with rubberhose, where I built out the muscles on the arm?
@@TheKeyframeAcademy Yes! Sorry, that's what I meant.
Trying to make a soft you hear in your head co to life might be the hardest part starting out but I guess that requires so solid
Dude, thank you for this. Could you go into more detail about how you rigged the detailed muscular arm at 20:20? I tried creating a shape layer and parenting it to the Rubberhose controllers, but it's always wonky and doesn't stay with the hose when I move it.
Hi Sir, Thankyou so much and brilliant actually! Can i ask you one doubt, which one would be the best plugin for face rig? if you replayed that would be great.
Awesome channel. 🤔 I hope you do something on hand-shapes and prop interaction. I use hand-drawn artwork for puppeting, (but I noticed when precomping multiple poses you cannot puppet pin a precomp without losing resolution for some reason. The collapse transformation switch brings back the resolution but dislodges the art when animating 😫) so now I use an exported full-res video layer, puppet-pinned and a slider control to switch pose frames. A hand holding a prop for me is simply another hand shape I switch to in the group (the hand drawn holding the prop). For a bare arm I keep it all as one arm (not seperate joints) copied a few times with different hands, these arms then contained within one mesh for puppeting. I only realised you can define a custom mesh based on the first frame you click on with the puppet pin tool as before when I changed hand, parts were cut off that didnt fit fully in the mesh. I've been two weeks now obsessively rigging just with puppet pins parented to nulls. I'm sure I have lots of bad habits. 🤣 I have yet to try Duik etc... Also I can easily enough flip the whole rig with a master null but I hear there are problems flipping a rig with Duik? 🤔🤤
I am thinking about this topic. Will have a video soon.
@@TheKeyframeAcademy awesome! 😮 Regarding keyframing character moves... i have recently made great use of the markers! Holding Shift and hitting the main number keys to add numbered markers (0 to 9 only) and then jumping from marker to marker using the number keys solo rather than scrubbing back and forth or jumping individual keyframes... im using sets of markers to go from pose to pose then removing them and setting new ones etc etc... 🤔
Would love to hear your opinion about joysticks and sliders, also love this video please keep it going!
I will be making a video about my thoughts on JnS. I have made several tutorials though if you are interested in those.
*_Thanks Man_*
No problem!