Complete 2D Character Rigging & Animation in After Effects

Course details

Character Rigging in After Effects and animating is what you'll find in this loaded, focused, and direct character rigging tutorial course.

The methods in this course are what I use to rig my own art no-matter what the characters look like. I created this course so that you could learn how to bring your own art to life.

~  Imagine what your own art could do if it could move or say if it could speck.

If you have a character you've been trying to rig and animate . . . or think you want to start . . . continue reading . . .

. . . All the artwork for you to learn is included by the way.

    . . . . And there's no After Effects experience necessary.

Before I tell you what's inside the course I must tell you that when I started rigging characters all I could find were courses teaching with very specific types of characters in mind. You and I both know that we all draw differently. Most of us might sketch out a character as a whole painting when we start drawing ~ everything is all one layer, on one piece of paper.

That's how most of us draw right?

So then I realized all we have to do then is re-think this character and re-draw it in layers and then . . . we can rig it an animate it; tell a story with it.

In this course I wanted to teach you how to do this by providing a human character drawn in layers so that you will know how to apply this to one of your sketches (you'll know how you can re-draw your own character into layers similar to the character provided) and apply all the rigging techniques to your own artwork in the future. I chose a human because anything else is typically easier to do. ~ especially if they are more 'cartoon or non-realisticly painted'.

Okay so here's What You'll Learn Inside the Course . . .

#1 - SETTING UP AE - Easily set up After Effects with some free Massive Time-Saving tools.

#2 - EYES - Blinking and Movement

#3 - LIP-SYNC - Mouth's ability to react to replaceable audio tracks (very cool)

#4 - FACE - Facial Expressions (which still work with talking)

#5 - HAIR - To be able to move in the wind & react to Head Movement.

#6 - LEGS - Inverse Kinematics (IK) including Ankle & Foot Articulation

#7 - ARMS - IK as well as opening and closing Hands & Fingers

#8 - SECONDARY CLOTHING - Adding a dress/skirt which moves with underlying legs

#9 - ANIMATE - Set up a Scene for a short animation including a Walk-Cycle

#10 - EXPORTING - Add in some music and get an animation ready for Youtube etc.

         AND MORE . . .

With all the artwork provided for you to learn character rigging from start to finish I also walk you through setting up a free plugin called DUIK which speeds the rigging process up tremendously. You will also learn how to do some basic animation with our complete rigged character.

You will also learn a method of lip-syncing a character for dialogue which can easily be swapped out for new audio. Great if you change the script!

If you have ever wanted to create an animated short or mini-series I will show you how you can use a fully rigged character for multiple episodes. This is the method I used in the creation of the 3-part mini-series Wicked Love found on YouTube with the exception of Trapcode Particular. You can find it by searching 'wicked love animation' on youtube.

If you love to draw or paint digital art in Photoshop or the Procreate app for iPad this course will teach you skills to take your own creative characters drawn in a layered fashion and bring them to life for use time and time again.

I've included detailed notes (PDF files) you can print out to assist you. * Available as separate lessons or the entire notes as one. Simple code snippets I use are in there as well as the same values I type in as I walk you through the process.

Check out the previews to gain a more in-depth look on what this course offers. There is no risk, no questions, nor hard feelings if you want your money back for 30 days.

See you on the inside,

Ben

PS. If you're new to After Effects it can look like it's a lot to learn. After Effects is a BEAST but Don't Worry - You'll learn what's needed as you go by doing - this is the fastest way to learn.

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UPDATE - June 2016:   

Check out Lecture 3, another example of an animated short created in After Effects. 

I took the EXACT character taught in this course and put her into another animated short - different from the animation I walk you through in the course. Lecture 3 can be seen by anyone as it's a free Preview. 

Set the Udemy player to 1080p and let it load.

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UPDATE - May 2016:   

New Lecture added: Flipping the Hands for more Position Options

Character Rigging Trick with positioning the hands which address overcoming one of the seeming limitations with this style of animation where a hand is painted with palms facing up . . . . what if you want them facing down?  - check it out in Lecture 27

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UPDATE - April 2016:  Added quick time-saving trick when creating controllers which goes with the preceding lecture on Legs and Feet. - check it out in Lecture 23

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