Walking With The Puppet Tool

This month was quite interesting. I struggle a lot with Puppet Tool in After Effect. There is no doubt that the tool is very powerful, the problem is that I have lack of knowledge on how to use it. It is my fault that I did not learn the tool beforehand.

I also found out that the graph editor in the software is very different than the one in Maya and I found out that the graph calculates the value of an object travelling from one point to the next, but please correct me if I am wrong. The first time I used the graph editor was very confusing. I am very glad that there are a lot of tutorials about the animating in AE that has really helped me out. So, I thought it'd be a great idea to share it with you guys here, so here are the links:

• More on Keyframes and the Graph Editor
• After Effects: Easing and the Graph Editor
• Understanding the After Effects Graph Editor for Adjusting Animation

The other problem that I had was spacing. Thankfully, the graph editor fixes this problem. Another solution that I did was, I animated the object every 2f or 4f.. for some reasons, I kind of  feel better if I did it this way.. it probably because this method gives me more control over the animation.. but, I am still trying to find a better way on how to adjust the spacing properly..

The next thing that I would like to talk about is The Puppet Tool. I was very stressed out because I did not have a good control over the limbs of the characters that I animated.. and guess what..?! There Is a Rigging method for AE animation! (O_O;!) I was quite surprised when I found the tutorial.. It was a very nice and clear one, and you could watch it on the link below :
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqWc7ywdUV1qs6mAcLq_ODPtRVCcAB2Yt

I have not got a chance to try it out because i had already started animating by the time I found the tutorial, but it was very helpful!
There had been a lot of trial and error during the animation process and I am not very happy with the result that I have right now.. If you have a time, feel free to check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_54_3v0cp4 .. and let me know what you guys think about it.. I'd really appreciate your feedback for the scene..

Thank you guys for reading my post.. this will conclude my gloominess for today and I will start fresh tomorrow! Ooh and.. tomorrow is a New Year!! Wooott!!

Happy New Year 2014 Everyone!! All the Best for Next Year!! :D

Take care and Stay Healthy
God Bless You All

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