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round or flat) and trim-paths on multiple strokes.Įnter BattleAxe, who has managed to solve both of these problems with their two incredible After Effects scripts: RubberHose and ButtCapper (Yes, ButtCapper). There is also the hassle of dealing with stroke caps (i.e. One stroke must be animated, while the other parameters are parented to its animated properties using the “pickwhip” tool. Where this becomes complicated is when multiple strokes are needed to create one limb, as in the woman seen above. The limbs are then animated by keying and editing the “stroke” and “rotation” parameters. The rig is created by parenting each of the limbs to the torso or mid-section of the character, meaning when the torso is moved or rotated, all of the limbs attached move with it. While we love animating characters using stroke-based rigs, the process can become complicated very quickly. The limbs used in the stroke-based rigs above were created using only strokes, with no fill. Both can be edited independently, or can be omitted altogether, leaving only a stroke, or only a fill. The fill can be thought of simply as the interior of a shape, while the stroke as the outline or exterior. When shapes are created in After Effects, they have two distinct properties: a fill and a stroke. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the workflow of After Effects, a shape layer is exactly what it sounds like: A layer for shapes. Stroke-based rigs are created using shape layers in After Effects. Below are two of our favorite stroke-based rig examples from animated videos we’ve made for our clients. They’re fun, simple, and contribute to the overall style of a character. Here’s an example of an Inverse Kinematic rig created using Duik by DuDufĪt Sparksight, we’re big fans of stroke-based rigs. A rig ultimately determines how, and by what parameters, a character will be animated. More advanced rigs often require third party plugins or scripts in After Effects to make an animator’s job easier. There are simple and stroke-based rigs that are very popular in commercial motion graphics, and more advanced Inverse Kinematic rigs (IK rigs) that account for the relationship between multiple joints and digits. Put simply, a “rig” is sort of like the skeleton of an animated character. Creating animated characters in the place of text, iconography, or graphics can add a great personal element to your video. When an animator starts to design a new character in After Effects, one of the first questions we ask ourselves is, “How am I going to rig this character?” Here at Sparksight, character animation is something we’re very familiar with.