Duik character rigging script / plugin... please help!
by Eugene Hooper
on
Sep 10, 2009 at 8:41:32 am
Hey guys, I'm looking to animate a character in after effects, it is of a human figure and consists of individual limbs- hands, arms, torso, legs, feet, head etc. put together with parenting and all the rest...well, not quite.
Recently I found this awesome script that lets you rig characters so that when using specially placed controllers, the characters movements appear very fluid and natural.
As far as I can tell this looks by far the easiest way to rig a 2D character in after effects. I downloaded it, but according to the download page, apparently the current versions available only exist in either cs3+cs4 capable for French AE, or only for older versions of the english after effects. Maybe it was a mistranslation but according to that, the 2 versions available for download will only work if you have either French version of CS3 or CS4, or a version earlier than those for English. I have CS3 for mac, English, fml.
I downloaded both anyway and they both ran, (opened at least) in after effects, but both appeared the same except the French version was dockable (stoked). Anyways, got off on a tangent there, the problem is that its missing a key feature necessary to link up the limbs together. I was following the video tutorial above, although it in French, it is fairly straight forward to see what he is clicking on and such. However, when it comes to linking the limbs together, say, hand>lower arm>upper arm>controller, a drop down menu is missing that he accesses in the video but is not available in the versions I downloaded. Quite odd considering that he's using v5 in the video and the ones available for download are v8beta. Anyways, does anyone know why the drop down menu isn't there? Strange that they would release those versions if you cant even progress beyond that particular point.
Would love to know how to get this working! I intend on using it for my degree project and without it my character's gonna animate like turd. Grr, it's like being stranded on an island with canned food but without the can opener.
The plugin looks perfect for the job, I recommend you guys check it out at least. I've looked at Dan Ebberts' Inverse kinematics expressions to do a similar thing by the looks of it (have't actually tried it out for myself)but I'd like to know if I can get this script to work as it looks easy to use, with great results.
Any ideas? Would it work on CS4? Any suggestions are welcome and if you can pinpoint the problem and fix it, I'll be forever greatful. The thought of a turdy looking animation for my final degree project is haunting me.
Re: Duik character rigging script / plugin... please help! by Katherine Landgrebe on Oct 8, 2009 at 9:31:54 am
Eugene, you just saved my life! This is amazing. The site is now available in English, I downloaded the script for CS3+CS4, it works perfectly. Even on a Mac. Thanks for the hint, I hope your work went fine despite the problems. I was stuck with hte IK programming for my thesis animation as well, but now I see light :)
Don't forget to check the "allow scripts to work... (something)" box in the Preferences (general).
Re: Duik character rigging script / plugin... please help! by sergio juyak on Nov 3, 2009 at 6:20:26 pm
Euegene. Did you figure out your problem? I think i may be running into the same issue. In the tutorial video he uses a "bones" drop-down menu which is not available in the current version. So when you eventually create the IK, it doesn't calculate correctly and doesn't animate right. Did you find a work around?
