An ULTIMATE guide to After Effects Character Rigging

[@JohannesLabusch]

God bless you for not having a shitty intro.

[@honkpill686]

LMFAO!

[@Veldryn17]

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.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

True that!

[@killerWATTstudio]

This is a feature of Character Tool too :) Although in my opinion, Rubberhose is still superior.

[@mohammadshahin3550]

I was searching for a character rigging tutorial, and I found this gold. Thank you man

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

No problem!

[@fandydiadline]

and which one do you prefer?

[@Mario-fz1pc]

The video that I have been trying to find

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

I'm glad you finally found it!

[@tamialade9630]

same here

[@siriuscrocodile74]

"What intro?" Brilliant. This is the first video I watch on this channel, but it took only 20 seconds to hit Subscribe

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad you've joined us!

[@nicholascoker6154]

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.

[@Pardix]

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!!!

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Fair enough!

[@uavdan]

It Worked perfectly after trying other methods this one was the best one, Thanks.

[@bryanmonteiro8917]

Thanks for the tutorial, it's much faster than any other method I came across.

[@mehdigalaxy8087]

Best intro I have ever seen

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Oh stop, you're making me blush.☺

[@raulszabo7411]

What a legend only one ad in the beginning . Your so damn underrated

[@DOMINGOX6]

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?

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

YES!! There is one major update coming to one of these tools that I am waiting on, and then I will produce that video!

[@DOMINGOX6]

@@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!

[@roundblackbear6586]

my guy, thank you for the tutorials. I'm broke and cant afford online courses. your tuts is a very big help!

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Happy to help!

[@zoyaishfaq4004]

I was looking for this one tutorial for days and now finally it's here

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad you finally found us!

[@saransekhar6618]

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

[@BenjaminHernandez23]

- "Let's roll that intro." -"¿What intro?" you've got a new subscriber

[@tinabasim6676]

Thank you so much for your tutorials It went from 'nice tutoet science' to simple logic! You have a new subscriber

[@Dani_Krossing]

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 😊

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Thanks for sharing!

[@steverubio6072]

Thats for professional

[@jarvis_kjellberg]

do a full animation making process tutorial...

[@mrjoe3409]

Wow. You're the best. I couldn't understand what you were saying but I just followed instructions. Thank you so much

[@sanidayz]

This video was super helpful, thanks for taking the time to edit this! ✨

[@babubatliwala9227]

🌷🌷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🌷🌷

[@prashantchoudhary7297]

One of the best informative video on youtube 😍

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad you found it helpful! Thanks for watching!

[@Nelson-french]

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.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Good choice!

[@zmejkart]

Thank you for this guide! I am working with Duik Basel for a year, thinking move to Rubberhose in near future.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad it was helpful!

[@NgocMinh-tn8eu]

YOU ARE A GOD... NO QUESTION ABOUT IT

[@angelaguadalupegonzalezayu4899]

This works. Recommended to try this out. Thanks a lot for your help

[@goo4450]

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!

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad I could help! And I'm glad you finally found this!

[@goo4450]

@@TheKeyframeAcademy thank god for youtube, i wouldn't know how to animate anything without it....

[@varamozhithulika5919]

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.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad it was helpful!

[@joco9958]

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!

[@cupofjoen]

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.

[@marhawi565]

Thank you, it helped but i had a little bit of problems. Good Tutorial

[@NewarKPrince7]

This was good gave me options.

[@omarghazal1568]

limber is so underrated

[@mejdejo]

this is EXACTLY what i needed, thanks

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

You're welcome!

[@antraxhkill9985]

thanks, bro for the freebies.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

You bet

[@wolfreicherter748]

what a refreshing video. Thank you. Very Helpful

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Andonchoto]

This is incredibly helpful, we can now see what does what, and also see the correct way to set them up. Thank you.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad it was helpful!

[@akarts7211]

What a video bro! Can't thank you enough! Thank you so much you made life so much easier!

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad it helped!

[@jean-marcyapo2444]

I love your tutorials

[@aman_design]

best intro till date!

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Thanks!

[@edgemotion7515]

Very helpful! I've been looking for a thorough comparison of these tools before purchasing. Thanks!

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad you found it!

[@victorluizbianchini]

Nice! Thanks for your review. I've been using Bao Bones too. It's a great rigging in my opinion.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

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!

[@bachkov]

@@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! :)

[@MuntasirZisan]

Bro! it's Amazing You solved my problem! Thanks!!!

[@spicytuna3387]

Another beautiful video! Love it, thanks :)

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Much appreciated!

[@ShahzadisOp]

Yoo tnx dude, everytNice tutorialng works. I LIKE IT

[@zahraranjbarian3946]

This tutorial is amazing! Life changing 💙

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad you think so!

[@kharathos4121]

Amazing video, deserves a lot more views.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad you think so!

[@mothbro16]

Very informative as I'm just starting character animation in AE. Thank you! 😁

[@ephsk0t]

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!

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

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!

[@fayyazb]

Really cool! Would love to see an UPDATED comparison with addition of DEEKAY TOOL!

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

I have one in the works, but actually Deekay tool is the rebranded version of character tool with some small updates.

[@bonjovibayots7425]

Respect to your good work, thanks a lot

[@DiggyKalborn]

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.

[@hotallypfranco4672]

Very Helpfull Video! Thanks a Lot!

[@naughty-gaming8046]

Brilliant tutorial, thank you.

[@davidvictorkiprop3944]

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

[@pcprobot]

I like your window on the computer case.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Thats my old case

[@ByAnyDreamNecessary]

I have zero idea if this content is even any good…but sir, your intro stole my subscription 27sec in!! 😂🤣😂

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

😅

[@rosezif]

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

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Thank you so much!

[@BenCaesar]

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 ?

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

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.

[@Yusuf3D]

that is a great video, and it would help others a lot on choosing their tool .. thanks

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad it was helpful!

[@GabrielliCamilo]

Fantastic video, very helpful!

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad you think so!

[@wolfen69]

Great video. I've used all these tools on a variety of projects, but the truth is animating characters in After Effects is a total nightmare no matter what you use. It's just soooo slooooow. Moho all the way, doods.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

I just don't agree. Moho is cool, but the set up is just as complicated and it's just as buggy. If you think that AE is so much of a pain to use that you're willing to spend $500 for Moho then I just don't think you're doing it right.

[@wolfen69]

@@TheKeyframeAcademy I've used DUIK from the start and the problem is not the plugin, it's AE ,I think. With each upgrade it gets laggier and heavier to use. Same thing happened to Particular. 10 years ago it was lightning fast now it's a down to a crawl, unusable.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

You still using the same computer you had 10 years ago? Haha No doubt character animation is laggier, but from my experience, as soon as you start using the same number of shapes in Moho it starts to lag as well. Thats why moho turns the preview quality waaaaay down (which you can also do in AE) My biggest thing with AE is that I like the graph editor better than moho's graph editor. Plus there are so many more third party tools that make things work faster. But to each their own. I just don't think its a wash.

[@wolfen69]

@Keyframe Academy 😂 of course not... it's 4 years old! But that's my point even with newer hardware and the new mult render in AE stuff like Particular and DUIK are slower to use now than years ago. This is a fact. Come on, you know how Adobe is. We're all in this love/hate relationship together. How is it a 30 year old animation software still doesn't have onion skinning?!

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

@@wolfen69 First, Particular a third party plug in has to be rework by the developers (Not adobe) to take advantage of mult rendering. That is on Red Giant, not Adobe. Second, my DUIK works fine so it might be time for you to upgrade your system. Third, it doesn't have onion skinning because After Effects was never intended to be an animation software. Character animation is something that third party developers (like the creators of DUIK) built into the program. After Effects is first and foremost a VFX software. That is what it was built to do. Also, you don't necessarily need onion skinning when you're not drawing your animation frame by frame. But I will give you, that we are all in a love/hate relationship with Adobe.

[@manolomaru]

Ultrasupermegahyper Guide bro! Thanks for this video ;)

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@armanchahal1]

you got a sub bro loved it

[@SPSGohana]

Yes it can - don't despair!

[@LC-yo3bj]

Great video man, extremely helpful

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad it helped

[@vvenkitachalam9535]

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.

[@foe9278]

Yo...I feel tNice tutorials on another level. My heart felt tNice tutorials

[@robbclayton101]

Exactly what I was looking for... thanks.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad I could help!

[@TechofTheCentury]

Amazing video Thank you i will try Duik

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Best of luck

[@gogg1138]

يارجل انت الافضل

[@nokindesign2258]

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

[@ericlochstampfor6545]

Thank you! Very informative and helpful.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad it was helpful!

[@marvin5325]

man this videos just so good and helpful.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad you think so!

[@kiaraaanimation]

Hey thanks for the tutorial... What about the Deekay motion tool?

[@jouriverhoeven]

Nice and clear overview. One question; I have a fearly fast computer, but DuiK (or better; the viewport) is getting slow even with only two characters in the scene. Do you have any experience with that?

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

This is the problem with AE. For some reason AE is not really good at rendering a bunch of shape layers. I guess it just hasn't been optimized for that. And Duik is heaving on the shape layers and so when you have two characters, fully rigged with DUIK it can start to bog down AE. I always turn off any layers that are not needed (like structure layers after everything is rigged up.) But it doesn't seem to help that much.

[@rostykdashko4260]

Amazing video. Thank you!

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad you liked it!

[@14kaiju]

man this was super great!

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@TheSickPollo]

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

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

I'm not sure what you mean? Do you mean like I did with rubberhose, where I built out the muscles on the arm?

[@TheSickPollo]

@@TheKeyframeAcademy Yes! Sorry, that's what I meant.

[@barukidsmodainfantil7217]

Nice tutorial

[@Medicalstoryteller]

Could you please make a tutorial on how you did this Intro?

[@laurarimku142]

Thank you! It was exactly what I needed

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad it helped!

[@andreabari200]

Hi, i have a question, to animate illustrations with texture and in PSD format, which program do you recommend?

[@sailorsblues]

This video is amazing. I would love to know how you created that arm in Rubberhouse using outlines.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Great suggestion!

[@geethanjalir8294]

Thanks for the vid!

[@dublinphotoart]

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? 🤔🤤

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

I am thinking about this topic. Will have a video soon.

[@dublinphotoart]

@@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... 🤔

[@hilalrefaiehhilal.designs3795]

Would love to hear your opinion about joysticks and sliders, also love this video please keep it going!

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

I will be making a video about my thoughts on JnS. I have made several tutorials though if you are interested in those.

[@maheshsingh1522]

nice tuto, I had the sa issue

[@tumpakin1479]

now i am in a good mood

[@omegasocialfly6228]

Awesome video can you tell me duik Angela is better or limber for walk cycle

[@davemoy330]

Good Vid. Thanks!

[@jippalippa]

"Deekay tool" has just been released and it it pretty much a supercharged version of rubberhose, something like what Rubberhose 3 would have been like

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Yeah I saw that. I'm going to have to take a look at that to see what it offers that all these other tools don't.

[@empirestartv6134]

@@TheKeyframeAcademy I'm waiting for that tutorial from you, greetings from the Dominican Republic, I subscribe to your channel.

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

@@empirestartv6134 Turns out that Deekay tool is just a rebrand of Character tool, that I reviewed in this video, with a few extras. Still planning on making an update to this video tho, and it is in the works so stay tuned.

[@empirestartv6134]

@@TheKeyframeAcademy 👍 Bien

[@lucasarnack2610]

Cool music, and really good introduction È nois

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Glad you like it

[@nicolaslockheimers]

It's been a few years since this video was made - Although DUIK is still my favorite tool, do you have any thoughts on Adobe Character Animator and its many features?

[@ri939]

I watched this video after I put most of my money on this tools but anyway This video was really helpful

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

All the tools are great options, but I'm glad this was helpful!

[@angelpalomino858]

thank you so much , it worked

[@ramtin.baghban]

Thanks a lot for such a comprehensive comparison. My question is, when do you prefer Limber over DUIK? I think the only advantage is that length size option and probably working with Limber is a little more faster. Am I right?

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

I think I would flip the question around, when would I prefer DUIK over Limber. Duik takes more steps to set up, is hard to use, and way more taxing on your computer (from my experience). So I'm more often thinking about situations where it makes sense to use DUIK over Limber, rather than the other way around. At this point, I'd really only use DUIK if I need to rig up bitmap characters. If I'm dealing wiht vector layers at all, I'm opting for Limber. The length and size of the limbs is not Limbers only advantage over DUIK. Blendable FK is far superior than DUIK's FK switch. Limber also has an anti pop that prevent the awkward snap that happens in a walk cycle. It's biggest advantage over DUIK though is it's just easier to use. Keep an eye out though because I am updating this video soon as it is almost 2 years old.

[@This_handle_isnt_available_lol]

So what would be the faster or best animation type for a single animator like rig, frame by frame, 3d, ect.. something that would take the least amount of time (although would probably still take awhile)

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

Well, character rigging will definitely take the least amount of time in contrast to frame by frame animation. Frame by frame requires a wider range of skills to accomplish successfully as well. You have to have a good sense of timing, good/consistent artistic ability, etc. Character rigging in a program like After Effects makes character animation a little more approachable. Its easier to adjust timing by moving a couple of keyframes than to draw new frames. However, the trade off with character rigging may be less dynamic movement/animations.

[@This_handle_isnt_available_lol]

@@TheKeyframeAcademy oh ok so would you say 3d animation is the way to go since it is able to do more things than a 2d rig would do? Also thank you for the information 🙏

[@eljhin1]

@@This_handle_isnt_available_lol it depends on what type of animation you want

[@sidraghaffar4997]

can you please make a tutorial of Front walk in Limber

[@iTheNem3sis]

What about Joy sticks & Sliders?. Also can we have more advanced Duik tutorials. I want to learn how to have a character change from side to 3/4 view to forward face view in one scene. How do I create animations to be more life like?

[@TheKeyframeAcademy]

I love joysticks and sliders, and I have a bunch of tutorials on it already. But I plan to do more in the future. But joysticks is mostly a head rig, rather than a full character rig, so in my mind it sits in a different category. I suppose you could use joysticks on the whole body....I’ll look into that.

[@iTheNem3sis]

@@TheKeyframeAcademy You're contents are awesome. I subscribed. Hope to see more great tutorials 👍

[@aescripts]

@@TheKeyframeAcademy You can rig anything with Joysticks 'n Sliders! That's the beauty of it ;-)