Rigging a Character with Duik Bassel in After Effects

Learn how to rig a character using Duik Bassel in this After Effects tutorial from Morgan Williams.
Download the Project File: bit.ly/2SKsReh
Check out Rigging Academy: bit.ly/2T2ELPI
Check out Character Animation Bootcamp: bit.ly/38OADti
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Auto-Generated Transcript Below 👇
Music (00:02): [intro music]
Morgan Williams (00:11): Hey everyone, Morgan here from school of motion. And in this tutorial, we're going to take a quick look at doing a very basic character rig using the new DUIK facile. Now do it's been around for quite some time, but this latest update to DUIK Bassel is really amazing and provides a whole new set of tools and a whole new procedure for rigging characters in after effects. And it's really a game changer in a lot of ways. Now we're going to do a very basic straightforward rig here, but if you're interested in learning a lot more about rigging characters and after-effects please check out my rigging academy course at school of motion. So let's take a look at the character we have to rig here. This is Mo Gran, whose name sounds suspiciously like mine and who looks suspiciously like me designed by the amazing Alex Pope.
Morgan Williams (01:04): Now let's take a look at the way this character is broken up. The arms are broken up into upper arm for arm and hand pieces and note that the upper and lower arm and the hand, they all overlap each other with perfectly circular overlaps. And those overlaps are indicated by these marker guides here that we're going to be using as part of the rigging process in rigging academy, we talk a lot about prepping artwork, but the basic idea is especially for limbs knees, ankles wrists, you want to try to have perfectly circular overlaps between the artwork whenever possible. This is going to give you the greatest range of motion. It's also a good idea to create these markers, to mark, where those circular overlaps are. And you'll see why. Once we get a little farther in here, the legs are divided with a thigh, a calf, a foot, which is basically the ankle, the heel up to the ball of the foot, and then a total layer sticking off the end there.
Morgan Williams (02:19): And once again, all of these have the circular overlaps that we talked about. Now, in this case, we're using a jointed torso. In other words, we've separated the torso into separate pieces. Now the truth is that I don't generally recommend this. It's often not really very possible, especially if you have complicated or textured artwork, and it's usually better to use the puppet tool when you're rigging torsos. But for this simple lesson, we've created a very simple torso with separate pieces. We have a pelvis piece, a belly peace in the middle there, and then a chest piece sitting on top and then a separate little neck piece right there. We also of course have the head, which in this case is just one layer. If we were going to be creating facial rigging, we'd actually want separate layers for all the different facial features and then pre composed together.
Morgan Williams (03:21): But for this simple rig, we just have a single head layer as before we've created circular overlaps for these torso pieces. And this is one of the reasons why I generally recommend using the puppet tool because it's often very difficult to get these kinds of circular overlaps depending on the design and artwork style of your character. Now, in order to rig up this character, we first need to create a structure for the character. Now doing basil structures are one of the most exciting innovations of this new update structures are basically bones and skeletons that we can rig and then attach our character artwork to this emulates. The way 3d rigging works, where you create a skeleton and then connect the mesh of the character to that skeleton in doing basil, these bones or skeletons are called structures in the DUIK basil window. The structures tab is this very first icon here, this little sort of jointed arm icon.
For the full transcript visit: bit.ly/2SKsReh

[@gilbertmeneses325]

Wow! This is what I call a tutorial! Thank you for that :)

[@SplittingProductions]

This was a great intro into understanding rigging with Duik. I like that you explained the "whys" and "whats" about how you did things. Made it easier to understand what is BEING done rather than only what needs to be done.

[@davidcunningham9282]

i'd been struggling with getting a smooth rig up until now. this tutorial is amazing. thank you kindly sir

[@borgXmeister]

waiting for this!! thanks

[@cesarcalzada6060]

Amazing 💓 thanks to share!!! I Will try

[@AliEveritt]

Hi 2020 animators! Be sure to change DuiK settings to Expert mode if a button is not visible for you! (zero out the position is only available in expert mode)

[@PedroPaulodeCarvalho]

NICE TIP!!!!!!!

[@PedroPaulodeCarvalho]

How to return my rig individual controls after make a walkcycle? I can't move anything more! :(

[@aprilyang4835]

amazing! Thanks for sharing!

[@moui]

Great overview Morgan! Can't wait to jump in the updated Rigging Academy!

[@pixeledgedesigns9116]

Thanks you. Very informative! I did it!!

[@randomnametochange]

wow is this what love feels like??! DX amazing thank you

[@lichtspieler_erklaervideo]

Thank you!

[@dublinphotoart]

I like to use extra puppet pins attched to nulls in order to hide joints of seperate limbs.... example: upper arm and lower arm... i will place two extra puppet pins either side of elbow of the upper arm and expression link them to two nulls either side of the elbow of the lower arm, (these nulls parented to the lower arm null).... so now when the lower arm is moving and rotating it is pulling somewhat on the upper arm where the pins and nulls join keeping the join of the artwork hidden.... ive also used this for example on a head rotating side to side with two nulls pulling on puppet pin points of a neck-tie underneath 🤔

[@cutterjohnston5668]

Thanks Morgan! Does anyone know what to expect to older character rigs from previous versions [15.52] with Duik Bassel?

[@emilytang492]

Hi after the rigging is done, can we change the body bones length so we can replace a body part layer and make it shorter.

[@MsRaskauskas]

I have successfully used your tutorial and puppet and my animation was fine. Now I made my own character and it looks fine in AE with Duik . I Create a hominoid rig and solo the right arm but when I do all of my parts move to the center. I un-solo them and they are all in the right place but the structure is in the center of the character instead of with the right arm. Does anyone know the explanation or correction for this?

[@sansid1161]

Great tutorial ! One question, how do you reduce the size of all the joints in the same time ? I saw that I can do it with the display options when you open the effects on the layer but I can do it only one by one. The joints by default are too big... I'm looking forward for you answer. Thank you in advance !

[@legrainproduction2760]

same problem here, they are too big

[@LanceTheunissen]

Really awesome tut :) thanks. One question, I don't seem to have the 'add zero' button in my Duik tool set, can someone help me? Please and thank you.

[@sinnyloo]

Go to the little wrench icon in the top right of the panel. Change the setting under "user interface" from rookie (baby bottle icon) to standard (coffee cup icon). Click Apply Changes.

[@DevanBaird]

Add zero is only in expert mode! Go to the settings to switch it over.

[@rafaelinfante0303]

Thanks!

[@nicoll2106]

How to flip the arms? (I was able to flip the legs but that trick doesnt seem to work for this) Thanks!

[@edgarherreraaguilar2496]

Hi, what can i do if a want to scale mi character and mi character pixelate it?

[@panjimaulanai8343]

hello cant you tell me, how to make walkcycle with background fix and the character move from A to B pleaseee........

[@sh4dow2a]

I have an issue... I can''t import the rig in a composition

[@Nobody-lf3sx]

I've purchased Rigging Academy and it's really great. Do you guys ever plan on making a Cinema 4d character rigging or character animation course?

[@schoolofmotion]

That's a great suggestion. This isn't the first time that this bootcamp has been suggested. We definitely love Cinema 4D Basecamp and we're looking forward to even more C4D courses in the future. Do you have any teachers that you'd like to learn from?

[@Nobody-lf3sx]

@@schoolofmotion Bret Bays did a great explanation of weighting in c4d which is on cineversity. Also would be awesome to see Neil Stubbings showing how he does his character work inside of c4d.

[@micheloo]

School of Motion ,Cinema 4D character rigging would be interesting.. in addition to Niel stubbings which i like his styles very much.. Aleksey Voznesenski seems one of a few that have a killer C4D rigging demo real..

[@mennamahmoud4230]

For some reason the hands don't move back and fourth with the arms during the walk cycle. Everything else works just fine, even when i try to move or rotate them with the controller manually. The problem only appears when i apply the Duik walk cycle. Is there a reason this is happening? Thanks a lot.

[@amolraval3190]

How do you animate a walking cycle for a character that is in an absolute FRONT position? Like make him walk towards the screen and not any side view? It's very difficult to achieve that

[@jabijabi5157]

yeah its difficult

[@littlefox3128]

hi, I've rigged a bear arm for a project im working on, I've got some text animating on another layer and it seems to affect the rig, it flashes on and off and moves slightly even though I have not added any key frames yet... help?

[@TheHeroMoo]

why AE CS6 cannot add bone

[@elloslai]

Hi, I have followed the tutorial closely and I noticed that whenever I move my skull icon up, the head will disconnect from the body because it's supposed to rotate I think, please let me know what could be the problem, thanks.

[@matis8693]

You're not suppose to move the skull icon. It's rotation-only.

[@iqbalhaidari7092]

thanks for the lesson i have a question how to make a character stops while walking in the scene ? for example it comes off the screen and pick up sth then continues walking when we loop the walk cycle it seems impossible

[@dublinphotoart]

Each animation sequence will be in a new comp. I keep a starting rig comp. Then duplicate it - make walk cycle. Use another duplicate to make next animation sequence. These comps will all be joined together to make the final.

[@hirataketasha9942]

Does anyone know if an already rigged character can be changed/customised after it has been rigged?

[@ThomasSpettel]

I constructed the rig like you have displayed in teh tutorial but the puppet is not moving when i try to move the skeletal rig parts

[@sansid1161]

Same for me when I opened the project file provided by SOM. I just can move the head and the pelvis not the legs and so on.

[@rafaelm.5148]

You created a new job position: AEP rigger!! This is a great tutorial! but at the end I wonder if it's still worth doing all of this in After Effects? I have been frustrated at After Effects and its overly complicated way to animate a character. I have recently looked at other solutions like Harmony (not yet) or Moho. I realized that some TV shows and features like "Song of the Sea" have been using Moho for character animation. Anyway, I am a big After Effects fan and I love its eco system, but I'm starting to wonder if this is like when folks were trying to use Maya to do motion graphics before Cinema plug-in Mograph came out. Anyway, your tutorials are amazing!

[@thenikhilray99]

I agree. It's just very unintuitive to animate a character in AE once you have animated in Moho. I work with AE at office but we have ordered Moho specifically for character animation .

[@TheLillianYoung]

Rafael M. I just learned about Moho, but there are few quality tutorials on version 2 and up. However, knowing about that made me totally abandon AE for learning character animation. Plus, I am more focused on a character modeling and animation project in Maya.

[@carlperl412]

¡Hola! School Of Motion. Please, Can you make a video explaining how trigger an animation in exact moment? For example make a transition when the voice-over change the phrases? is that maked with markers imported from Premier Pro or something? Many thanks!

[@bestfuture9217]

download it here cgpersia.com/2018/07/school-of-motion-rigging-academy-2-141789.html

[@kwentongeerie]

Anyone knows how to edit the size of the structures all at once?

[@santhiyaramamoorthy371]

yes i know

[@leo-or4ef]

hi i have a quewstion what if i only want half of the character? no lower body, is it possible?

[@schoolofmotion]

Yeah absolutely, you just wouldn't rig the bottom of the character and start rigging from the waist up! :D

[@jamiecross4394]

Can't seem to get my rig to connect to my illustration... So I can move my rig but my character doesn't move.

[@juancarlosgzrz]

Does anyone knows how to hide controllers and bones icons from showing up in preview renders? while hitting spacebar

[@UntoldStoriesnepal]

Just hide them from the side panel (eye icon)

[@jorgedelima2274]

Any chance to make a tutorial about 2.5d facial rig with the new Duik?

[@schoolofmotion]

That's a great suggestion!

[@giolatesta]

Hi, I didn't find the bottom "ADD ZERO" ( for freeze transformation) in the last version of Duik Bassel. Someone can you help me?

[@Seabass_Fiction]

someone else said that "add zero" is only in the expert mode layout view (where you pick between rookie, standard or expert options)

[@giorgioVega]

Hi! great tutorial thank a lot! in my panel of duik, doesn't exist the "edit controllers" button i have the 16.0.9 version, can you help me? thanks again

[@sinnyloo]

Go to the little wrench icon in the top right of the panel. Change the setting under "user interface" from rookie (baby bottle icon) to standard (coffee cup icon). Click Apply Changes.

[@giorgioVega]

Esin Ozdag thanks!

[@cameronseegers7414]

I had the same problem found answer on forum - but still, really should be made more obvious that you don't see all options when default is installed.

[@legrainproduction2760]

how do you resize the skeleton like yours? is there any options to make that skinny bones? cause the basic one are too big, and it's long to all resize them

[@schoolofmotion]

Just to double check, are you using Duik Bassel or an older version?

[@legrainproduction2760]

@@schoolofmotion duik bassel

[@javiermiranda4949]

@@schoolofmotion What is the solution?

[@cameronseegers7414]

29:41 Head isn't "attached" like in tutorial. It moves freely from rest of "joined"/rigged body. What could cause this? Did I just miss linking that Head layer or something?

[@sethyoder7996]

I think this is a bug in duik. I've encountered the same thing recently and reported it. I just de-selected the head and head-point bones before autorigging and it works fine.

[@freebcc6010]

nice. one question. what is the command key if you don't use MAC Os?

[@cermmid]

and option is alt

[@franzformer3000]

Thank you very much Morgan. Really well done! I am having an issue using just the hand controls after activating the autowalk cycle. Anybody else with this problem? Cheerio, Felix

[@legrainproduction2760]

you cant use the hands in the walk cycle, it's a big issue i think...maybe a later version will fix that

[@sinnyloo]

Same problem here! After the walk cycle, I can no longer control hands but all else works fine. Sorry no idea how to fix.

[@radkookie]

Hi I followed up to the zeroing ( position properties) part of the tutorial. And every controller is working, except for the head. :( Do I have to start from scratch? Did I not align something?? Can I fix it or do I have to recreate it all?

[@schoolofmotion]

Hey! We checked with Morgan, and the advice is to start over. It could be a number of things that have gone wrong! Sorry we couldn't really detail what's going on

[@elloslai]

Did you solve the problem?

[@cameronseegers7414]

Same issue - no idea what i missed -_-

[@BBTravels007]

Sir how to move whole character after rigging ,i mean global controller

[@schoolofmotion]

Are you trying to get an auto-walk?

[@BBTravels007]

Yes

[@gmsalauddinsuruj]

I can't find the add zero option to my Duik bessel. What should I do at this moment ?

[@enbusquedadelasantidad]

Change in the settings to expert mode

[@ipekli.creative]

27:20 Position Zero

[@aliciameiyanlok4864]

at 7.53, when morgan mentioned about zero out the position, i cant seem to keep the position they were they flying off to somewhere else. HELPPPPP

[@DevanBaird]

its in expert mode, go to settings to switch it over and that option will become available

[@ranakreigns125]

i dont find add zero option and edit color code on duik bassel can you help me to out of this problem. thanks

[@sinnyloo]

Go to the little wrench icon in the top right of the panel. Change the setting under "user interface" from rookie (baby bottle icon) to standard (coffee cup icon). Click Apply Changes.

[@noemibarkoczi]

@@sinnyloo I had the same problem. thank you!!:)

[@freemind1124]

@@sinnyloo Did that but still nothing showed up some other things did but not that

[@user-jd5dd1xs2u]

после этого видоса просто в шоке, кто может скиньте видос где будут описанны все функции дуика

[@thudles5004]

Hi can someone please tell me how to make markers in illustrator

[@jasper8119]

They're just regular circles, used as "markers"

[@christianpinche]

Hello, I have a question: How do you make your controllers of the rig in the composition be more small when you are aligning the joints with the help of the red circles? My circles are way too big and I find it hard to work with. They don't appear as small as in your video. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@motion8476]

Can i get your intro project files?

[@DoronTshuva770]

The course is with duik 16?

[@schoolofmotion]

Yep! The lesson and Rigging Academy course both use Duik Bassel 16.

[@graphixtv2683]

Thanks for the great tutorial! I'm having one problem though. When I adjust the skull control, the head moves freely instead of tilting on its axis like in the video (29:38). The bone segment "S Neck" moves with it, but the Neck image stays in place. I'm also not able to rotate any controller (is there a key combination?) or seeing the red circle over the icon as you rotate. I ran through everything 3 times, also tried with your sample project files. Updated After effects, still no change. Any suggestions? What could I be missing here?

[@Hardymovies]

I'm having a similar issue - did you ever find a fix?

[@misteralexflynn]

I'm having exactly the same issue. I thought it might have been due to missing a step or two when rigging but these issues still remain even after redoing the tutorial again - it's such a ball-ache!

[@Patrick-pu4tn]

Bob lazer is that you?

[@gregv2821]

Good tut. At 28:59 You can just select all of the layers and zero them out with one click. Also, I would suggest losing the transparency grid. I thought it was kind of weird that you’re rounding up your numbers on the positions and rotations which is, pardon the expression, but pretty anal, but you’re ok with looking at that awful transparency grid. Anyway, thanks for the tut. Very well done and I love what you guys are doing.

[@HendAbdAlgany]

I have no option to add zero

[@Nobody-lf3sx]

If you go to settings and change the option from "rookie" to either standard or expert, you will then be able to see the "add zero" command under the rigging section.

[@HendAbdAlgany]

Thank you very very much

[@pvtrvs]

Auto rig don't work, it's loading infinity

[@thefruitofaliens]

Narrated by John Hodgman.

[@user-jd5dd1xs2u]

after this vidosa just in shock, who can throw off the VIDOS where all the functions of the duik will be described

[@pacnb]

Anyone ever tell you that you sound like John Hodgman?

[@SlimeyNoCommentary]

I upload a duik bassel tutorial I get 2k views in 5weeks U got 100 in 1minute How

[@salt_media]

School of Motion has a much larger audience base. That said if your tutorials have quality content they will hopefully keep attracting views!

[@Wolfmoss1]

@@salt_media Hey Dan! This is Matt. It's a small world haha. I've been considering learning Duik for character animation jobs with Lance in which it may be worth using. Have you done much with it yourself?

[@salt_media]

Hey Matt!! It is a small world! Have done a few things, it’s a great tool to have. Not every character project needs it, I have used puppet pin a lot, but worth having a play with and learning if you have time.