How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet

In October 2011 we released arguably the most in-depth and thorough Character Animation series on the web. Dan Gies (author) has created another fully rigged up puppet character for you to play with available for free. Download it from Mettle's website.

Posts in this series

How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Overview
This is a quick overview of Aetuts+'s "How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet" Series. We will be posting a new chapter every day or so for the entire...
Adam Everett Miller
3 Oct 2011
News
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 1
This tutorial looks at how to control the nested clips for the mouth and eyes using expression sliders applied to a Null object that acts as a character...
Daniel Gies
3 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 2
Here I look at combining puppet tool pins with null objects to make an expressive, malleable face (positioning the pins and Null objects for optimal control).
Daniel Gies
4 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 3
This videos looks at some techniques for further refining the puppet mesh distortions by using the starch tool and additional pins.
Daniel Gies
5 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 4
In this video I demonstrate how to apply expressions to the null objects driving the puppet pins so that you can control the facial expressions using the...
Daniel Gies
7 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 5
This video further expands on the facial expressions controls and builds some relationships between them like having a blink affect the eye brows and the...
Daniel Gies
10 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 6
This tutorial demonstrates a technique for creating a "Look At" object for the eyes so that the pupils don't have to be animated individually. This also...
Daniel Gies
11 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 7
This video shows you how to take the character controlling Null object from the head composition and bring it into the top level character composition so...
Daniel Gies
12 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 8
This videos demonstrates how to take the head composition we have been working with to the third dimension for making convincing head rotations using Free...
Daniel Gies
13 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 9
Displacement maps are the theme of this video which outlines the basics of how they work and gives a few examples of how to paint them and what affect they...
Daniel Gies
17 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 10
This Tutorial shows you how to apply the painted displacement map to the characters head. I also demonstrate how to use an animate-able displacement map...
Daniel Gies
18 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 11
This video shows one method for getting the FreeForm Pro objects positioned and parented to other 3D enabled layers in after effects.
Daniel Gies
19 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 12
In this tutorial I use CC Lens and the Magnify filter to create rounded eye balls and simulate really thick lens glasses. I also show you how to convert...
Daniel Gies
20 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 13
In this video I will show you how to connect all of the head and face controls from a nested composition to a null object in the parent composition. This...
Daniel Gies
24 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 14
There are many ways to connect your character together and the best way often depends on the style of the puppets joints and the clothes it wears. This video...
Daniel Gies
25 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 15
Making clothes react convincingly doesn't have to be an impossible mission of frame by frame keying. Using simple expressions and the puppet tool you can...
Daniel Gies
26 Oct 2011
Motion Graphics
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 16
IK is finally here for After Effects! It has actually been around for a while thanks to Nicolas Dufresne's Duik Tools. You can now create inverse kinematic...
Daniel Gies
27 Oct 2011
Workflow
How To Create And Rig A Realistic Puppet Day 17
This video explores a few techniques that can be used to create multiple pose-able hands, fingers and feet using nested compositions and sliders. This...
Daniel Gies
1 Nov 2011
Workflow