Animate a character and bring it to life

Rigging

Rig your character
After watching my lectures, as well as the tutorials provided, decide what rig will work best for your character, basic, Duik, or GG_puppettool.

Rig your character, starting with individual limbs, and connecting them all together in a way that makes the most sense.

Remember, there may be some trial and error. If you realize you need to start over, don't be discouraged. This will help you in the long run.

It might be a good idea to try multiple rigs, sometimes you discover one works better than you expected.

Walk Cycle

Make your Character Walk
Using the information I shared, practice making your character walk. Feel free to use the rig I provided.

Start by blocking out the 5 main keyframes, then go back and adjust as needed.

Once you understand the basics, have fun with it! Try to experiment a bit, and see what type of personality you can come up with.

Animation principles using simpler rigs

Animate your Character
Create a 5 to 10 second animation of your character using the principles we covered.

Think about your character's personality. Is he happy? Is he mad? Is he a goofball? Think about using what we learned in ways to express this emotion.

Faces and Expression

Animate your character's face
Use tips from this video to animate your own characters face.

Like the last lesson, think about how you can get the most out of the simple shapes. What are they looking at? Does the audience know, or is their reaction supposed to hint at it?

Make sure to make it clear what they are thinking/feeling.

Helium Harvey - Bonus

Finishing touches
This lessons is more of a bonus for people who want to advance their charcter further. Use anything you learn from this video to add to your final animation, or keep it in mind when you make your next character.

Additional Resources

Use this file to follow along (cs 5.5, and 6):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2475020/skillshare/ss_character_rigs.zip

EXAMPLES OF AE CHARACTER ANIMATION:

https://vimeo.com/27611427 - Rover by Mike Luzzi

https://vimeo.com/30199985 - Bunraku by Guilherme Marcondes

https://vimeo.com/40637456 - Wooden Toy by Lucas.

https://vimeo.com/7908382 - Duik in Action by Famos

https://vimeo.com/41558459 - Lernz by Animade

https://vimeo.com/32619522 - Be a Vegetarian by Glossyrey

https://vimeo.com/32585849 - Rig Demo by Glossyrey

TUTORIALS:

Intro to gg_PuppetTools - https://vimeo.com/45282024

Duik Inverse Kinematics - https://vimeo.com/7872163

Duik puppet tool - https://vimeo.com/8141832

Tons of tutorials -

http://www.e-d-films.com/tutorials.php

Serious indepth look at After Effects rigging (advanced) -

http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/workflow/how-to-create-and-rig-a-realistic-puppet-day-1/

DOWNLOADS:

GG puppet tools (30% off with code "savage" July 15th - July 21st '13) - aescripts.com/puppettools/

Duik tools - http://duduf.net/?lang=en

READINGS:

Survival Kit (also an ipad app)-

http://www.amazon.com/The-Animators-Survival-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284

Illusion of life -

http://www.amazon.com/The-ILLUSION-OF-LIFE-ANIMATION/dp/0786860707
From Animators survival kit: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2475020/skillshare/walkreference1.png

BJ Heinley

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