Marshal & Flo: Episode 1
Personal project exploring the possibilities of character animation in After Effects.
This was a personal project all for the purpose of getting better at rigging and animating a 2D charater in After Effects. Flamingos have been my favorite animal for a long time, so I rigged one. There were no story boards, planning, or animatics created before I started; I just took it one dance move at a time. If you are interested in the rigging process even further, send me a message and Ill point you to the method I used (not my invention).
My puppets and rigs were made entirely in After Effects. The turning rig was based off of a method using shape layers and Duik's "morphing" tool to map the keyframes of the shape layers to the position of various controllers. The contollers shown here are made with guides to tell me how far I can go before too much distortion in the shape layers, as well as where "home" was (the neutral position of the body part). Overall, this method makes for a very versitile puppet with limited controllers and a lot of percision.
www.MicahBartel.com