Character Swing Rigging
  • Sam Catt said:
    I'm also getting a rotation expression error. Can you please post the fix for this somewhere public? Thank you :) I look forward to usiing your script.
    image
    Hey Michael,

    Thanks for commenting and getting in touch - so simply anyone who is having the error on expressions please do the following:

    AE 2019+
    Head over to your project window and find the little rocket icon on the bottom. Click this and head over to the expression tab - change it from legacy to JavaScript and it'll work instantly

    AE2018-
    Don't worry as AE 2018 and below does not use the latest expression engine you will not get an expression error.

    The reason for this is, adobe released the new 2019 version of AE and included inside was a new faster and more powerful expression engine. The downside however is the method which was used in previous versions of after effects doesn't always work with the newer version and the newer versions as you have probably guessed don't work with the older versions. This isn't actually a problem it is something very very good for the user. However, it does cause a problem when AE switches to the legacy expression engine. ( I've noticed it does this when opening 2018 projects etc or transferring your preferences )

    Once you've enabled the javascript engine you can happily use all my plugins without any problems

    All the best

    Sam
    You're amazing! Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. 
  • Much like others, I can't seem to get a basic swing working.
    I'm using AE 2019 CC (with Javascript turned on). Character Swing Rigging (version 1.5.3)
    I make three boxes (just like your example). Adjust anchor points. Add wind, chain and then Apply Character Swing to all layers.
    I get this:
    After Effects warning: effect control converson required in effect "W". (25 :: 0)
    Any help would be appreciated!!
  • Much like others, I can't seem to get a basic swing working.

    I'm using AE 2019 CC (with Javascript turned on)
    I make three boxes (just like your example). Adjust anchor points. Add wind, chain and then Apply Character Swing to all layers.
    I get this:
    After Effects warning: effect control converson required in effect "W". (25 :: 0)
    Any help would be appreciated!!
    Hi Rob,

    Thanks for getting in touch~ that’s a totally new bug... hmmm would you mind opening a support ticket via the panel and we can go from there :) I’m sure we can fix it

    All the best

    Sam
  • Sam Catt said:
    Much like others, I can't seem to get a basic swing working.
    I'm using AE 2019 CC (with Javascript turned on)
    I make three boxes (just like your example). Adjust anchor points. Add wind, chain and then Apply Character Swing to all layers.
    I get this:
    After Effects warning: effect control converson required in effect "W". (25 :: 0)
    Any help would be appreciated!!
    Hi Rob, Thanks for getting in touch~ that’s a totally new bug... hmmm would you mind opening a support ticket via the panel and we can go from there :) I’m sure we can fix it All the best Sam
    Hmmm... forget all that. I rebooted and everything works just fine.
    Odd, but good! 
    Great plug-in!
  • I like this script but i'm disappointed to be forced to witch in Javascript mode because Rubberhose doesn't support it.
    So, in one project, I can't mix Rubberhose and Character Swing, even in differents comps :/
  • Hi Bob,
    Congratulations on your work, I love it!
    Do you know when the separate dimensions will be supported? Thanks!
  • Having trouble getting any effect swing or wind to recognize on puppet pins.  I do see that it is moving the null, but not the actual footage layer that the null is attached to?  Do I need to parent the nulls to the footage layer?

  • Hi Bob,
    Congratulations on your work, I love it!
    Do you know when the separate dimensions will be supported? Thanks!
    Hey Baptiste,
    Wish I was Bob, but unfortunately I'm just a basic Sam... Thanks for loving it! separate dimensions is actually something I haven't thought about as of yet! though always open to suggestions and I can start working on it asap! I can't give you a delivery date but it's now in the pipeline!

    All the best

    Sam
  • Having trouble getting any effect swing or wind to recognize on puppet pins.  I do see that it is moving the null, but not the actual footage layer that the null is attached to?  Do I need to parent the nulls to the footage layer?

    Hey Chris,

    just got your ticket via the script, I'll get back to you there but it's something we can sort easily!

    All the best

    Sam
  • Sam Catt said:
    Hi Bob,
    Congratulations on your work, I love it!
    Do you know when the separate dimensions will be supported? Thanks!
    Hey Baptiste,
    Wish I was Bob, but unfortunately I'm just a basic Sam... Thanks for loving it! separate dimensions is actually something I haven't thought about as of yet! though always open to suggestions and I can start working on it asap! I can't give you a delivery date but it's now in the pipeline!

    All the best

    Sam
    Thanks Sam ;-)
  • Hey Sam,

    Loving the script, however I'm having a major problem with a rig I've made on a character that has roots and plants growing out of it. When animating the main body control of the character, it works fine but if i add a keyframe inbetween two keyframes, the roots and plants with the rigging curl together very extremely and flail about when it reaches the new keyframe. Any solutions? I've got to animate this character very soon for a university assignment.

    Thanks Max
  • Hey Sam,

    Loving the script, however I'm having a major problem with a rig I've made on a character that has roots and plants growing out of it. When animating the main body control of the character, it works fine but if i add a keyframe inbetween two keyframes, the roots and plants with the rigging curl together very extremely and flail about when it reaches the new keyframe. Any solutions? I've got to animate this character very soon for a university assignment.

    Thanks Max
    Hey max,

    so trying to understand the situation you are in and trying to get it solved as quick as possible I would say duplicate your target used for character swing rigging data. This would be your layer with the main keyframes and then set this new target as the data to drive the swing. Next I would animate the character, and adjust the keyframes on the duplicate layer ( you can make it invisible as we are just referencing it for data )

    the reason for this is, is that it uses the data between keyframes to calculate the swing adding two extreme keyframes without the right timing can cause the swing to become a bit drastic, you can either turn down the amplitude or the other way that I mentioned. The method above gives you a lot more control but takes slightly more time but is defiantly worth it in the long run

    all the best

    Sam
  • Sam Catt said:
    Hey Sam,

    Loving the script, however I'm having a major problem with a rig I've made on a character that has roots and plants growing out of it. When animating the main body control of the character, it works fine but if i add a keyframe inbetween two keyframes, the roots and plants with the rigging curl together very extremely and flail about when it reaches the new keyframe. Any solutions? I've got to animate this character very soon for a university assignment.

    Thanks Max
    Hey max,

    so trying to understand the situation you are in and trying to get it solved as quick as possible I would say duplicate your target used for character swing rigging data. This would be your layer with the main keyframes and then set this new target as the data to drive the swing. Next I would animate the character, and adjust the keyframes on the duplicate layer ( you can make it invisible as we are just referencing it for data )

    the reason for this is, is that it uses the data between keyframes to calculate the swing adding two extreme keyframes without the right timing can cause the swing to become a bit drastic, you can either turn down the amplitude or the other way that I mentioned. The method above gives you a lot more control but takes slightly more time but is defiantly worth it in the long run

    all the best

    Sam
    Hey, Sam

    Thanks for the quick response, I've duplicated my main control and set that as the new driver, but the problem is still persisting when i edit any keyframes on the duplicated driver.

    Max
  • Hey! I've got a little question about the wind effect. Is there any way to set it up so that it's evolution results in a seamless loop?
  • Is this optimized for the latest changes to AE expressions? Every time I use the script, all my expressions have errors.
  • Is this optimized for the latest changes to AE expressions? Every time I use the script, all my expressions have errors.
    Morning Justin,

    It actually is optimised for the latest version of after effects. However, AE 2019 still includes the older expression engine and sometimes loads it instead of the newest "JavaScript" version and thus causes some errors.

    It's an easy fix and it goes like this
    1: click the little rocket on the bottom left of your project panel
    2: click the expression engine tab
    3: set the expression engine to "JavaScript"

    and everything will work perfectly.

    This only applies to AE2019 and not any other version!

    All the best

    Sam
  • Hey! I've got a little question about the wind effect. Is there any way to set it up so that it's evolution results in a seamless loop?
    Hey Matt,

    At this moment in time you can't loop the wind effect, this may be an option I could add in the future!

    All the best

    Sam
  • Hi, I am trying to create wind on some hair but when I apply the character swing rigging effect, it comes up with an error saying "expression disabled: error at line 3 n property 'rotation' of layer 5... / = does not have a value. How do I fix this?
  • Sam Catt said:
    Hi Bob,
    Congratulations on your work, I love it!
    Do you know when the separate dimensions will be supported? Thanks!
    Hey Baptiste,
    Wish I was Bob, but unfortunately I'm just a basic Sam... Thanks for loving it! separate dimensions is actually something I haven't thought about as of yet! though always open to suggestions and I can start working on it asap! I can't give you a delivery date but it's now in the pipeline!

    All the best

    Sam
    Hi,
    I'm finishing an animation and I would need to use the hair plugin but all the head animation is done with separate dimensions. Do you know when this famous option will be available? Thank you and have a good day!
  • Hi, I've just purchased the plugins but unfortunately there seems to be an issue.

    I'm following the videos posted but every time I change 'Enable Swing' nothing happens. There is also a yellow warning sign by the rotation of the Drive layer.

    Any help would be appreciated!
  • Sam Catt said:
    Hi Bob,
    Congratulations on your work, I love it!
    Do you know when the separate dimensions will be supported? Thanks!
    Hey Baptiste,
    Wish I was Bob, but unfortunately I'm just a basic Sam... Thanks for loving it! separate dimensions is actually something I haven't thought about as of yet! though always open to suggestions and I can start working on it asap! I can't give you a delivery date but it's now in the pipeline!

    All the best

    Sam
    Hi,
    I'm finishing an animation and I would need to use the hair plugin but all the head animation is done with separate dimensions. Do you know when this famous option will be available? Thank you and have a good day!

    Hey~ hope you are well! I’ve been extremely busy the last couple of months~ new little baby added to the family. I’m re-doing most of my scripts and adding functionality over the rest of the year. So this feature should be coming in the coming months along with some other exciting stuff!
  • Hi, I've just purchased the plugins but unfortunately there seems to be an issue.

    I'm following the videos posted but every time I change 'Enable Swing' nothing happens. There is also a yellow warning sign by the rotation of the Drive layer.

    Any help would be appreciated!

    Hey Shervin, If you open a support ticket via the guide window I’ll be able to assist you further in getting it sorted ASAP- All the best Sam
  • Sam Catt said:
    Hi, I've just purchased the plugins but unfortunately there seems to be an issue.

    I'm following the videos posted but every time I change 'Enable Swing' nothing happens. There is also a yellow warning sign by the rotation of the Drive layer.

    Any help would be appreciated!

    Hey Shervin, If you open a support ticket via the guide window I’ll be able to assist you further in getting it sorted ASAP- All the best Sam
    Amazing Sam, just sent it through!
  • Sam Catt said:
    Sam Catt said:
    Hi Bob,
    Congratulations on your work, I love it!
    Do you know when the separate dimensions will be supported? Thanks!
    Hey Baptiste,
    Wish I was Bob, but unfortunately I'm just a basic Sam... Thanks for loving it! separate dimensions is actually something I haven't thought about as of yet! though always open to suggestions and I can start working on it asap! I can't give you a delivery date but it's now in the pipeline!

    All the best

    Sam
    Hi,
    I'm finishing an animation and I would need to use the hair plugin but all the head animation is done with separate dimensions. Do you know when this famous option will be available? Thank you and have a good day!

    Hey~ hope you are well! I’ve been extremely busy the last couple of months~ new little baby added to the family. I’m re-doing most of my scripts and adding functionality over the rest of the year. So this feature should be coming in the coming months along with some other exciting stuff!
    Ok great! thanks for this good news but above all take care of your new baby it's much more important ;-)
  • Hello, I am trying to make the position of the object as y axis,but it's not working. Is there any solution?

    Thanks in advance
    Nazmul
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  • Hi, is it possible to reffrence movement in another comp?

  • Hi, is it possible to reffrence movement in another comp?

    That is a new feature coming in V2.0 ( it will be released very very soon )
  • Sam Catt said:
    Hi, is it possible to reffrence movement in another comp?

    That is a new feature coming in V2.0 ( it will be released very very soon )
    Thank you for the super fast reply, thats great to hear. Is there any work around in the meantime? 
  • Sam Catt said:
    Hi, is it possible to reffrence movement in another comp?

    That is a new feature coming in V2.0 ( it will be released very very soon )
    Thank you for the super fast reply, thats great to hear. Is there any work around in the meantime? 
    No problem ^^, in the meantime you can just copy and paste the layer you want into the comp containing the swing and hide the layer. This will still work as it looks for the keyframe information.

    Alternatively if easier you can just copy the position keyframes onto a new null in your comp and target that null.
  • Sam Catt said:
    Sam Catt said:
    Hi, is it possible to reffrence movement in another comp?

    That is a new feature coming in V2.0 ( it will be released very very soon )
    Thank you for the super fast reply, thats great to hear. Is there any work around in the meantime? 
    No problem ^^, in the meantime you can just copy and paste the layer you want into the comp containing the swing and hide the layer. This will still work as it looks for the keyframe information.

    Alternatively if easier you can just copy the position keyframes onto a new null in your comp and target that null.
    Ok. Thank you. I look forward to using V2. 
  • Is there any way to have the position values inherit from a series of parents?

    I am using the rig for hair on a character, so ideally the movement of the hair should inherit from the head, then the body, then the null it's all parented to. If I have it set to the target position of the head, it doesn't seem to take any influence from the null, or movements of the body that the head is parented to.
  • After Effects warning: expression disabled
    Error at line 2 property "rotation of layer 1 (driver_1) in comp "comp http:// 1"
    /= does not have a value

    (AE 2019/2020 , plugin v1.5.6)

    image
  • Hi,

    So I have a character. I set up the swing to work on the arms and legs. I want to add the ears and tail to swing but when I go through the actions of adding them, it undoes the first swing effect on the arms and legs. 

    How do I add additional pieces to the swing effect as children?

    Thank you!
  • Perhaps I misunderstood how this script works. I created a head shape and hair shapes in AI. I imported them to AE. Linked the hair to the head and then created position key frames for the head to move from side to side. When I follow the instructions, and use the puppet pins on the hair, they do not react to the movement of the head.
    What am I doing wrong? :/
  • Hi! In demo it look very nice but in real not working. I try trial and any time I see error alerts. AE 2020. Can I forget about it script or I doing something wrong?
    Rig_problems.png
    1684 x 1211 - 119K
  • Great script!! Thank you!. May I suggest to improve it one day if it would be possible to apply it to shapes layers (when I try on shape layers, a pop-up window says "works only on footage layers"). Thank you so much
  • Anyone want to take a shot at animating this!? https://we.tl/t-ijrg1fVtcP Get this plant realistically swinging into the scene from Right to Left using the Character Swing Rigging tool?
    I believe this would be a 'pro' example or use of the tool, as I'm finding it near impossible to get right..



  • version 1.5.7 enable swing general  UI is slider and in tutorial 2018 show in UI is check box button.
    I have TRY but the 'swing general setting is not working.  How does this works? any tutorial guide for slider to be use? in order the swing works.
    Thanks


  • Please, Bear studios, Is this channel (aescripts) still alive? I looked at your website, where are newer versions for a long time and the script is not updated here on AEscripts.. I Want to buy it, but I do not want to buy a dead horse.. 
    And what about compatibility with new AE (2021)? I remember there were some compatibility issues in the past, so I do not want to buy something I can not use..
    And sorry, the subscription model is not acceptable for me, so, can I buy the latest version somehow?
  • trial dont works on AE 2020 



  • Well, my bad, i didn read the compability before  i bought all 3 plugins (Swing,Wave,parent) but does this plugin work with versions above 2020?
    (Now 2022). and if so will there be a update soon to fix that problem ?

    Cause i cant get i to work, have been folowing all the toturials of the setup, but no swing! ;-(

  • I have version 2020 (17.7.0) and it doesn't work. Any advice?
  • Will you be updating this for compatibility with AE CC 2022?
  • Trial doesn't work in 2021 or 2022.
    Geez... how is this thing still available for purchase?
  • Is there any way to have the position values inherit from a series of parents?

    I am using the rig for hair on a character, so ideally the movement of the hair should inherit from the head, then the body, then the null it's all parented to. If I have it set to the target position of the head, it doesn't seem to take any influence from the null, or movements of the body that the head is parented to.
    The best way to fix this would be creating a separate null that you can power the hair by, and animate it separately to the main rig
  • After Effects warning: expression disabled
    Error at line 2 property "rotation of layer 1 (driver_1) in comp "comp http:// 1"
    /= does not have a value

    (AE 2019/2020 , plugin v1.5.6)

    image
    To fix this make sure you switch the after effects "expression engine" to "JavaScript" inside after effects settings
  • Ryan Hoog said:
    Hi,

    So I have a character. I set up the swing to work on the arms and legs. I want to add the ears and tail to swing but when I go through the actions of adding them, it undoes the first swing effect on the arms and legs. 

    How do I add additional pieces to the swing effect as children?

    Thank you!
    Oh interesting! it sounds like you want to set-up multiple swing rigs and connect them together correct? in this instance it's best not to select any of the previously made swing rig and create a null and connect all your new rigs to that null instead. Then parent that null back to where you want the rig to connect to
  • Perhaps I misunderstood how this script works. I created a head shape and hair shapes in AI. I imported them to AE. Linked the hair to the head and then created position key frames for the head to move from side to side. When I follow the instructions, and use the puppet pins on the hair, they do not react to the movement of the head.
    What am I doing wrong? :/
    There may be expression errors hidden. To fix this make sure you change the expression engine to javascript within after effects's settings
  • Hi! In demo it look very nice but in real not working. I try trial and any time I see error alerts. AE 2020. Can I forget about it script or I doing something wrong?
    Looks to me like the expression errors are causing the issue here. To fix these you want to go and change the expression engine to "JavaScript" you can find this in the settings of After Effects