Hi Greg - I'm having a weird issue happen where my nulls are moving but the corresponding body parts are not. Do you know what I might be doing wrong? It was working for a while, but now when I push play I only see the nulls moving and not the arm. Thanks! Claire
@Claire – Sound odd! If it was working before, I would start by going back a version and see if you can figure out what happened. Or duplicate your comp, delete the nulls and pins and try to re-create it.
If you move the nulls, but the pins don't move there is a chance an expression was disabled somehow. You can check this by twirling down the Puppet effect and looking at each pins position value.
And if none of the above work, I would have to look at your file to really see what's going on. Any screen shots or screen captures would help too.
Quick question - how do I change the joint orientation once I've applied the IK? By this I mean if for instance you have a character limb where when you move the master effector (lets say the foot) the middle joint (knee) bends one way and you want it to bend the opposite. Is this possible? It says in the documentation that you get the option to invert the orientation once you've applied the effect but I can't see that anywhere? Have tried different selection orders, different master parents etc but nothing seems to work. Any ideas?
Hi Greg, thanks for the great script. I have now a character rigged up and ready to go. A kid that is supposed to do a lot of stuff in a series for TV. What's the best way of moving the whole character around? Would be great to have a null that moves the whole character, all arms and legs moving along without transformation (strecthing out). is that possible? by activating all layers and moving them all, it seems to work, but is not very practical. pre-comping is not really on option.
@Rikard – Thanks for picking up the script! There is an option built into the script that creates a Master Parent Null that all others are parented to. Think of it as your global transform.
To do this manually, create a new null and parent all your null controllers to it–that should let you move and rotate your character around as one object.
Great script! I've been using this for quite a while now. I really like the IK addition, however I can't seem to rename the controllers without breaking the rig. It seems as though the layer names don't update in the expressions. Know of any way around this or would it have to be done by hand?
hi, me again. after some minor problems i made a basic animation involving two characters. it's a pretty big thing (10000x10000px), since i want to zoom in and out, focus on different parts of the picture. i placed it in a HD composition, tried working with 2D and 3D and noticed that the arms and legs were totally misplaced, flying around in the air.
what could be the reason for that? don't really know at what point that happend.
just noticed another weird thing (the 2nd and 3rd screenshot) – when working zoomed out the girls arm seems to be in the right place, but when zooming in, it's somewhere else.
Posted this on Creative Cow a minute ago. could this be realted to the script?
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Since of yesterday AE started crashing when opening a project which i worked on a few weeks ago.
We opened it on a PC, saved, with a new name. and it would open just fine. When reconnecting the files (AI-drawing) it crashed again. Renamed the drawing and replaced the originals with the new ones, layer by layer. Everything worked ok.
Just now, same thing, can't open any of the versions of the project. And it gives a warning saying that it crashed when opening windows. Do you want to open those windows again? Some versions of the project, i can open when clicking no. other crash anyway. What the heck is going on?
Others open fine, but this not. It involves a puppet tools script.
I'm running a new Mac Pro, with the latest version of Mavericks, and latest version of AE.
@Rikard - There seems to be a few things going on. AE crashing is beyond my knowledge and can be caused by a lot of different factors, so I'm not sure I will be of much help there. It's usually not script related, but to rule it out you could try removing the file from your ScriptUI folder and see what happens.
As for the limbs being out of place – could be a few things. AE's native puppet tool does some weird stuff, so I would try to rebuild the characters w/o the script, just by placing puppet pins, and see if the problem persists.
If not, then there could be an issue of scale messing with the values in the expression. What I recommend is doing all your character animation in a precomp and bringing that into your scene to scale/transform.
If none of this gets you there, I could take a look at your setup and try to help.
Quick question concerning your great Puppet Tools script.
I've created and rigged my character in a x by x composition.
I now want to scale the comp up as my character is moving around futher than the comp, but when I do it messes up the coordinates of the whole puppet/shape system. See images attached.
Is this a known issue and do you have a workaround?
I could precomp and rasterize but rasterize also messes up the system, so I'm a bit at a loss.
Hope you can help, thanks! (And sorry if the issue already came up, i don't seem to have seen it)
@Charles - Hey, thanks for the message. Sadly, what you're experiencing is a native AE puppet issue. If you place pins on artwork and then resize the comp – without using my script – the same glitch happens.
My work around is to make the comp bigger than needed before animating, or animate your character in it's own comp. It frustrates me too.
i'm still using puppet tools 2 but i saw your comment about the rasterizing issue.
Great. I’ll look into the continuously rasterizing issue and see if I can find a solve for a later update.
Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
i usually import illustrator files in AE and work from there. the nulls appear fine in version 2. my coworker recently purchased 3 and the nulls don't appear at all. it's such a great plugin! hope there's an update soon.
also may i ask in this box... if i do purchase -- will i have both 2 and 3 or will it overwrite? just worried about the rasterize issue.
I'm not having any luck with the rasterization issue. I've got a comp with an .ai art layer reset to 100%, in it's own comp, and the pins are still offestting oddly when it's continuously rasterized. I've attached the precomp. Any insights that you have on it would be great, thanks!
@George - AE's puppet tool doesn't get along very well with the continuously rasterize switch. If you're turning it on to be able to scale the artwork up I would suggest you rig the artwork at the biggest size you plan to use it. You can always scale it down later.
I've attached how I would set up the rig in your AE file.
@Jens - I haven't tested it on CC 2014 yet, but it should work just fine. I'm working on some updates and "official support for CC 2014" is on my list.
This isn't working at all for the latest version of AE CC... I am using the current version of PT3. I have a shape layer (also tried with an ai file) that I have added 3 pins to (an arm). After selecting the pins/layer/etc and clicking "Pins To Nulls" nothing happens. Am I doing something wrong?
I am using AE CC 12.1
Edit: I figured it out. It seems after the installation of the latest version, I needed to delete the pins I had, close the script, open it again. Everything has been good after that.
This isn't working at all for the latest version of AE CC... I am using the current version of PT3. I have a shape layer (also tried with an ai file) that I have added 3 pins to (an arm). After selecting the pins/layer/etc and clicking "Pins To Nulls" nothing happens. Am I doing something wrong?
I am using AE CC 12.1
Edit: I figured it out. It seems after the installation of the latest version, I needed to delete the pins I had, close the script, open it again. Everything has been good after that.
Had to deal with the same problem as Willem. Closing the script, restarting AE and reloading the script worked for me.
As a feature-request I would like to see the ability to add nulls to pins on parented objects. Right now the null is placed somewhere else, i guess somewhat related to the position in Comp space if the object wouldn't be parented. Really messes up your rig.
I know you can avoid it with planning you rig but I sometimes run into situations where using an IK Rig wasn't planned (clients...!) and then i have to unparent and reparent everything hoping some wiggle-expressions wont mess up every alignment I took care of.
Great job on this! I've got a question about the licence.
If one use this plugin to create a template AE project file and sell this file to third parties (through marketplaces like videohive.net) - is it allowed?
The plugin it self wouldn't be included, of course. But I understand that there would be some cool expressions inside the project, which might (or not?) limit the usage of the file.
If one use this plugin to create a template AE project file and sell this file to third parties (through marketplaces like videohive.net) - is it allowed?
The plugin it self wouldn't be included, of course. But I understand that there would be some cool expressions inside the project, which might (or not?) limit the usage of the file.
@Daniel Dahn - Try running it in a new file. As in open AE, make new pins and try running the script. If nothing happens still then we can investigate further.
The script doesn't seem to work properly if the artwork is scaled at all - I've just been trying to create a character arm which is imported as a .AI file. No continuous rasterisation but the arm was scaled down to about 40% before I clicked 'pins to nulls'. Then the arm was stretched way out (more than the original).
@Paul Gale - Scaling the artwork leads to some wonky results because the controllers are based on the puppet pin position value – which doesn't change if you scale a layer.
I'm looking into a workaround for it, but in the meantime you'll probably have to precomp before adding pins to get it working.
I just tried your script and it is a great too, will definitely buy. I did notice that you need your artwork to be the scale of the comp for the expression to work (for example, if I have an illustrator layered file, I need to precomp the layers to get a comp size new layer and put the pins there).
Just as a sugestion, wouldn't something like this work in that case too without needing to precompose?
Also, regarding the comment below, I think this expression also works for the problem Paul was describing. As for getting the right position for the null in the case of a scaled or parented layer, from what I understand on scripting, at the moment of creating each null you could parent the null to the layer that has the puppet pins, set the null position at the puppet pin position (wich is in layer space), an then set the null parent to none, thus getting that same position but now in world space, because from what I remember there is no equivalent metod to the fromWorld/toWorld expressions. Havent tried it but I think it should work?
Great script, thanks! My question: is there a possibility to let legs and arms bend in an other direction? I'm using IK and elbows and knees are always pointing to the right when moving the controller null. In some situations it looks really weird...
--- ok i found the solution: " there is a Flip IK checkbox effect applied to the IK null. Toggle the checkbox to flip the IK direction."
I am new to all of this and I am having issues. I am following the tutorial and I have selected right arm and I click "pins to nulls" and nothing happens. Can anyone help?
Thanks for picking up the script. I'll do my best to help you get things working. Have you already placed pins on the the right arm artwork layer? If not, do that first then try running script.
If nothing happens, try restarting AE and re-launching the script.
Everytime I try converting my pins to nulls, my artwork relocates to the top left corner of the composition and disregards the hierarchy I've established.
Is this a bug or something else I'm doing incorrectly?
I see you've already answered a similar question, but I still can't figure it out.
I need to parent a rigged arm to a rigged torso (each on different layers) but when the torso moves, the arm stays in place instead of following it. Both the arm and the torso are using IK.
I could try using the offset null, but it seems that after I turn the rig into an IK rig, the offset null stops working.
What can I do here? Thanks in advance for the help!
EDIT: I've managed to get the offset null to work with an IK rig (had to parent the controller null and the one on the opposite end to the offset null) but I still can't figure out how to make the shoulder stay where it should when I move the torso with the IK controller
Thanks for the kind words; glad to hear the script is working well for you.
It sounds like you've figured out a solution, but for the sake of posterity, here's how I usually set up something like this:
1. Set up the Arm IK
2. Set up the Torso IK
3. Parent Arm Shoulder Controller to the top most torso null (e.g. chest or neck)
At this point, if you move the torso the arm will be kind of point constrained to it, but is disembodied if pulled too far.
The way IK works is that the end of the chain (our Wrist in this case) drives the motion. So when posing your character you want to move the torso where it needs to be and then position the Wrist null to pop the arm back into place.
This set up keeps limb lengths consistent so they don't stretch.
I'm unable to find much difference via product descriptions as to what makes your product different from DUIK, which is free. What makes yours the $40 alternative that's worth paying the money for?
Good question. It essentially boils down to budget and preference, but – in my opinion – the workflow in Puppet Tools 3 is very streamlined compared to DUIK.
Thanks!
Claire
just noticed another weird thing (the 2nd and 3rd screenshot) – when working zoomed out the girls arm seems to be in the right place, but when zooming in, it's somewhere else.
@Greg - sorry if you have all ready answered in another discussion, but what plans do you have for AE CC (2014) compability ?
Thanks in advance
Jens
I am using AE CC 12.1
As a feature-request I would like to see the ability to add nulls to pins on parented objects. Right now the null is placed somewhere else, i guess somewhat related to the position in Comp space if the object wouldn't be parented. Really messes up your rig.
I know you can avoid it with planning you rig but I sometimes run into situations where using an IK Rig wasn't planned (clients...!) and then i have to unparent and reparent everything hoping some wiggle-expressions wont mess up every alignment I took care of.
Anyway, LOVE your script! Keep up the good work!
Should it work with scaling?
Npos = N.toWorld(N.anchorPoint);
--- ok i found the solution: " there is a Flip IK checkbox effect applied to the IK null. Toggle the checkbox to flip the IK direction."
Hello,
I am new to all of this and I am having issues. I am following the tutorial and I have selected right arm and I click "pins to nulls" and nothing happens. Can anyone help?
Thanks.
What can I do here?
Thanks in advance for the help!
EDIT: I've managed to get the offset null to work with an IK rig (had to parent the controller null and the one on the opposite end to the offset null) but I still can't figure out how to make the shoulder stay where it should when I move the torso with the IK controller
Thanks again and keep up the great work!