Handy Hands
  • Sean CussonSean Cusson
    This is a great purchase. Bought it instantly. The only thing is that I wish there was a way to add a stroke/outline in between the fingers like in the pose icons. For example, an option to add a second stroke to each finger with a slightly thinner value so the back stroke could act as an outline.  
  • Alfie DawesAlfie Dawes
    Sean Cusson said:
    This is a great purchase. Bought it instantly. The only thing is that I wish there was a way to add a stroke/outline in between the fingers like in the pose icons. For example, an option to add a second stroke to each finger with a slightly thinner value so the back stroke could act as an outline.  
    Hi Sean - thanks for purchasing Handy Hands and for your feedback.

    You're right - different styles like stroked hands is something that I think a lot of people would benefit from. I looked into adding this before release, but it has been difficult to find an elegant solution that works with the other features (mainly the Y rotate).

    I'm not ruling it out though, and I'll bear your feedback in mind when developing features for future releases.
  • Sean CussonSean Cusson
    Alfie Dawes said:
    Sean Cusson said:
    This is a great purchase. Bought it instantly. The only thing is that I wish there was a way to add a stroke/outline in between the fingers like in the pose icons. For example, an option to add a second stroke to each finger with a slightly thinner value so the back stroke could act as an outline.  
    Hi Sean - thanks for purchasing Handy Hands and for your feedback.

    You're right - different styles like stroked hands is something that I think a lot of people would benefit from. I looked into adding this before release, but it has been difficult to find an elegant solution that works with the other features (mainly the Y rotate).

    I'm not ruling it out though, and I'll bear your feedback in mind when developing features for future releases.
    Awesome. Please let me know if you ever need a beta tester. I work from home so I'm always around to test stuff.
  • Kim KebernikKim Kebernik
    I would love to see this with feet and shoes too :D
  • Arno JEGUArno JEGU
    Hi,
    I bought it but It does not appear in extensions in CC2020 !
  • Alfie DawesAlfie Dawes
    Arno JEGU said:
    Hi,
    I bought it but It does not appear in extensions in CC2020 !
    Hi Arno,

    I'm really sorry you're having trouble with Handy Hands - would you be able to open a support ticket with this in from the contact page?

    It would be great to know what specific version number you're on if you could check in Help>About After Effects...(Windows) or After Effects>About After Effects... (Mac)
  • Lloyd AlvarezLloyd Alvarez
    Arno JEGU said:
    Hi,
    I bought it but It does not appear in extensions in CC2020 !

    please see the faq: https://aescripts.com/knowledgebase/index/view/faq/zxp-cep-extension-won-t-open/
  • Frank KongoFrank Kongo
    Hello. Looks great, but can we taper the width of the fingers? Make it a little thinner at the end, I mean, for more natural look.
  • Alfie DawesAlfie Dawes
    Frank Kongo said:
    Hello. Looks great, but can we taper the width of the fingers? Make it a little thinner at the end, I mean, for more natural look.
    Hi Frank. Sorry, that's not currently a feature. A new tab to add a few different styles of hands is in the works though, and this would be a great addition that could be easily added. Keep an eye out for an update!
  • Sean KimberSean Kimber
    We got this script at work, and I absolutely love it. Such a great time saver! I did have a couple of suggestions, though.
    1. Would it be possible to be able to choose the number of fingers? The characters I'm currently working with have 3 fingers, but there really isn't an easy way to do that with the script as it currently stands. If we had the ability to choose the number of fingers, that would be hugely helpful.

    2. When changing the finger width, would it be possible to only affect the fingers? Right now, it's affecting the palm's width, too. And, in some cases I want to only affect the width of the fingers while keeping the palm as it is.

    Thanks!
  • Alfie DawesAlfie Dawes
    Sean Kimber said:
    We got this script at work, and I absolutely love it. Such a great time saver! I did have a couple of suggestions, though.
    1. Would it be possible to be able to choose the number of fingers? The characters I'm currently working with have 3 fingers, but there really isn't an easy way to do that with the script as it currently stands. If we had the ability to choose the number of fingers, that would be hugely helpful.

    2. When changing the finger width, would it be possible to only affect the fingers? Right now, it's affecting the palm's width, too. And, in some cases I want to only affect the width of the fingers while keeping the palm as it is.

    Thanks!
    Thanks for the feedback Sean!

    I should be able to make a version with 3 fingers. I'll bear it in mind - maybe that could be a style option also.

    Quick question about #2 - You're right, I made the palm width just fit the width of all the fingers added together. Were you looking to achieve something with gaps between the fingers? Or perhaps if I added Frank's suggestion above to taper fingers, so you could have thinner tips but keep the finger bases the width of the palm?
  • Sean KimberSean Kimber
    Alfie Dawes said:
    Sean Kimber said:
    We got this script at work, and I absolutely love it. Such a great time saver! I did have a couple of suggestions, though.
    1. Would it be possible to be able to choose the number of fingers? The characters I'm currently working with have 3 fingers, but there really isn't an easy way to do that with the script as it currently stands. If we had the ability to choose the number of fingers, that would be hugely helpful.

    2. When changing the finger width, would it be possible to only affect the fingers? Right now, it's affecting the palm's width, too. And, in some cases I want to only affect the width of the fingers while keeping the palm as it is.

    Thanks!
    Thanks for the feedback Sean!

    I should be able to make a version with 3 fingers. I'll bear it in mind - maybe that could be a style option also.

    Quick question about #2 - You're right, I made the palm width just fit the width of all the fingers added together. Were you looking to achieve something with gaps between the fingers? Or perhaps if I added Frank's suggestion above to taper fingers, so you could have thinner tips but keep the finger bases the width of the palm?
    Thanks for the quick response! I think with my first suggestion, having 1, 2, or 3 as an option would be cool. But either way, it would  be hugely helpful.

    As for number 2, the taper thing might work. But, when I was working with the script, I had some characters where I liked the size of the palm but thought their fingers were a little too wide. (I had already added the spread). But when I tried to narrow the fingers, it narrowed the whole hand, which wasn't what I was looking for. I realize that the way it works now makes things more realistic, but for some styles, it might be great to be able to exaggerate or mess with the proportions a bit. Maybe it's a simple checkbox that gives the option to have the palm's width change with the fingers' widths?

    Again, love the script overall. It's been a huge timesaver.
  • Frank KongoFrank Kongo
    Hello again, Alfie. Hope you keeps working on, that plugin looks totally awesome. Can't wait for update to finally add it to my cart )
    Yes, I know, the name of the plugin consist SIMPLE word two times... But there is one more thing i wish you to add in new version. To make fingers slightly bend backwards, when hand fully opened. About 30 degrees at joint, connected to the palm, it will be anough. Optionally, for sure, but it will make hand to look not so "robotic". In another words, you can just open your hand and look at what's happening with fingers.
    Best wishes and keep going!
  • Eric BurnettEric Burnett
    Hi Alfie, I bought this recently and have really enjoyed it already! Just making a quick animation with it I thought of a couple things that I think would be amazing to have included. It would be great to have a quick way to create an opposite hand with all the same settings as one I have already made. I saw that flipping right and left is as easy as either 100 or -100 on the x scale on the shape group. Duplicating the layer and adjusting that was easy enough but having a built in tool for that would be a fantastic addition to this package.

    I saw I'm not the first to bring it up but an outline feature would be great as well. I was able to get something together that worked for me by duplicating the Handy group in the shape layer and hooking up a new slider control to add a consistent amount to all the strokes. This worked perfect with all the other features but as you've pointed out the Y rotation doesn't play well with simple outline set ups. I would be happy to talk more about the set up but I'm sure you have something in the works that is even better, you did make this wonderful tool after all! 

    Thanks for releasing this awesome plug in and I look forward to any updates!
  • Alfie DawesAlfie Dawes
    Frank Kongo said:
    Hello again, Alfie. Hope you keeps working on, that plugin looks totally awesome. Can't wait for update to finally add it to my cart ) Yes, I know, the name of the plugin consist SIMPLE word two times... But there is one more thing i wish you to add in new version. To make fingers slightly bend backwards, when hand fully opened. About 30 degrees at joint, connected to the palm, it will be anough. Optionally, for sure, but it will make hand to look not so "robotic". In another words, you can just open your hand and look at what's happening with fingers. Best wishes and keep going!
    Cheers Frank! Yep, another good idea - I'll add it to the to-do list!

    Eric Burnett said:
    Hi Alfie, I bought this recently and have really enjoyed it already! Just making a quick animation with it I thought of a couple things that I think would be amazing to have included. It would be great to have a quick way to create an opposite hand with all the same settings as one I have already made. I saw that flipping right and left is as easy as either 100 or -100 on the x scale on the shape group. Duplicating the layer and adjusting that was easy enough but having a built in tool for that would be a fantastic addition to this package.

    I saw I'm not the first to bring it up but an outline feature would be great as well. I was able to get something together that worked for me by duplicating the Handy group in the shape layer and hooking up a new slider control to add a consistent amount to all the strokes. This worked perfect with all the other features but as you've pointed out the Y rotation doesn't play well with simple outline set ups. I would be happy to talk more about the set up but I'm sure you have something in the works that is even better, you did make this wonderful tool after all! 

    Thanks for releasing this awesome plug in and I look forward to any updates!

    Thanks Eric - Glad you're getting good use out of it!

    You're right - I have similar annoyances with creating seconds hands. It currently does copy across the customisation options when you create a new hand when one is selected, but I think it would be useful if it copied the current scale and pose of that hand also. Good idea.

    Your solution sounds pretty good for stroked hands! You're right, I have been working on this and it's about 80% of the way there. I'm knees deep in animation work currently, but I'll be working to get this finished the first chance I get - super excited about it.
  • Joel IbbetsonJoel Ibbetson
    Hi Alfie,

    I have drawn a bunch of characters in Illustrator with a slight roughen effect on the stroke to make it look a bit hand drawn.

    It would be great if your product worked with files like this or png's. Any chance of that being in pipeline?

    Rock on,
    Joel
  • Alfie DawesAlfie Dawes
    Joel Ibbetson said:
    Hi Alfie,

    I have drawn a bunch of characters in Illustrator with a slight roughen effect on the stroke to make it look a bit hand drawn.

    It would be great if your product worked with files like this or png's. Any chance of that being in pipeline?

    Rock on,
    Joel
    Hey Joel,

    Would applying an effect to the hand in AE work? When working to a hand drawn style I normally use a combination of the Turbulent Displace, Roughen Edges, and Posterize Time effects.

    I'll normally apply these to an adjustment layer over my whole animation, and add an expression to the evolution or offset properties to give a boiling effect.

    Here's an example:

    image
  • Ilya GusinskiIlya Gusinski
    Hi Alfie - I love the rig! very clever! and lottie compatible too! I was wondering though - if you use your rig as the bone structure and add parametric rounded trapezoids (using the create path expression you can control all of the parameters, then you can create a rig that is certainly hevier, but it'd allow to manipulate each strokes stacking order and individual finger color so that you can have a more traditional look where you can see fingers separately, have outlines, etc... I'd love to have a chat - I think I might have some ideas on how to solve the issue with outlines... let me know if you'd like to connect
     
  • Steve MillerSteve Miller
    Hi Alfie,

    I just downloaded the "try" and I am wondering if there is a way to modify the path of the wrist/palm so it can fit under a sleeve without having an "arm" to attach it to.
    Either way, I am probably going to buy, it definitely has its uses for me!
  • Alfie DawesAlfie Dawes
    Ilya Gusinski said:
    Hi Alfie - I love the rig! very clever! and lottie compatible too! I was wondering though - if you use your rig as the bone structure and add parametric rounded trapezoids (using the create path expression you can control all of the parameters, then you can create a rig that is certainly hevier, but it'd allow to manipulate each strokes stacking order and individual finger color so that you can have a more traditional look where you can see fingers separately, have outlines, etc... I'd love to have a chat - I think I might have some ideas on how to solve the issue with outlines... let me know if you'd like to connect
     
    Hey Ilya,

    I'm certainly open to any ideas! The main difficulties with the stroked hands is definitely the stacking order, and also things like where the thumb meets the hand.

    I do have a stroked hand rig currently that I hope to release in the next few weeks, but it's not without it's faults - it isn't quite right in every pose from every angle, and it is much slower than the standard hand. I do also have another idea that I'm keen to explore that might address some of these issues.
  • Alfie DawesAlfie Dawes
    Steve Miller said:
    Hi Alfie,

    I just downloaded the "try" and I am wondering if there is a way to modify the path of the wrist/palm so it can fit under a sleeve without having an "arm" to attach it to.
    Either way, I am probably going to buy, it definitely has its uses for me!
    Thanks Steve.

    I get what you mean - A little bit of wrist might be good in some cases if you could just tuck it under a sleeve, but it's not currently possible. It might be best to have this as another shape layer so you can still rotate the hand.

    The current options for customising the wrist/palm are:
    - Palm length: The length from the bottom of the fingers to the bottom of the hand
    - Wrist width: This is the depth of the wrist in the z direction with an unposed hand (more obvious at 90 degree Y rotation).
  • Sean CussonSean Cusson
    Alfie Dawes said:
    Ilya Gusinski said:
    Hi Alfie - I love the rig! very clever! and lottie compatible too! I was wondering though - if you use your rig as the bone structure and add parametric rounded trapezoids (using the create path expression you can control all of the parameters, then you can create a rig that is certainly hevier, but it'd allow to manipulate each strokes stacking order and individual finger color so that you can have a more traditional look where you can see fingers separately, have outlines, etc... I'd love to have a chat - I think I might have some ideas on how to solve the issue with outlines... let me know if you'd like to connect
     
    Hey Ilya,

    I'm certainly open to any ideas! The main difficulties with the stroked hands is definitely the stacking order, and also things like where the thumb meets the hand.

    I do have a stroked hand rig currently that I hope to release in the next few weeks, but it's not without it's faults - it isn't quite right in every pose from every angle, and it is much slower than the standard hand. I do also have another idea that I'm keen to explore that might address some of these issues.
    Oh man stroked or even different colored fingers would be great!
  • Tony SilvaTony Silva
    Hey Alfie, fun little plugin, thanks for making it.  
    Having a control for the thumb rotation would be helpful.  For instance if you rotate the palm 90 degrees toward the camera the thumb is in line with the hand, but in reality it would be more in a C shape.  I've been adding a separate slider that controls the rotation on the shape layer so it seems like an easy add on.
  • Ilya GusinskiIlya Gusinski
    Alfie Dawes said:
    Ilya Gusinski said:
    Hi Alfie - I love the rig! very clever! and lottie compatible too! I was wondering though - if you use your rig as the bone structure and add parametric rounded trapezoids (using the create path expression you can control all of the parameters, then you can create a rig that is certainly hevier, but it'd allow to manipulate each strokes stacking order and individual finger color so that you can have a more traditional look where you can see fingers separately, have outlines, etc... I'd love to have a chat - I think I might have some ideas on how to solve the issue with outlines... let me know if you'd like to connect
     
    Hey Ilya,

    I'm certainly open to any ideas! The main difficulties with the stroked hands is definitely the stacking order, and also things like where the thumb meets the hand.

    I do have a stroked hand rig currently that I hope to release in the next few weeks, but it's not without it's faults - it isn't quite right in every pose from every angle, and it is much slower than the standard hand. I do also have another idea that I'm keen to explore that might address some of these issues.
    so - you currently have a path for all 4 fingers at once - I think if you separate it into individual fingers it would be much easier to create outlines by stacking strokes... in terms of stacking - that would be a little trickier...
  • Tim ArmstrongTim Armstrong
    Hi,
    Does this let you 'spread' each finger individually? In the video every time the fingers move apart they all do it together.
    Just want to make sure i can get that classic.... "Index, gap, Middle+Ring(together) , gap Pinky" pose.
    At least im always going for that pose so be great to know thanks!
  • Alfie DawesAlfie Dawes
    Tim Armstrong said:
    Hi,
    Does this let you 'spread' each finger individually? In the video every time the fingers move apart they all do it together.
    Just want to make sure i can get that classic.... "Index, gap, Middle+Ring(together) , gap Pinky" pose.
    At least im always going for that pose so be great to know thanks!
    Hi Tim,

    For simplicity I've linked the spread together so I don't think the pose you describe is possible if all fingers are outstretched, but I'll consider this for the future.

    Best,

    Alfie
  • Heather McNabbHeather McNabb
    Hi Alfie! Thanks for the great script!
    I will be using it a lot.

    I did want to put in another vote for a "# of fingers" selection option in future versions.
    3 fingers + a thumb is a pretty standard character design I run into a lot.

    Thanks again for this!

  • Luis Ozonas FerrerLuis Ozonas Ferrer
    Hi, gotta say first, great job!
    Now I need more reallistic hands, so I've been touching the stroke with taper and wave values. But just to save time, my question is: Is there a way to tune strokes to get a real hand form? have you tried already? If not, are you thinking to release a rellistic version soon? I'm so interested

    Thanks in advance

    Best
    Luis
  • Reda IzoReda Izo
    Is it possible to beta test if a version to add thin stroke to the finger to make them more noticable and not blended together, is available ? Or how i can i approach DIY it myself? 
  • Alfie DawesAlfie Dawes
    Luis Ozonas Ferrer said:
    Hi, gotta say first, great job!
    Now I need more reallistic hands, so I've been touching the stroke with taper and wave values. But just to save time, my question is: Is there a way to tune strokes to get a real hand form? have you tried already? If not, are you thinking to release a rellistic version soon? I'm so interested

    Thanks in advance

    Best
    Luis
    Hey Luis - Sorry, this is a really slow response! I have a version in development that does have the function to add different styles. Sorry it's been delayed for so long - I've never been quite happy with the stroked hand rig which has made me reluctant to release anything, but I do have some time set out in the next few weeks to potentially add an update for Handy Hands if I get it to a point I think it's usable.
  • Alfie DawesAlfie Dawes
    Reda Izoukannane said:
    Is it possible to beta test if a version to add thin stroke to the finger to make them more noticable and not blended together, is available ? Or how i can i approach DIY it myself? 
    Hey Reda - I've not released anything with stroked hands yet as I was never really happy with the rig. It's still a little bit buggy and is very slow, however if you want to check it out please open a support ticket on the contact page, making sure to put Handy Hands in the product field and I'll send you over a link. This invitation is also open to anyone else who wants to test that rig also.
  • Kenneth MariaKenneth Maria
    omegle said: This is a great purchase. Bought it instantly. The only thing is that I wish there was a way to add a stroke/outline in between the fingers like in the pose icons. For example, an option to add a second stroke to each finger with a slightly thinner value so the backstroke could act as an outline.
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