Joysticks 'n Sliders

The industry standard pose-based rigging system for After Effects with limitless applications.

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Description

Joysticks 'n Sliders is a pose-based rigging system for After Effects with limitless applications.

Joystick controllers are commonly used in 3D character rigging for facial animation. With this tool, you simply set five consecutive keyframes to represent your origin, right, left, top, and bottom extremes. With those layers selected, you can instantly create a joystick controller on the stage that will interpolate between those extremes appropriately.

Joysticks and Sliders is such a joy to use. I’m really excited to see a tool that lets you skip so many complicated parts of rigging so you get down to animating. Highly recommended! -
Adam Plouff (battleaxe.co)
wow-
Andrew M.
Animated Mouth Dancing Hipster Stair Animation Cube animation using Sliders

For many characters, you may want to have replaceable parts like mouth packs for different angles. Joysticks 'n Sliders lets you create a Switch Template to help you automate the swapping of those assets according to your joystick's position.

Sliders are similar in setup to Joysticks. While sliders may feel more technical than joysticks for controlling your animation, they can be much more powerful. Unlike joysticks, there is no limit to how many poses you can create with your layers. Additionally, you can mix them together in any way you wish. This is great for rigging hands, eyes, mouths, or even a set of poses for the entire body of a character. It can even be used for motion graphics and abstract animation.

Joysticks 'n Sliders works great with puppet pins, Limber, BAO Bones, PuppetTools, DUIK, and Rubber Hose. Add it to your rigging arsenal today!

More Joysticks 'n Sliders Tutorials and Process Breakdowns

See what people are making with Joysticks 'n Sliders.

Trial Limitations

The trial version lasts for 7 days, limits you to four sliders per Slider Null, and disables the ability to move your controllers to a parent composition.

Known Issues

Joysticks n Sliders 1.7.5 is not working for After Effects CS6. Currently working on a bugfix to restore compatibility

Free Downloads

Discussions

Want to talk about it?

Head over to r/aescripts to chat with fellow users about this product.

Need Support?

Please open a support ticket to be connected directly with the author of this product

Version History

1.7.12 -

Nov 9, 2025

Fix for online activation connection issues
Updated license framework to v4.4.1

1.7.11 -

Nov 3, 2024

- Fix for moving Parent comp Joystick to Child with separated dimensions

- Updated license framework to v4.3.1

- Fix for local license activation when license server is configured

- Fix for -38 license deactivation error

- Fix -6 activation error

1.7.10 -

May 16, 2023

- Bugfix for AE 23.4 and UISliders.

- Update licensing framework to 4.1.4

1.7.9 -

Sep 17, 2022

- Update licensing framework to 4.1.3

- Fix jsxbin naming typo

1.7.8 -

Aug 14, 2022

- Update licensing framework to 4.1.1

1.7.7 -

Feb 28, 2022

- bugfix/slider rigging bug fixed

1.7.6 -

Feb 27, 2022

- Updated licensing framework (4.0.3)

- bugfix/ error parsing layer names with square brackets.

1.7.5 -

Aug 23, 2020

Updated licensing framework (3.0.48)

1.7.4 -

Nov 14, 2019

Updated licensing framework

1.7.3 -

Sep 7, 2019

Updated licensing framework for MacOS 10.15 Catalina



Error checks for rigging of shapes with inconsistent vertex count

1.7.2 -

May 31, 2019

Fixed bug alt-unbinding selected layers if layers contained rigged pathshapes.



Added support for binding/unbinding individual properties.



fixed a dropdown refreshing bug for CC2014 users.



Fixed a bug failing move to parent or child if Origin layer is locked.

1.7.1 -

Feb 20, 2019

Fixed a bug that prevented creating UI sliders.



Fixed bug moving joysticks to child comp when no animation present



updated licensing framework

1.7 -

Feb 15, 2019

BIG speed boost in path shape expression performance.



Move Joystick to parent works with separated dimensions, also works when Joystick Origin is parented.



Error handling to avoid naming conflicts.



rigs with controls moved to parent now work with BodyMovin'.



1.6.71 -

Oct 21, 2018

Fixed a bug with sliders and path rigging.

1.6.7 -

Oct 18, 2018

Updated expressions to work with the new Javascript Engine in CC2019

1.6.6 -

Aug 15, 2018

fixed a bug that was causing errors for some users on first launch.

1.6.5 -

Jun 11, 2018

Fixed another bug for cs6 users.

1.6.4 -

Apr 23, 2018

updated licensing framework,

Trial period lasts 7 days instead of 14.

1.6.3 -

Mar 13, 2018

Icon image loading bug fixed for cs6 versions of After Effects.

1.6.2 -

Feb 26, 2018

Fixed a Move to Parent dropdown refresh bug in AE v.12

1.6.1 -

Feb 18, 2018

bug fix for unbinding individual layers from a controller.

Nicer alerts and prompts.

No assets folder required for installation

1.6 -

Oct 11, 2017

Expressions allow real-time shape rigs when used in CC2018

1.5.1 -

May 11, 2017

-Bugs fixed for users running After Effects CS6. EaseBias now works with CS6.

1.5 -

Mar 12, 2017

- Brand new UI layout

- Control your joystick interpolations with EaseBias

- Speed up your path shape rigging with the Path Flipper.

- Move your controllers back to their child comps with Move to Child

- Export your animation to html5 with BodyMovin'

1.2.2 -

Nov 18, 2016

Fixed a small bug with updating pathshapes in comps with other nested offset precomps.

1.2.1 -

Aug 6, 2016

Fixed small bug on first-time registration

Some improved error handling for checking correct installation.

1.2 -

Jun 11, 2016

Update PathShapes now updates paths indirectly controlled by selected controller like a path controlled by sliders which are controlled by a joystick.

1.1.1 -

Mar 31, 2016

Fixed a bug that prevented joystick rigging in comps with certain frame rates.

1.1 -

Mar 15, 2016

Added Path shape rigging. Made inverse posing default for Sliders

1.0.1 -

Mar 2, 2016

Fixed some issues with CS6 compatibility

1.0 -

Feb 9, 2016

Initial release

Compatibility

After Effects

2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, CC 2019, CC 2018, CC 2017, CC 2015.3, CC 2015, CC 2014, CC

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Updated: Oct 21, 2025 1:35 AM