This class can be a great intro to character animation, or a perfect way to practice intermediate After Effects skills.
Character animation can be a powerful storytelling tool to help viewers picture themselves in the character’s shoes and relate your message to their own life. Yet animating characters can be time-consuming, especially when you add in the time it can take to rig them.
In this class, I’ll show you my go-to tool for efficient, custom character rigs: Limber
Limber is an After Effects add-on that allows you to quickly create flexible, shape-based limbs. It has all the necessary features like the ability to create custom limbs using your own artwork, auto-rotate hands, and seamlessly switch between animating in IK and FK (Not sure what that means? That's okay, it's explained in class!). Plus, it’s compact, not overly complicated, and easy to learn.
You’ll be able to follow along with the class with the free version of Limber, called Limber Lite, and by doing so you can decide if it’s a tool you want to invest in.
By the end of this class, you'll be able to:
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Pre-recorded videos allow you to play, pause, and practice at your own pace.
17 Lessons (1h 13m)
Girl Biking Illustrator Project File
Use this file to jump into After Effects right away, or use it as a guide to create your own illustration.
This class is for 2D animators who are comfortable in After Effects and, ideally, have a basic familiarity with character rigging and animation.
You should know:
Need to learn more about these concepts? Check out some of my other classes:
Successfully completing this class requires a computer or laptop with:
...and I’m an explanimator. I have over a decade of professional experience writing, illustrating, and animating educational animations.
I've taught motion design to 40,000+ students on online and at the University of Colorado.
I know where beginners get stuck, because I was stuck there too. I’m a self-taught motion designer, striving to help you learn motion design more efficiently than I did.
I write, illustrate, and animate educational animations to empower healthier choices for us and our planet.
I also share what I know about animation through online classes.
This class is beyond helpful for anyone who is looking to get into character animation in After Effects using Illustrator files. I just purchased Limber and this is the perfect tutorial there is! Megan is an engaging teacher and she really explains in details every step there is from character import into After effects to proper rigging. I would advise this course for someone already advanced in After Effects who knows his/her way around shortcuts and controls on the interface. Thank you for this course. I'll be taking every course you make from now on!
Timothee R.
This is such a wonderful introductory class for Limber. Loved the Limber 101 video which is a high-level overview of the differences between Limber, Rubberhose and DUIK. Very helpful to someone like myself who has been trying to learn AE animation on their own. Well that is, until I found great teachers like Megan, Jake Bartlett and some others on SkillShare. The Limber portion of the course consists of adding the biker's legs and arms to the animation. Quick and very easy! I can see why Limber is Megan's go-to rigging tool for custom character rigs. I love it! The secondary animation portion of the course was outstanding! Learning how to add keyframe values to the pedal counter rotation expression was beyond cool. What a powerful and yet simple technique! Other eye-opening techniques, for me at least, included, but not limited to, using Create Null from Paths for the bouncing basket, the Wave Warp Effect for the ponytail and dog ears and the Ripple Effect for biker's shirt. And yes, I did watch the bonus video on YouTube for the parallax background effect. All good stuff! Thanks Megan for sharing!!! And one more thing: get Overlord!!! It's amazing for workflow improvement!
Geoffrey W.
If you want to learn rigging using limber and first time on Ae. This class is perfect. I get to understand how to use the tools and instruction was clear and details.
Sim
Get unlimited, lifetime access to this class. Watch anytime, at your own pace.
