March 13, 2009

Inverse kinematics script for After Effects + update

[Update: Some of the links in this AEP post maybe broken but you can route through the new website for Duik Tools.]

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Via Sebastien Perier, a top contributor to After Effects Community Help, is DuDuF IK Tools for After Effects, a free script that does Inverse Kinematics (IK). The script is from Duik Tools, a website in French (English translation).

Sebastien says it seems pretty decent, and that you can even add bones to puppet pins. For specifics see the Overview and Help sections.

Update: nabscripts from Charles Bordenave has a good number of expressions and scripts (English package download and French), and he even has a script to help you translate expressions. It translates expression controls names in the language of the running version (supports English, French, German, Italian and Spanish).

Update 2: A commenter noted Dan Ebberts and Brian Maffitt's techniques for IK using expressions; see Dan's Inverse Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics Redux. Ko Maruyama also had sections on IK and the Puppet Tool in his Total Training set. Also, you can see Adobe's implementation of IK in Flash CS4 in an AdobeTV clip.

Update 3: A new version was posted 15 March 2009 (changelog); also, it's now distributed under the under the GNU General Public License.Update 4: Everything is supposed to be translated into English now.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the kind words Rich.

I've played around the script, and it's really great stuff. Please feel free to make a donation or leave a message to the author of the script :)

Unknown said...

Cool - thanks for the info. I've used Dan Ebberts techniques in the past for stuff like this but it will be nice to have a script that takes care of some of the heavy lifting. Looking forward to trying it out.

Unknown said...

Hey,
Would love to know if this script worked out well ??? I've tried to download it from the French site but found it all too confusing. Hopefully, someone can do a thorough English translation and market this tool as a great addition to the Puppet tool. As an animator I know I'd love to have 'bones' in AE.
Here's to the future :)

Rich said...

Did you find the English versions?

I just posted an update, but most the old links all seem broken now!

Unknown said...

Just an update.
There is now an English version of the site and instructions on how to use the script, plus a couple of tutorials. This script is AWESOME!!! Adobe should pay this guy for his genius and incorporate it (proper) into AE. After the animators out there realize what this can do they will LOVE After Effects all the more. I'm blown away by it, as is :)

Florian Baumann said...

hey guys!
have a look at what you can do with this script:

http://www.vimeo.com/20475259