Introduction to Puppet Tool in After Effects
The Puppet tool is used in Adobe After Effects to give animation to your images. After Effects has pins which are used to manipulate the animation controls by the user. After applying the Puppet effect, the image shape changes based on where you have added the pins. The complete animation of the image is controlled by the pin. You can add such pins to move a part of the image as you desire.
How to Use the Puppet Tool in After Effects?
Below in this article, we will discuss and learn how to use the Puppet tools in After Effects. Also, how to add animation effects into an image and enhance the design using the puppet tool in after effect.
Based on the placing and movement of the pins, the Puppet tool changes the structure of the image. These pins control the aspects of the images and decide what area of the picture moves, what remains solid and decides on the parts of the image in case of overlapping components. While creating the initial pin, the region within an outline is generated in the form of a triangular mesh. The outline will be visible once the puppet tool has been applied. The Puppet tool pointer will be on the part the outline lies. The mesh will be connected to the pixels of the image. Therefore, the pixels move while you select the puppet pointer.
There are different types of Puppet tools that can be used according to the users’ particular requirement:
1. The Puppet Pin Tool
Using the Puppet pin tool you can position the pins on the image to choose where the joints will be created. While trying to animate a character with hands and legs it’s recommended to place the pins on areas such as elbows, knees or any other body parts which are prone to motion you also have the option to control this Prince and even record your animations using the timeline window.
2. The Puppet Overlap Tool
While working with characters that are complex in nature, you might have encountered elements that can come into the way of the parts in which you are animating. Using the Puppet overlap tool, you can paint in-depth information on your character and inform Illustrator regarding the order in which the parts are rendered.
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How to Scale-up the Picture of a Bird?
The Puppet tool is effective when you want to add subtle animation effects to your image assets. Below is an example of how the image of a bird is animated to scale up.
Step 1: Choose an image for adding puppet tool in After Effects. For that open After Effects and go to File > Import> Choose the folder containing the image you want to work on.
Step 2: Now the image will be visible in the source panel. Next, simply drag down the image in the timeline section of the After Effects.
Right now the bird feels very static and lifeless. Using the Puppet tool I will apply some motions to the image.
Step 3: Select the Puppet tool from the pushpin icon available in the menu options. The first part comes where we have to add pins in the right place of the image. We will be able to move and wrap the image utilizing the pins applied to the image. You will have to remember that each time you click on the image, a new pin is generated which can be used to add soft links. This soft joints all links that can be employed to keep a part of an image from moving.
Step 4: Be careful while adding the pins in the key areas such as the beginning of the image, the middle section and all the important parts of the image which you will need to animate or move. After effects automatically add the keyframe on the newly added pins wherever the play head is at that point in time.
Step 5: I am placing the pins in areas such as the tips, joints in the middle, parts of the feather, the neck and head areas, and finally the tail area. After that, in the next frame, I will change the keyframe properties so as to have a slight animation effect with the bird trying to spread its wings. For, that I will change the pins associated with the feather region and pull and stretch to obtain the desired results.
Step 6: After making these changes on previewing it seems as if it works fine. However, the problem arises as the animation looks weird. You can fix this issue by easing out the frames. For that, you have to select all the deforming keyframes and right-click and pick the option Easy Ease.
Step 7: You can further use the curve editor to better smoothen the motion. For that use the shortcut key Shift + F3 to open the graph editor. Set the influence of the entire frame to about 50%. The output looks much better with a nice and smooth movement. This demonstrates the effect of the Puppet tool in creating slight and subtle animation like women which completely transformed the image. You can apply this effect anywhere you feel to add a little bit of motion and make the graphics a lot more interesting.
Conclusion – Puppet Tool in After Effects
The Puppet tool in After Effects allows you to transform static images into lively animations. Adding motions does not involve complex steps and you can do it easily once you learn using the puppet tool. Start trying out the new tool and create amazing artworks that really standouts.
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This is a guide to the Puppet Tool in After Effects. Here we discuss the Introduction to puppet tool in after effects along with steps to scale up the picture of a bird. You may also look at the following articles to learn more –
