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Blacklabel24
Blacklabel24
Inspiring
October 8, 2018
Question

Puppet Tool Help! New Starch

  • October 8, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 2488 views

Hi. Am I missing something here.

AE 2018- using the puppet pin. In older versions when I click a new starch point it would show me the extent in red triangles and give me an extent option in the top bar.

Now there is nothing?

Still says expansion and density at the top.

The mesh used to also be highlighted in orange and isn't anymore?

This is probably something simple that I am just not seeing in this new advance version. can someone help

CHeers

    1 reply

    D
    David Arbor
    Inspiring
    October 8, 2018

    You're correct, the new Advanced engine definitely operates differently. You can see a comparison of the Legacy vs Advanced features here: Animating with Puppet tools in After Effects

    The Expansion and Density options are for the mesh only. Click the "Show Mesh" checkbox and to see those in action.

    If you still want the old starch pins then you can switch to the Legacy engine, but see if you can accomplish what you're looking for by thinking about the pins differently. Rather than controlling the extent, maybe you just need to make another starch pin. You can also adjust the "Mesh Rotation Refinement" parameter in the Effects Controls panel.

    One of my favorite features of the new engine is the ability to switch the type of pin in the Timeline, which is something I used to wish I could do, but depending on the type of animation you're doing, the Legacy one might be better. For example, when character rigging with Duik it's recommended that you still use the legacy engine. However, for other non-character related things, the new engine does give a nicer, smoother deformation.

    As for the highlighted mesh, I go back and forth. I liked the yellow mesh because it was noticeable, but it was also very distracting, so I turned it off a lot. I find the new color less intrusive.

    Blacklabel24
    Blacklabel24Author
    Inspiring
    October 9, 2018

    Thanks David.

    The part I am still having trouble with is the starch points. Simple robot arm.

    I have puppet pins at the joints and starch points along the arms segments however regardless of how many starch points I have it still bends and without the parameters in increasing stiffness i'm a little lost. I'm all for the update and want to roll with the advanced mode but it just seems lacking in the feature to increase stiffness?

      D
      David Arbor
      Inspiring
      October 9, 2018

      The Legacy mode isn't going anywhere, and if it does certain things better, then I think you should stick with that. As I mentioned, Duik recommends using the Legacy mode for character rigging, and that's basically what you're doing here, even if you're not creating an IK chain. Alternatively, you could split the art and make a jointed rig that actually pivots in the center, rather than bends.

      I'm hoping that there are more improvements to the Advanced Puppet Engine coming soon. This new version was adapted from the new one Illustrator got last year, which has even more features, so hopefully the AE team will continue to enhance this tool.

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