Adobe 65008009 - After Effects CS4 Using Manual page 262

Last updated 12/21/2009
Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on the
Puppet Pin tool.
Richard Harrington provides a pair of video tutorials that show how to prepare an image in Photoshop for animation
in After Effects with the Puppet tools:
•
Part 1
•
Part 2
Manually animate an image with the Puppet tools
The stopwatch switch is automatically set for the Position property of a Deform pin as soon as the pin is created.
Therefore, a keyframe is set or modified each time that you change the position of a Deform pin. This auto-keyframing
is unlike most properties in After Effects, for which you must explicitly set the stopwatch switch by adding a keyframe
or an expression to animate each property. The auto-animation of Deform pins makes it convenient to add them and
animate them in the Composition panel or Layer panel, without manipulating the properties in the Timeline panel.
1 Select the layer that contains the image to animate.
Using the Puppet Pin tool
2
• Click any nontransparent pixel of a raster layer to apply the Puppet effect and create a mesh for the outline created
by auto-tracing the alpha channel of a layer.
• Click within a closed path on a vector layer to apply the Puppet effect and create a mesh for the outline defined by
that path.
• Click within a closed, unlocked mask to apply the Puppet effect and create a mesh for the outline defined by the
mask path.
• Click outside all closed paths on a vector layer to apply the Puppet effect without creating a mesh. Outlines are
created for paths on the layer, though an outline is only visible when a Puppet tool pointer is over the area that the
outline defines. Place the pointer over the area enclosed by a path to see the outline in which a mesh will be created
if you click that point. (See
a mesh.
A Deform pin is placed where you clicked to create the mesh.
Note: If an image is too complex for the Puppet effect to generate a mesh with the current Triangle value, a "Mesh
Generation Failed" message appears in the Info panel. Increase the Triangle value in the Tools panel and try again.
Click in one or more places within the outline to add more Deform pins.
3
Use as few pins as possible to achieve your desired result. The natural deformation provided by the Puppet effect can
be lost if you over-constrain the image. Just add pins to the parts of the figure that you know that you want to control.
For example, when animating a person waving, add a pin to each foot to hold them to the ground, and add a pin to the
waving hand.
Go to another time in the composition, and move the position of one or more of the Deform pins by dragging them
4
in the Composition or Layer panel with the Puppet Pin tool. Repeat this step until you have completed your
animation.
You can modify the motion paths of the Deform pins using the same techniques that you use to modify any other
motion paths.
Creative COW website
, do one of the following in the Composition panel or the Layer panel:
"How the Puppet effect creates
that shows how to duplicate an object using the
outlines" on page 258.) Click within an outline to create
256
USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Animation and keyframes