After Effects region of interest

Daniel Gies has created a deep and detailed series of videos about rigging and animating a character in After Effects.

Here’s a 5-minute overview of the series:

This series is for intermediate and advanced users of After Effects; it moves rather quickly and assumes that the viewer already knows the basics of how to work with layers, properties, effects, and expressions. (If you don’t, then start here.) Also, the series does not walk the user through a set of steps to create a specific result; rather, it teaches principles and techniques that experienced users will be able to adapt and make use of in their own work.

The high points of the series include in-depth use of expressions, inverse kinematics (using the wonderful Duik script), the Puppet tools, and FreeForm Pro.

The series is broken up into pieces that are between 5 and 20 minutes, with the whole being around three hours. Here’s a link to part 1 on the AETUTS+ website, where you can also find links to the other parts.

Rich Young has mentioned Daniel’s series a couple of times already in his articles, including in this excellent roundup of character animation resources.

Adobe is inviting you to participate in the Adobe Reel Challenge.

If you don’t already have Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium or Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5, we invite you to download the free 30-day trial version (or go ahead and buy the full version).

Once you have the software, check out the resources for learning Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, as well as resources from Carey Dissmore specifically tailored to give you what you need to edit your demo reel with Adobe Premiere Pro.

When you’re finished, you can upload your demo reel for others to see on the Adobe Reel Challenge group page on Vimeo.