Character Swing Rigging
All software comes with limitations. Character swing rigging deals with the limitation of secondary animation within After Effects. It’s a tool that users can install giving them the ability to add advance swinging animations to their motion design work with very little effort.
UI Design
The UI has to be functional, clear, and fit in with the standard After Effects interface. To do this I designed the interface around the 2018 Adobe CC interface, using darker colours for the background and white for the buttons I’m able to create a clear contrast for buttons. I also followed the natural progression from top to bottom in the stages a user would use the tool to complete a task.
Getting it all to work.
The swinging motion is created using complex expressions that power animations for you. After Effects doesn’t understand what gravity is, this means we have to simulate it.
Reversing a swing is also important. After Effects doesn’t understand which direction you may be wanting the swing go. Instead of having to limit your animations we can reverse the swing entirely.
I went one further by adding a wind simulator to the tool. This allows you to add a wind effect to your layers making it easier for you to get a more natural movement.
