Hi, thank you for your interest. The process is very simple, the template will auto rig the character for you. So you can design your character in Ai and then all you need to do is drag and drop the character image in it and it will do the rest. The only thing that you need to keep in mind is that the character has to fit within a specific frame, as the template will only work with the parts inside that frame. This is an image of the frame that it needs to fit within: https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4608/40082213662_d9f5cec617_o.jpg

(the image marked with a ’+’). The head can then be of any size and does not need to fit within the frame. Also, keep in mind that the built in Character Maker is quite versatile, so you can create new characters directly with it.

As for character turnaround, this feature is specific to the designs of the template and won’t be applied to your custom character.

Of course, if you would like more information you can send us a message through our profile page and we will be sure to help you out!

- Stephan

Hi, this is something that will need a bit of work from the animator’s side, as it depends on the type of animation you are doing. So basically you will need to tweak a bit the rig, in-order to make the legs appear in front when they are needed to be in front. In each animation there is the ‘Character’ layer, is should be at the bottom and highlighted in Blue. You will need to unlock this layer, and select it, then from the effect controls panel select the effect named ‘Puppet’. Then there is a tool named Puppet overlap tool, with this you can specify which areas you would like to be infront and which areas you would like to be at the back. I have found the following video which explains how to use this tool in a simple way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkr_I3TwAQA On the other hand, an easy way to go around this would be to find one of the premade animations in the toolkit, that has the limbs where you want them for your animation. Then, simply duplicate this animation, and remove all the keyframes from the rig, so you can use that rig and create your own animations.

That’s all I think. I hope you are enjoying using the toolkit!

That’s perfect, thank you. I’m comfortable using the puppet tool, just couldn’t find where it was being used.

That’s great then! Goodluck on your project!

Hi, thank you for your interest. Right now it does not have a tennis animation. That said you can construct your own character using the character maker features and if you are experienced in AE you can also add your own animations using the included character rig.

If you wish you can follow us on videohive, as we update the projects from time to time and might add different animations, etc. Thanks!

Hi, thank you for your message. To add more hairstyles you need to add them into After Effects, and not just the .ai file. It is best to create a new file and not use the current .ai file, as this can mess up the existing hairstyles. You can basically create any shape/ hairstyle into any software, and then save it as a png, or vector. Then you will need to import it in After Effects and place it in the specific Head Animation composition, you would like to use. So basically replace the current hairstyle in that composition with the new one.

Hope this is of help to you and that you are finding the toolkit very useful!

Hi, the toolkit is mostly based on character animations. Of course you can take the characters and put them in any other composition, with other animated elements that you create. The toolkit, does not have a scene with computer data flowing, but it has a computer graphic, so you can insert this in any composition and add your animation to create your own unique scenes.

Thank you for your message.

Below you will find some tips that should help you getting it up and running fast.

Have you unzipped/ extracted the file before opening it in After effects, as after effects is not able to read files from the zip file.

If this step was done, normally this problem is related to Quicktime player, which is sometimes required by after effects to read certain file formats. If you do not have this installed, you can download and install it for free directly from apple’s site: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL837?locale=en_GB .

This normally solves related problems, but of course, if it persists, get back to us so we can guide you to a solution.

Somehow it worked! i’m still missing the original files in the folders, but they appear in after effects. Awesome! thank you.

That’s great to hear. In the folder they are stacked within other files, so don’t worry about the folders themselves, these are then used by After Effects to extract the independent artworks from. Enjoy the product!

Hi, yes this is possible, each animation comes with its own rig. You can simply pick any handle and add new keyframes, or modify animation, etc. You can also build your own animation using the rig. Of course, you will need some animation and After Effects knowledge, etc

Hi, yes of course. Can you send me a few screenshots of the problem so I can check it out. You can send them to stephanzammit@neuronfx.com

Hi, thank you for your interest. The process is very simple, the template will auto rig the character for you, all you need to do is drag and drop the character image in it and it will do the rest. The only thing that you need to keep in mind is that the character has to fit within a specific frame, as the template will only work with the parts inside that frame. This is an image of the frame that it needs to fit within: https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4608/40082213662_d9f5cec617_o.jpg

(the image marked with a ’+’). The head can then be of any size and does not need to fit within the frame.

Of course, iff you would like more information you can send us a message through our profile page and we will be sure to help you out!

- Stephan

Thank you for your reply via email. Would it be possible to post a frame of my character against your template and get your opinion on whether it should work effectively? I have a designed a couple of differently proportioned characters which I’m hopeful might all be adapted to this template easily.

Many thanks.

Hi, yes of course. You can send us images right to my email: stephanzammit@neuronfx.com , and I will check it out for you. Thanks.

Hi, thank you for contacting us. Would you like to have the animations play after each other, or join the animations together to have him holding hands while sitting? If you would like to go from one animation to the other, you can just stack the 2 animations after each other, and the animation will flow from holding thing to sitting, etc. On the other hand, joining the two animations into one is a bit more tricky, since there is not a holding things while sitting animation available right now.

This being said, the easiest solution would be to use a similar animation that is included, such as ‘sitting desk’. You can use it without a desk and put the objects in his hand, which should give a similar result. If you have some animation and AE knowledge, you can also use the normal sitting animation and tweak the animation using the included character rig within the animation, to raise his hands and make it similar to the ‘holding hands animation’.

Hi, can you send us a message through the message box in our profile page, so I can send you a link by email. Thanks.

Done

Thank you. We have sent you a download link through the email.

Hi, thanks for your message. Yes of course, you can simply drag and drop over the character in the composition where you customize the clothes. Then place it where you would like it to be, and the toolkit will animate it with the clothes automatically.

Hi, we got the version CS5.5, thank you very much. Now, there are 240 Files missing. Most of them are from the head animation. What can we do ?

Hi again. The whole head animations are missing, torso animations, most objects are missing, almost all the clothes too…

Hi, can yo send me an email with a screenshot of the error you are getting so we can help you resolve it. This is our email:

Hi, thank you for your message.

The toolkit has simple control over the facial features using simple sliders. So you can close/open the mouth, the eyes, eye brows, etc. There is also height and rotation control of these features (to make him look up/down and left/right). You should be able to create most expressions using these. For instance if he’s excited you can open the eyes wider and the mouth slightly. For reference; the angry expression and tired expressions shown in the promo video were created using these features.

So, it doesn’t have the facial expressions pre-configured, but using the mentioned sliders, one can create his own expressions, keeping it as flexible as possible.

Thanks for the quick tip. I am sure some people will find this useful!

Hi, thank you for your feedback and message.

I think you are trying to do a custom animation with the rigged character, right, and not using the pre-made animation loops? The project is set by default to have a maximum of 1 minute per animation loop, as most of the pre-made animation loops are less than 5 seconds long.

If you are doing a custom animation with the rigged character, Normally it is best to just duplicate the character and start a new animation, when it exceeds 1 minute, this way everything remains organised and easy to modify later on if it is required.

That said, if you would like to have a longer animation, what you need to do is to extend each composition of the character to more then 1 minute (similarly to what you are doing). Just make sure that every layer is extended, as some layers are hidden by default, so this may be the reason why they are not being extended. To unhide any layer in any composition simply click the ‘shy’ switch, then select all the layers and extend them. (Some layers might be pre-composed and won’t extend over the time they are set to. To extend them, double click on them and extend them from the resulting composition).

This is an image of the ‘shy’ switch: http://feelthevoid.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/shy.png

Of course, this procedure is only needed if you are doing a custom animation that is longer than 1 minute with the pre-rigged characters, and not when you are using the pre-made animations.

Hope this helps!

Forgot about the hidden layers, shy switch solved it, thanks!

That’s great, thank you for getting back to us.

Hi, thank you for your feedback. Yes it will work with any Language version. The help video series / tutorials are in English.

Hi, as a template it is not hugely demanding, so it should run on most systems. That said, as with all After effects templates it requires some computer power. The toolkit works with Mac OS, that said, we have never tested it on a Macbook air specifically, but we have tested it on a 5 year old i7 laptop, and it works without any problems. Of course the more powerful the pc is the faster it renders in the end.

Oh ok thanks