You can then parent the layers accordingly – in this example, the hand is parented to the forearm, the forearm is parented to the upper arm, and the upper arm is parented to the torso.

You can use the “pan behind” tool (its icon has four directional arrows in a dashed box – the shortcut is Y) to grab and move anchor points to their appropriate locations. For example, a hand rotates around the wrist, the forearm rotates around the elbow, and the upper arm rotates around the shoulder.

Since we’ll be doing most of our animation using the rotation property, the anchor point is important. As we discussed previously, a layer’s anchor point is the point around which the layer scales and rotates. With the puppet imported, you’ll want to begin parenting the different parts together – but first, you should think about each layer’s anchor point. Note that you will only get the dialog box with these import options if you use Cmd+I or File>Import – if you just drag an Illustrator or Photoshop file into the project window, all the layers will be combined into one piece of media. When you import an Illustrator or Photoshop file, simply change the Import As drop-down from “Footage” to “Composition – Retain Layer Sizes.” (The “Composition” option will work also, but I find “Retain Layer Sizes” easier to work with.) If you’re using a Photoshop file, another screen may appear with the option to keep or merge your layer styles – I tend to choose “merge.” Once you’ve imported the file, it will appear as its own composition with each layer separated out.

If you create your puppet in Photoshop or Illustrator, you can import those files with their layer structure intact. You can import these layers individually, but After Effects is also very good at playing with files created in other Adobe programs. Basically, any part of the figure that you want to animate should be on its own layer. Complex puppets will break down the figure more and more – you might have separate layers for parts of the face, finger segments, clothing, and more. Let’s start with some simple pre-made figures – you can download a few at this link.Ī simple puppet might have the figure’s arms, legs, head, and body on different layers. Now that we know how to parent objects, pre-compose layers, and adjust anchor points, we can move on to actual character animation.

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