When a client asks for character animation, most beginners start keyframing every limb manually. But pros? They rig. In this tutorial, I broke down the process of using Duik Angela—a free tool inside After Effects—to build a custom skeleton and automate complex character movement using Inverse Kinematics (IK). What I covered: • What is Rigging? Creating a skeleton system that lets one body part influence the others—for example, when you move the arm, the hand follows naturally. • Planning the Character: I designed a custom character (“Karubhuddhi Lal Bhaiya in an MJ jacket”), broken into layers—arms, legs, torso, hands, etc.—to prep for rigging. • Setting up Duik Angela: Built a full bone structure using custom joints, linked everything together, and created a fully controllable puppet. • Animating with Ease: Used controllers to animate the dance sequence, with smooth movement and minimal manual keyframing.
Definitely worth reading
dammm