After Effects Character Animation

After Effects is one of the most important softwares for Motion Graphic and Character Animation out there, and, since my practice is been based on drawing, I was really unfamiliar with it.

With any new software, my best first approach is with a step by step tutorial.
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The ones I found more helpful were the ones by Jake Bartlett in Skillshare and for a week I dedicated myself to rigging puppets, and understanding the basic commands and timeline on a software I was running away from the beginning of my animating career.

 

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Two friends of mine (http://hendandlamiaa.com/), very skilled in animating with After, gave me this rigged puppet for animating and playing in after effects. It is a fun little guy from their short film Flipped, and my very first attempt to animating and understanding a rigged puppet.

In conclusion:

• After Effects is a box of wonders and being able to understand what can be done with it is crucial for animators.
• There is not a single way of animating with after effects and the best way is to try what is the most comfortable windows arrangement, at the same time as animating understanding the easy in, easy out and curves is by doing tests.
• If this kind of software are not your strong suit, there is amazing people out there who you  can ask for help.
• Even if it is not my principal way of animating, understanding and being able to use with ease this software, center of the modern animation world, is extremely important. 
• Done is better than perfect, even more when you don't really get what the limits of what you are trying to do are.