I created a free addon script for After Effects that allows parenting puppet pins – it creates control Nulls for all Puppet Tool pins of the selected layer. Nulls are created in correct positions. Nulls will have the name of the pins with an optional prefix added. Layer name can also be added after prefix. Puppet tool pins are parented to the nulls with expressions. You can also specify the scaling of the nulls to suit your needs.

tip: if you have not named your pins and the “Prefix layer name” is on, default puppet names “Puppet Pin 1..x” will be replaced with “LayerName_Pin_1..x” to have nicer name

Update 5.18.2019

Updated for AE 2019 with support for Advanced puppet pin engine. This includes support for Advanced and Bend pin types – linking Rotation and Scale values to control Nulls!

How to use:

1. Download the puppet_rig_2019 and save it in the After Effects / Support Files / Scripts / ScriptUI Panels
2. Start the After Effects and search for puppet_rig in the bottom of Window menu
3. Select a layer with Puppet Pin effect on it.

AE 2019 Version download:

puppet_rig_2019.jsxbin

4. Click Create button
5. Optional. Organize newly created nulls in hierarchy by parenting.
6. Animate nulls
7. Compulsory. Go and drink a beer. You have saved yourself a lot of time!

goodies, software

About Gatis Kurzemnieks

Technical Artist

Related Posts

24 Comments

  5. Hello, I`ve got a problem when I apply this script on a shape layer (AE CC 2015) the nulls appear outside of viewport like this :https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36254873/screenshot.251.jpg

    I did reset transformation parameters( position, scale, rotation) for shape layer (both for layer and shape) before applying script.

    is there a workaround?

    It works fine for precomped shape layer, but I`d love to use it straight onshape layer, becouse puppet tool works nicer straight on shape layer.

    thanks in advance.

    Reply

    1. Hi. Yeah, there is some strangeness with shape layers – their transformation model is different from other AE layers when using pins.
      I added simple fix for this that seem to work if the shape layer is not rotated or scaled. You can re-download the script and try if it works for you or rotation and scale on shape layers before adding pins is really needed?

      Reply

    2. I found a solution for this.
      You can’t have scaling in the layer scale property. Set it to 100%.
      Then select your shape path and select everything in shape layer with the selection tool, double click the shape and then scale that to the size you want. Now it should work.

      Reply

  8. Thanks alot! I’ve watched a bunch of tutorials and watched people creating the nulls and typing the expression manually for each puppet pin. So time-consuming. You should show your script to Adobe. It should be part of the program for sure. You deserve some recognition.

    Reply

  9. This is awesome and just saved me a ton of time. Now I’ve got to try and learn DUIK for the next stage – Uh oh 🙂 Thanks again!

    Reply

  14. This is just perfect for making animation stickers with After Effect. DUIK is overkill to setup, and also heavy on perfomance. With your script I can rig stickers faster and most importantly this is easy to learn.

    Thank you so much 🙂

    Reply

  16. I’m getting “ERROR 105”:

    Error: After Effects error: Unable to call “setValue” because of parameter 1. Value is not an array.

    on Aftereffects CC 2018

    🙁

    Reply

    1. Hi, Dave ! Thanks for feedback – indeed something has changed in AE 2018. I have managed to fix it – it should work in all versions now. Just re-download from the link provided.

      Reply

      2. In CS6 i’m getting this error “103 type error: Null is not an object” 🙁

        Reply

  19. Hello!
    If I have AE CS6 can I use this script?

    After I use the pappet pin tool, and start to create the “pappet rig” I’m getting 103 TypeEROR: null is not an object.
    I tried reinstalling the script and reloading the program.
    Also the required layer is active.

    It would be so cool if you could help me…

    Thanks in advance

    Reply

Post A Comment