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Creating long, floppy ears

Rigging, animation, import/export of characters, props and cameras comprehensive tool set for After Effects.
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stormer
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2020 9:13 am

Creating long, floppy ears

Post by stormer » Sun Feb 16, 2020 10:06 am

Hi,

I'm trying to create a rabbit head where the ears automatically react to the motion of the head ie. as the head moves the ears should "flop" around. I figured it would be a case of setting the ears up using the "tail" structure but I'm really struggling with bringing this all together. What would be the best way to set this up?

Many thanks.

Duduf
Posts: 915
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2016 2:59 pm

Re: Creating long, floppy ears

Post by Duduf » Sun Feb 16, 2020 7:23 pm

The tail should work well indeed, just use the autorig on the structure then parent the root of each tail to the structure of the head. You may have to add a few keyframes on the rotation of the controllers of the tails, but mlst of the motion will be automated.

For a fully automatic rig (but I'm not sure it would be a better animation), if you use the puppet tool, just use the kleaner on the position of the pins.

Fire more advanced stuff, you could use custom structures rigged with a bezier IK, and again the kleaner on the position of the controllers of these Bezier IK.

All of this depends on your design. The kleaner outputs nice simulations on positions, the tail rigging may be a bit better and more realistic but needs a few keyframes and uses rotations (which is both better - it won't stretch - and easier to animate)

ulfstein
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2018 6:40 am

Re: Creating long, floppy ears

Post by ulfstein » Mon Feb 17, 2020 6:26 am

That's great Duduf, thanks very much.

One other question just came to me though - if I parent these ears to a head that contains a head turn, one ear will have to move behind and one in front of the head at the head turn extremes. I'm thinking this would be done with 2 sets of ears that switch opacity depending on what the head slide controller is set to. Would this be the best solution?

Duduf
Posts: 915
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2016 2:59 pm

Re: Creating long, floppy ears

Post by Duduf » Mon Feb 17, 2020 5:17 pm

Yes I'd do this too, just add a couple of hold keyframes on the ears and connect these to the head turn.
If you're using the connector of Duik, don't forget it's better to have all the animations be synchronized, so you may have to add an additionnal keyframe at the end/beginning

ulfstein
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2018 6:40 am

Re: Creating long, floppy ears

Post by ulfstein » Tue Feb 18, 2020 10:38 am

Got it, thanks very much.

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