MoCap solutions
Hand and body motion capture workflows I’ve developed over the years to make character animation easier in After Effects.
Leap Motion hand tracking to After Effects
Let’s face it: Rigging and animating hands in After Effects isn’t the quickest or easiest process, especially when aiming for lifelike movements. But what if there’s a faster, more intuitive way?
I bought a Leap Motion (v1) hand tracking device years ago, and it turned out to be the perfect tool for this project. It took some time to figure out how to get the data into After Effects, but I eventually built a modular, reusable system.
The best part of this method is that once you import the coordinates (xyz) into After Effects, you can link virtually anything to them. You get coordinates for the elbow, wrist, palm, and five points per finger, allowing for complex hand animations and control of other elements through hand movements. You can also choose between working in 2D (xy/xz/yz) or 3D (xyz), opening up a wide range of possibilities—hand rigs, camera controls, and position controls, just to name a few.
The setup: I use TouchDesigner to process and record the tracking data into a CSV file, which can then be imported into After Effects. From there, I link nulls to the tracked points using expressions and automatically step through frames based on a set fps.
I originally developed this workflow for myself in 2022, but after it gained positive feedback on Instagram and Reddit, I made it more user-friendly, created guides, and shared the entire system as a freebie on Gumroad in 2023.
Check out the Gumroad page for more details.
Leap Motion hand tracking to After Effects
Let’s face it: Rigging and animating hands in After Effects isn’t the quickest or easiest process, especially when aiming for lifelike movements. But what if there’s a faster, more intuitive way?
I bought a Leap Motion (v1) hand tracking device years ago, and it turned out to be the perfect tool for this project. It took some time to figure out how to get the data into After Effects, but I eventually built a modular, reusable system.
The best part of this method is that once you import the coordinates (xyz) into After Effects, you can link virtually anything to them. You get coordinates for the elbow, wrist, palm, and five points per finger, allowing for complex hand animations and control of other elements through hand movements. You can also choose between working in 2D (xy/xz/yz) or 3D (xyz), opening up a wide range of possibilities—hand rigs, camera controls, and position controls, just to name a few.
The setup: I use TouchDesigner to process and record the tracking data into a CSV file, which can then be imported into After Effects. From there, I link nulls to the tracked points using expressions and automatically step through frames based on a set fps.
I originally developed this workflow for myself in 2022, but after it gained positive feedback on Instagram and Reddit, I made it more user-friendly, created guides, and shared the entire system as a freebie on Gumroad in 2023.
Check out the Gumroad page for more details.
Leap Motion hand tracking to After Effects
Let’s face it: Rigging and animating hands in After Effects isn’t the quickest or easiest process, especially when aiming for lifelike movements. But what if there’s a faster, more intuitive way?
I bought a Leap Motion (v1) hand tracking device years ago, and it turned out to be the perfect tool for this project. It took some time to figure out how to get the data into After Effects, but I eventually built a modular, reusable system.
The best part of this method is that once you import the coordinates (xyz) into After Effects, you can link virtually anything to them. You get coordinates for the elbow, wrist, palm, and five points per finger, allowing for complex hand animations and control of other elements through hand movements. You can also choose between working in 2D (xy/xz/yz) or 3D (xyz), opening up a wide range of possibilities—hand rigs, camera controls, and position controls, just to name a few.
The setup: I use TouchDesigner to process and record the tracking data into a CSV file, which can then be imported into After Effects. From there, I link nulls to the tracked points using expressions and automatically step through frames based on a set fps.
I originally developed this workflow for myself in 2022, but after it gained positive feedback on Instagram and Reddit, I made it more user-friendly, created guides, and shared the entire system as a freebie on Gumroad in 2023.
Check out the Gumroad page for more details.
Rokoko Vision to After Effects
When Rokoko launched a free AI motion capture tool, I knew I had to try it with After Effects. Since I already had a hand mocap setup using Leap Motion, this was the perfect addition for body tracking. Luckily, I found a tool called BVH Importer to bring .bvh files into After Effects, which really simplified the process.
The 3D position data can be mapped into 2D comp space using 'toComp()', allowing for quick character rigs and animations.
Rokoko Vision to After Effects
When Rokoko launched a free AI motion capture tool, I knew I had to try it with After Effects. Since I already had a hand mocap setup using Leap Motion, this was the perfect addition for body tracking. Luckily, I found a tool called BVH Importer to bring .bvh files into After Effects, which really simplified the process.
The 3D position data can be mapped into 2D comp space using 'toComp()', allowing for quick character rigs and animations.
Rokoko Vision to After Effects
When Rokoko launched a free AI motion capture tool, I knew I had to try it with After Effects. Since I already had a hand mocap setup using Leap Motion, this was the perfect addition for body tracking. Luckily, I found a tool called BVH Importer to bring .bvh files into After Effects, which really simplified the process.
The 3D position data can be mapped into 2D comp space using 'toComp()', allowing for quick character rigs and animations.
