Frequently Asked Questions

If you don’t find the answer to your question here, come and ask for help on the official forum or on Discord!

General

Can I use Duik on After Effects XX? (replace XX by any version name)

See the section entitled “Installation”.

It seems I have missing buttons and tools in Duik, compared to what I can see in tutorials, screenshots, etc. Where are they?

Duik Bassel has three user interface modes, and the default one, the Rookie mode does not include the most advanced tools; it is designed to be easy-to-use but powerful enough to rig and animate any kind of characters. If you’re a beginner with Duik, you should not need the most advanced tools.

To change the mode of the user interface and switch to Normal or Expert mode, go to the settings panel.

When using some tools, this alert is shown: Internal Verification Failure: Unexpected match name searched for in group" ( 29::0 ), what can I do?

This is a bug in After Effects CC2014 and CC2014.1, it is not an issue from Duik. Update After Effects to CC2014.2, or upgrade to a newer version.

Duik worked well, but it won’t start anymore. What can I do?

Sometimes, the files Duik needs to run smoothly get corrupted, especially (but not only) on Mac OS. If this is the case, Duik may not even be able to start anymore, or may be showing a script alert at start. In this case, follow the procedure described here to re-initialize it.

Rigging

How can I scale a rigged character in Duik Bassel?

It is not possible to scale the rig itself yet without adjusting some expressions, but:

With the new “Extract Controllers” feature, you can scale a rigged character:

1. Add the rigged comp into another comp.
2. Select the precomposition layer and, in the controllers panel of Duik, click on "Extract controllers"

You can then animate from outside of the precomp, with the extracted controllers, AND you can scale the precomposition layer to scale the rig (the controllers will follow).
We think this is a good workaround, you just have to take care of the resolution as it’s a precomposition (and rasterization may not work properly with the rig), scaling up will damage it a bit, but scaling it down is ok.

How can I use the connector to connect a single slave property to multiple master properties?

Use a List!

What can I do to make Duik work better with imported vector layers (Illustrator, SVG, Flash…) with continuous rasterization activated?

After Effects’ puppet tool (and Duik bones) is a pixel tool, but using continuous rasterization is using vector layers, so this raises some issues which are difficult to work around.

IK have to work with coordinates of the layers, and continuous rasterization may mess up those coordinates too…

However, the best you can do is converting those illustrator layers into shape layers (right click on the layer), which work better with the puppet tool and Duik. You can just precompose those layers too, while scaling them up in the precomposition to keep the quality of vectors.

How can I create a “Look At” effect?

What is called Look At in some 3D software and older versions of Duik is basically IK controlling an single element (Duik calls this a one-layer IK).
To add a Look At on a layer with Duik, first select the target, then the layer, and click on the Autorig & IK button in the Links & Constraints panel. This will create IK on the layer, and a controller to use as a target. You can then adjust the parenting if you wish, especially parenting the target layer to the controller.

The hominoid is facing left. I’d like it to face right.

The direction the hominoid is facing doesn’t really matter, as the Auto-Rig will adjust to the locations of the Structures at the time you’ll run it. Just move each Structure element to the corresponding limb of your character, one by one, and then run the Auto-Rig. Don’t forget the Edit Mode to help you move a Structure without moving its children if you need.

The Connector creates an additionnal layer, is there any way to prevent this?

In short: no. This additionnal layer makes things more stable and is needed by the latest versions of Duik. It can also be better for the users, as with this layer, all connector parameters are assembled on the same layer and easy to find and adjust.

Animation

When applying the walk cycle, the controllers of the hands seem to be deactivated, why’s that?

The procedural walk cycle animates the arms with Forward Kinematics (FK) and thus deactivates the Inverse Kinematics (IK). They do not need to translate anymore as the animation is on the angles of the individual FK controls.

If you want to animate/adjust the arms, you can either adjust the values in the Individual FK controls in the effects of the controllers, or you can re-enable the IK, but this will deactivate the procedural animation on the arms.

When applying the walk cycle, the character walks backwards, how to change this?

In the effect of the walk cycle controller, you can change the sign of the walk speed to change the direction the character walks. Change it to negative or positive to change the direction.

How can I use dashed lines with the motion trail?

The trail with advanced parameters turned on uses a filled shape instead of a stroke, so it is not possible to have dashes. Turning of the advanced parameters will hide the fill will allow you to adjust the stroke and add dashes.

When duplicating the motion trail effect on a motion trail layer, the motion trail is not duplicated. How can I duplicate a motion trail?

To duplicate a motion trail, you can’t just duplicate the effect; the content of the shape layer needs to be adjusted too.

There are two ways to add multiple motion trails for the same layer:

• Duplicate the motion trail layer instead of just the effect.
• Use the motion trail button in Duik to re-create a new motion trail for the same layer.