Character rigging and animation in After Effects with AI
Yes, you can rig and animate a character in After Effects with AI: ask ChatGPT, Claude or any MCP client connected to Prism, and IK limbs, look-at and squash land on your layered character as expressions, no plugin.
Every rigging tutorial is an hour inside a plugin panel. Here you name the parts, describe the rig, and it is built from nulls and expressions you can read.
What you say, and what lands
| You type | What appears in your comp |
|---|---|
| "Rig the left arm: 'Upper Arm L' is the upper bone, 'Forearm L' the lower, make an IK goal called 'Hand L', elbow bends backward." | Two bones parented, a 'Hand L' null, an IK expression on both rotations; drag the null and the arm solves |
| "Keep 'Head' level as 'Torso' rotates, and make both eyes follow the 'Ball' layer." | Counter-rotate on Head with an Amount slider, look-at on each eye with an offset slider |
| "Now pose it: the hand reaches the ball at one second, overshoots and settles." | Keyframes on the 'Hand L' goal, inertial overshoot with Amplitude, Frequency and Decay sliders |
Test it on your own project. A Free account is enough to start: Sign up, then connect your AI and ask for this.
How to do it
The rigs, by name
| Rig | What it does | Your control |
|---|---|---|
| 2-bone IK | upper and lower bone solve toward a goal null in 2D, bend side flips on request | the goal null |
| Look-at | a layer rotates to face a target | Aim Offset slider |
| Follow with delay | followers trail a leader by a number of frames | Delay slider |
| Squash and stretch | Y scales while X compensates, volume preserved | Stretch slider |
| Inertial overshoot | keyframed motion settles with a bounce | Amplitude, Frequency and Decay sliders |
| Counter-rotate | a child stays level as its parent turns | Amount slider |
| Wiggle | idle motion, breathing, drift | Amount and Frequency sliders |
Do I need Duik, RubberHose or Limber
No. A rig built with Prism is nulls and expressions, with nothing to install on the machine that opens the project. If you already rig with Duik, RubberHose or Limber, keep doing so; Prism does not read those rigs, it builds its own alongside.
What it needs
| After Effects | 2024, 2025 or 2026, macOS or Windows |
| AI client | any MCP client: ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and others |
| Artwork | one part per layer, named by you |
| Plan | a Free account is enough; rigging uses MCP actions, not Prism AI credits |
What it does not do
It does not find joints in flat artwork, does not place puppet pins, does not build a 3D skeleton, and does not generate a walk cycle procedurally. You name the parts; the AI keyframes the poses.
Common questions
Related
Kinetic typography
Kinetic typography in After Effects with AI: the words and timing come from the transcript, the type animation is what you ask for, and lyrics land on the beat.
Walk cycle
Walk cycle in After Effects with AI: contact, down, passing and up keyframed on your rig's IK goals, arms counter-swung, body bob added, looped with loopOut.