To be able to use the buzzer in the handshake trick on your After Effect friends, you’re going to want to learn to use wiggle expressions. After Effects allows the use of expressions to hand code a variety of effects, of which the wiggle expression is very easy to apply and commonly used. It allows you to create random motion across a period of time for distance measured in pixels.
You can follow along with the tutorial above using the PSD layered version of Elvis Meeting Nixon. Tricky Dick is up to his typical no good with the hand buzzer. But if you’d like to work with your own assets to illustrate the use of the wiggle expression, please do.
This image was created by working with a simple wiggle expression affecting the Elvis layer.
This image combines the rigging of a puppet with null objects and puppet pins covered previously. Various wiggle expressions are applied to the null objects.
And re-cropped to focus a bit more on the practical joke.
