Character rig

A cut-out rig is flat artwork on a skeleton of parented layers, with a few expressions doing the maths. When one breaks it is nearly always one of four things: no pixels under a joint, an anchor off the joint, layers parented after they were keyed, or two things owning one property.

1. Prepare the artwork

One layer per part that moves on its own: torso, head, upper arm, forearm, hand, thigh, shin, foot, eye whites, pupils, brows, mouth, swinging hair. Name them in the source file; expressions read those names. Import as a cropped comp, so each layer is only as big as its art ("comp" puts every anchor in the middle of the document):

ae_import_file {"path": "/abs/path/Character.psd", "importAs": "comp_cropped", "name": "Character"}