The shortest distance between inspiration and reality is a bendy line

Characters bring life to a project, but character rigging can too often kill the flow of creativity with an uphill technical struggle.

Retain your beginners mind while building and animating characters the way you always dreamed.

Everything old is new

Rubberhose 1.0 revolutionized the field of character animation by making it intuitive for once.

Whether you want to add something new to your motion work, or you're a seasoned character animator, Rubberhose 3 builds on a legacy of simplicity with a whole new set of powers.

Is it really that simple?

Character animation is hard work and we believe in reducing technical friction whenever possible.

Character comes from the artist, not the tool.

Superfast overview

Choose wisely

In addition to make the logo bigger, the client has casually requested:

Can you maybe add some cute animated characters?

What do you do?

A)

Binge watch rigging tutorials

After Googling "What is IK?" you drink a pot of coffee and press play on YouTube videos while simultainiously reading a 100 page manual on a freely available rigging system.

B)

Use Rubberhose

While it won't do the animating, you quickly get to work creating rigged characters right inside your project and actually hit your deadline.

You chose wisely
↓ Continue brave warrior ↓

Because of a poor workflow
↓ There is much to learn ↓

In addition to make the logo bigger, the client has casually requested:

Can you maybe add some cute animated characters?

What do you do?

A)

Binge watch rigging tutorials

After Googling "What is IK?" you drink a pot of coffee and press play on YouTube videos while simultainiously reading a 100 page manual on a freely available rigging system.

B)

Use Rubberhose

While it won't do the animating, you quickly get to work creating rigged characters right inside your project and actually hit your deadline.

You chose wisely
↓ Continue brave warrior ↓

Because of a poor workflow
↓ There is much to learn ↓

Nonlinear character creation

Animating a character can unlock new ideas for design and Rubberhose was built for exploration. Everything is adjustable and you will never have to trash keyframes because of a new rigging idea.

Stay flexible.

Design

Build a simple rig with a click or by drawing a path. Style limbs with the collection of powerful presets and create your own.

Add additional bend points anywhere along a hose to create S-curves, fingers, tails, dog legs, strings, octopi, or just about anything else your mind can conjure.

Rig

Connect art layers with a new and intuitive hose-parenting and stretchy-bones system to combine anything from small details to complex shapes. Add a whole new level of design freedom to characters. 

Or non-characters. Everything is connected and now layers can be too.

Walk cycle and recycle

Reuse a single precomped rig multiple times and leverage the power of After Effects Essential Properties.

Set new keyframes, add styling variation, and reuse animation inside the precomp to speed up production.

What's new?

First released in 2015, Rubberhose v1 forever changed how animators work and think about characters. 

A new set of concepts have been introduced in v3, but like always, built on the foundation of:

simplicity

Animation is hard work, so enjoy the process.

Personal stylist

Style presets have been a part of Rubberhose since v2, but never as capable of such limitless potential. Bend presets make customizing the way a hose works even more flexible.

TLDR

What is it?
  • Rigged animation, but simplified. And far from simplistic. 

  • A powerful set of tools to connect characters or shapes or anything. 

  • An animation system that works like how you imagined animating would be, before you learned about keyframes. 

  • The freedom to let animation inform design in a non-linear interplay of inspiration that never locks you into decisions made by your past self. You are the master of your destiny.

What it's not?
  • Mathematically perfect IK. Because IK usually looks like a robot. Of course, you are free to dial in the realism to your taste if you’re into robots. Everyone loves robots.

  • The subject of a heavy manual requiring late nights reading in preparation to start using it. There is a help page, but you probably won’t need it. Simple is kind of our thing.

  • A rigging solution for every conceivable setup. Rubberhose does a few things incredibly well, and it plays well with other systems like Duik and Limber.

Best of friends

Every shot is different and so is every animator. Compare and contrast the top 3 character rigging solutions and pick the best fit for your project.

Spoiler alert: We love Duik and Limber and think they work really well with Rubberhose.

Getting started

Follow along with Jake as he takes you on a journey of the mind. From the basics to pro level power-ups.

Then go deeper into the manual for a more technical look at how it all connects.

Common questions

Creative

What happened to controller rotation?

Is it faster than v2?

License

Can I use it on 2 computers?

Is this a subscription?

I already purchased RH2

Do my teammates need to buy RH3?

Technical

Does this work with __?

Is an internet connection required?

What did you use to build this?

Flexible collaborators

A sequence can really come alive with help from friends

Overlord

Create characters and props in Illustrator then transfer them instantly for rigging in After Effects. It really feels like having a full vector drawing app interface for your character design.

Buttcapper

Take control of hose stroke caps and joins, without twirling down the entire shape layer. Build new styles quickly by layering new strokes and customizing their look.

Anubis

Your walkcycle is done but you need approval from the team. Quickly render out a preview MP4 faster than you can open Media Encoder.

Flexible collaborators

A sequence can really come alive with help from friends

Overlord

Create characters and props in Illustrator then transfer them instantly for rigging in After Effects. It really feels like having a full vector drawing app interface for your character design.

Buttcapper

Take control of hose stroke caps and joins, without twirling down the entire shape layer. Build new styles quickly by layering new strokes and customizing their look.

Anubis

Your walkcycle is done but you need approval from the team. Quickly render out a preview MP4 faster than you can open Media Encoder.

Flexible collaborators

A sequence can really come alive with help from friends

Overlord

Create characters and props in Illustrator then transfer them instantly for rigging in After Effects. It really feels like having a full vector drawing app interface for your character design.

Buttcapper

Take control of hose stroke caps and joins, without twirling down the entire shape layer. Build new styles quickly by layering new strokes and customizing their look.

Anubis

Your walkcycle is done but you need approval from the team. Quickly render out a preview MP4 faster than you can open Media Encoder.

Specs

Price

$65.00 USD

plus taxes if required

Compatible host app

Adobe After Effects
CC 2021 and newer (including the latest)

Install type

ZXP extension (how to install)

OS support

  • Windows 7 SP1 and newer

  • Mac 10.8.5 and newer

Licensing

Each license allows for 2 machines used by a single user

Languages

English, Español, Português, 日本語, Italiano, Français, Deutsch, Русский, 简体中文, 한국어
Languages are detected by the Adobe app language

Network connection

An internet connection is not required to use, but is needed to authenticate. Contact us for details in unlocking on an offline machine.

Support

  • Contact us directly for license support

  • Connect with the community on Discord for tech and creative support

Specs

Price

$65.00 USD

plus taxes if required

Compatible host app

Adobe After Effects
CC 2021 and newer (including the latest)

Install type

ZXP extension (how to install)

OS support

  • Windows 7 SP1 and newer

  • Mac 10.8.5 and newer

Licensing

Each license allows for 2 machines used by a single user

Languages

English, Español, Português, 日本語, Italiano, Français, Deutsch, Русский, 简体中文, 한국어
Languages are detected by the Adobe app language

Network connection

An internet connection is not required to use, but is needed to authenticate. Contact us for details in unlocking on an offline machine.

Support

  • Contact us directly for license support

  • Connect with the community on Discord for tech and creative support

Specs

Price

$65.00 USD

plus taxes if required

Compatible host app

Adobe After Effects
CC 2021 and newer (including the latest)

Install type

ZXP extension (how to install)

OS support

  • Windows 7 SP1 and newer

  • Mac 10.8.5 and newer

Licensing

Each license allows for 2 machines used by a single user

Languages

English, Español, Português, 日本語, Italiano, Français, Deutsch, Русский, 简体中文, 한국어
Languages are detected by the Adobe app language

Network connection

An internet connection is not required to use, but is needed to authenticate. Contact us for details in unlocking on an offline machine.

Support

  • Contact us directly for license support

  • Connect with the community on Discord for tech and creative support

Design and animation and alchemy.

Stare into the void.

2024 Battle Axe inc.

Design and animation and alchemy.

Stare into the void.

2024 Battle Axe inc.

Design and animation and alchemy.

Stare into the void.

2024 Battle Axe inc.