Motion Graphics with Kurzgesagt – Part 2

What it actually covers

This second installment picks up exactly where the first course left off, assuming the viewer already has an Illustrator file built for animation and a working knowledge of After Effects keyframing. There is no re-explanation of layer setup or import workflow. Instead, the class moves straight into building a triple-split-screen composition, sized deliberately wider than the visible frame so off-screen animation has room to breathe, and into establishing a strict parenting hierarchy for three different creatures: an ant, a group of jellyfish, and a school of fish.

The parenting section is more thorough than it might sound. It walks through the logic of chaining feelers to a head, a head to a body, thighs to a body, and legs to thighs, then shows how a null-object controller sits above each character so the whole rig can be moved or nudged as one unit. The naming convention taught here, short prefixes marking foreground versus background elements, is a small but genuinely useful habit for anyone managing dozens of layers.

Rigging and expressions

The IK section is the structural core of the course. Using Duik, the instructor creates foot controllers, links them into inverse kinematic chains, and demonstrates how a single position keyframe on the body causes the entire leg to bend and follow without any manual rotation keyframing. It is a compact, practical demonstration of what IK buys an animator, and the troubleshooting aside, checking anchor points and parenting order when a chain misbehaves, is realistic and worth the two minutes it takes.

The wiggle expression gets the most screen time, and the course treats it as a system rather than a one-off trick. Rather than typing wiggle values directly into each expression, it builds a dedicated controller with slider properties for frequency and amplitude, then pick-whips those sliders into the expression so every wiggling layer can be tuned from one place. Separating rotation and position wiggle onto distinct controllers, and later isolating wiggle to a single axis with bracket notation, shows a level of expression fluency that goes beyond the basics most tutorials stop at.

The fish scene ties several techniques together: staggered fin and jaw rotations, position keyframes for swimming paths, and a pre-comped, time-offset background plant animation that lets one animated element repeat convincingly across a whole scene without hand-animating each instance.

Where it falls short

The course is honest about its limits, explicitly noting that wiggle-based animation cannot loop, which is a fair tradeoff disclosure rather than a flaw. The bigger issue is pacing: at under 50 minutes covering three full character rigs plus two expression systems, several steps are demonstrated quickly and depend on assets and setup work the viewer is expected to have prepared in advance, mirroring the instructor's own project file. Viewers without the exact source files will need to adapt instructions on the fly rather than follow along directly.

This is a solid, no-filler continuation for someone already invested in the series and comfortable with After Effects fundamentals. It rewards patience with expressions and rigging logic rather than flashy results, and it is not a substitute for the character-setup groundwork covered in Part 1.

What you will learn

• ·Setting up a parented hierarchy for multi-limbed characters (ants, jellyfish, fish) with dedicated controllers for each
• ·Building IK chains with Duik so a single controller drives an entire leg or limb naturally
• ·Using the wiggle expression with pick-whipped slider controls for frequency and amplitude instead of hardcoded values
• ·Isolating wiggle to a single axis with array bracket syntax so only X or Y position wiggles
• ·Combining keyframed loops (ease, ping-pong) with wiggle to avoid overly mechanical repeating motion
• ·Using time-remapped pre-comps and staggered offsets to animate a field of background elements from one master animation