I knew that the first problem I had was that I had a very limited knowledge of After Effects, so I began watching tutorials on Lynda.com. I eventually found one that suited what I wanted to do, it taught me a technique called 'parenting' which is where you link one limb to another, making the one you want to be the 'dominant' limb the 'parent' and the other one is the 'child', so when you move the 'parent' limb the one thats connected to it moves with it.
I made a basic stick man on After Effects using shapes, and practiced making a character move in different ways, and getting used to the technique.
I wanted to make my character look more human-like and so I did some practice drawings, adding in more joints and body segments that theoretically should make the puppet easier to move.
I wanted to incorporate some characteristics from the puppets I looked at for research but also keep it simple for me to animate, so I added the big empty eyes that seem to be a recurring feature in most Voodoo/Mexican skull puppets.
I drew each body part of my skeleton individually and then imported them to After Effects where I assembled the puppet as a whole.
Good posts Chloe showing your individual research and tests - this is solid evidence to back up your understanding of the brief and engagement with After Effects. I can see the relationship to your experimental film so maybe you could incorporate some of these techniques into that as well.
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