Limber is a free After Effects plug‑in that lets you generate and rig 2D character limbs from shape layers in a few clicks. It supports IK, FK and FreeK animation modes, offers stretchy or rigid limbs, and includes over 100 preset limb designs.
Developed by Animatable.
About Limber
Limber is a free plug‑in for Adobe After Effects that streamlines 2D character rigging. Users can create limbs from shape layers by drawing a path or selecting circles and art layers, then customize scalings, stretch, foreshortening, and joint rotation. Limbs are infinitely scalable, can be duplicated quickly, and support automatic rotation of attached hand or foot layers. The tool handles vector, raster, puppet‑pinned, and faux‑3D taper layers, and provides a library of more than 100 preset limbs. Limber offers three animation modes—Inverse Kinematics (IK), Forward Kinematics (FK), and FreeK—covering a range of motion requirements. Developed and maintained by animators Steve and Mike, it includes a YouTube tutorial series, an online user guide, and a Discord community for support. Compatibility includes After Effects 2026 back to CC 2018.
Features
- Generate limbs from shape layers in a couple of clicks
- Limbs are infinitely scalable and can be duplicated in seconds
- Limbs can be stretchy or not, foreshortened, and rotate around the joint
- Copy and paste a limb’s appearance to another limb
- Automatically rotate hand and feet layers along with the limb, or not
- Three animation modes: IK, FK and FreeK
- Rig vector art, raster art, bendy paths, puppet-pins and faux-3D tapers, plus over 100 Limb Library presets
Best for
Character animators building and animating 2D characters in After Effects.
Frequently asked questions
Which After Effects versions does Limber support?
Limber supports After Effects 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, CC 2019 and CC 2018.
Is Limber free to use?
Limber is listed as a free plug‑in, though a separate paid version and a 10‑day trial with functional limits are also offered by the developer.
What layer types can Limber rig?
Limber can rig shape layers, bitmap layers, Illustrator (.ai) layers, puppet‑pinned layers and pre‑compositions, extending its use to both vector and raster artwork.
What are Limber’s three animation modes?
The three animation modes are IK (stretchy limbs with foreshortening), FK (overlapping and arc motions), and FreeK (front walk/run cycles and dimensional moves not covered by IK or FK).
What’s limited in the Limber trial?
The 10‑day trial limits the user to two limbs per composition, disables FK and Joint controllers, and prevents copying and pasting customized limb layers.
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