Rigging Animation Techniques

Inverse Kinematics & Forward Kinematics

When a modeller finishes building a character, to animate the same, first we need to Rig the character. Rigging animation is a process where we bind the character with skeletal joints and controllers which allows us to pose/move the character.

The terms ik and fk refer to the most efficient rigging techniques. As an animator, you need to know the best and most efficient ways to accomplish an animation. Let’s take a simple look at what IK and FK are.

Inverse kinematics (IK)

An IK handle lets you pose and animate an entire joint chain by moving a single manipulator. With IK enabled, a child within your character rig’s hierarchy can influence the movement of its parents. As you pose the IK handle, it automatically rotates all the joints in the joint chain.

For example, by utilizing IK in your character’s arms you can position your character’s hand and the rest of the character’s arm chain will automatically be calculated. Because this allows you to animate independently of your chain’s hierarchy, IK is great when you need to have your character push against a wall or keep their hand planted while the rest of the body animates. Rigging animation is a process where we bind the character with skeletal joints and controllers which allows us to pose/move the character.

Forward kinematics (FK)

To pose a character with forward kinematics, you need to rotate each joint individually to get the desired positioning.

For example, rotating a character’s shoulder changes the position of the elbow, wrist, and hand. When animating with forward kinematics, the artist typically needs to set the rotation and position of each joint individually—to achieve the desired pose. A great time to use FK would be if you’re animating a walk, because every time you translate the body forward the arms will follow.

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