Hello People and welcome to another animation edition on HypefroActive. So i just finished talking about curves in animations. In this post i'll be talking about Forward and Inverse Kinematics. The Terms Forward and Inverse kinematics both relate to a state in the hand bones. That's right, no other place but the hand bones. As a newbie i often wondered what they mean whenever i read them up in an animation magazine or piece and i never really got to know what it meant. I tried watching tutorials but it got me confused all the more. Well, months later, i found out that both terms are related to the state of the arms at a point in time.
In 3D, For the arm bones to function effectively or mimic the actions of a real arm, the IK and FK solutions have to be accounted for, in that the arms can easily blend between ik and fk modes when it needs to. Using 3dsmax, any of these two can be achieved while setting up a hand rig by default without customizing anything. But using this method limits you to one of them only at a time and to use both, you'll have to customize the rig to account for both. So how do they work?
If in the FK "forward kinematics" mode, the hand rig is carried about by the upper body or whatever it is that its root parent is parented or linked to. That means if for instance the body moves at all, the entire arm moves with it. This is nice but rigid. I however would advice any newbie to start with this method of animating arms, because with this you'll worry less about the arms and key less. Learning animation is a slow process and there are a lot of things you will pick up as you grow in the trade, so do not be hasty in applying both modes. The fk mode is a natural when it comes to arc creations and you could get away with most arcs created here.
The IK "inverse kinematic" mode does not follow the the body or anything. They are independent. Meaning as you animate everything about your character, the hand wont move at all. It stays there looking at you like a dummy until you animate it. The ik solution is good when you have to link the hand to an object or leave it on the floor, chair or anything. In as much as you want it to stay put in one position. So, having said all these, why would anyone want to animate a birds wings flapping or a butterfly using an IK solution? It doesnt make any sense. Well it does, but it would be better of in FK since the arcs would come a lot more natural and you'll key a lot less than you would in IK. If you are animating arm swings while running or taking a walk then FK would be easier to use. IK's for a hand holding an object via an external link. A hand on a wall, or any where that would require it not moving for a while. So that's that about the IK and FK solutions.
A lot of animations to the arm go wrong because the animators do not know what the IK and FK solution does. While one is good for stationing and the other dynamic in nature, they tend to muddle everything up by forcing an arm in FK to stay in place by continuously keying the hand at every frame or so while it still is in FK mode. When,all they needed to do was to switch to an IK mode and position the hand afterwards.
In 3D, For the arm bones to function effectively or mimic the actions of a real arm, the IK and FK solutions have to be accounted for, in that the arms can easily blend between ik and fk modes when it needs to. Using 3dsmax, any of these two can be achieved while setting up a hand rig by default without customizing anything. But using this method limits you to one of them only at a time and to use both, you'll have to customize the rig to account for both. So how do they work?
If in the FK "forward kinematics" mode, the hand rig is carried about by the upper body or whatever it is that its root parent is parented or linked to. That means if for instance the body moves at all, the entire arm moves with it. This is nice but rigid. I however would advice any newbie to start with this method of animating arms, because with this you'll worry less about the arms and key less. Learning animation is a slow process and there are a lot of things you will pick up as you grow in the trade, so do not be hasty in applying both modes. The fk mode is a natural when it comes to arc creations and you could get away with most arcs created here.
The IK "inverse kinematic" mode does not follow the the body or anything. They are independent. Meaning as you animate everything about your character, the hand wont move at all. It stays there looking at you like a dummy until you animate it. The ik solution is good when you have to link the hand to an object or leave it on the floor, chair or anything. In as much as you want it to stay put in one position. So, having said all these, why would anyone want to animate a birds wings flapping or a butterfly using an IK solution? It doesnt make any sense. Well it does, but it would be better of in FK since the arcs would come a lot more natural and you'll key a lot less than you would in IK. If you are animating arm swings while running or taking a walk then FK would be easier to use. IK's for a hand holding an object via an external link. A hand on a wall, or any where that would require it not moving for a while. So that's that about the IK and FK solutions.
A lot of animations to the arm go wrong because the animators do not know what the IK and FK solution does. While one is good for stationing and the other dynamic in nature, they tend to muddle everything up by forcing an arm in FK to stay in place by continuously keying the hand at every frame or so while it still is in FK mode. When,all they needed to do was to switch to an IK mode and position the hand afterwards.
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