How do I animate my characters with full body IK?

To animate with full body IK, you need to do the following:

• Pose your character’s body parts by translating and rotating their FBIK effectors or input joints
• Set your character’s FBIK Key Mode (Selected, Body Part, or All) and Reach Mode (Simple, FK, or IK)
• Set keys on the FBIK effectors or input joints you posed with Animate > Set Key or the Set Key hotkey (s key).
  Warning

  • For Animate > Set Key or the Set Key hotkey (s key) to work with FBIK, Set FullBodyIK keys needs to be on in Animate > Set Key > .
  • You cannot use Autokey when animating with FBIK.
  NoteIf you use Key Selected to set FBIK keys on your character, only the currently selected objects’ (FBIK effectors or FK joints) keys are loaded in the Time Slider when Body Part Autoload is off. Therefore, you can easily desynchronize your FBIK Input and FK skeletons when editing FBIK keys set with Key Selected in the Time Slider. For FBIK to work properly, your Input and FK skeletons need to be always synchronized.

  When editing FBIK keys set with Key Selected in the Time Slider, you need to select the FBIK effectors and/or their corresponding FK joints on which the keys reside so that you are editing all the appropriate FBIK keys in the Time Slider. This will keep your Input and FK skeletons synchronized.

Pose characters with full body IK

To pose your character with full body IK, you need to transform your character’s FBIK effectors (for IK type behavior) and input joints (for FK type behavior) while pinning and unpinning your effectors when needed. See Pin and unpin your character’s effectors.

You can also use auxiliary pivots and floor contacts for your characters to aid and enhance their FBIK poses. See Create auxiliary pivots and Create floor contacts for your character’s hands and feet.

Key FBIK effectors and joints

Setting the Key Mode and Reach Mode for your FBIK keys determines where your FBIK keys are placed on your character and whether your character’s FBIK animation is more FK or more IK at any given point during its animation.

When animating your character with FBIK, you can select the Key and Reach modes for your keys from the FBIK marking menu or the Animate > Set Full Body IK Keys window.

To set FBIK keys

1. Pose your character.
2. Select an appropriate Reach Mode for your character. See Reach Mode.
   • The IK mode sets the Reach channel values for your FBIK effectors to 1 and makes sure they are keyed when you set your FBIK keys. IK mode sets that your effectors are completely controlled by IK.
   • The FK mode sets the Reach channel values for your FBIK effectors to 0 and makes sure they are keyed when you set your FBIK keys. FK mode disables your effectors’ IK; allowing the underlying FK skeleton’s joints to drive your character’s animation.
   • The Simple Key mode does not set the Reach channel values of the keyed FBIK effectors; the Reach values do not change and are not keyed.
3. Select the desired Key Mode for your character. See Key Mode.
   • The Selected mode sets keys on the input joints and FBIK effectors you select.
   • The Body Part mode sets keys on the FBIK effector’s and input joints of your character’s body parts.
   • The All mode sets keys on the FBIK effectors and input joints of your entire character.
4. Select the FBIK effectors or input joints you want to key and select Animate > Set Key or press s (the Set Key hotkey) to set keys on them.
   Note

   • FBIK works the best when you have synchronized keys on the FK skeleton and FBIK effectors. You can only set synchronized keys with Animate > Set Full Body IK Keysor when Animate > Set Key > > Set FullBodyIK keys is on.
   • You can set advanced options in your FBIK solution to enhance and refine your character’s poses and animation. See hikHandle.