Kinematic Joint Property Editor

| General | Rotation Limits | Resolution Plane

To display: Select a bone or effector and press Enter, or click the Kinematic Joint icon in the explorer.

General

Preferred Rotation Angles

For more information, see Changing the Joint's Preferred Angle [Character Animation].

X/Y/Z

Sets the preferred rotation angles for the joint. The preferred angles determine how the chain's IK will be solved.

Joint Behavior

For more information, see Creating Subchains for Independent Movement [Character Animation].

Joint Is Pseudo-Root	When on, the bone's joint is set as a pseudo-root. A pseudo-root begins a subchain but is also fixed in local space. See Making a Joint into a Pseudo-root [ Character Animation ].
Use Stiffness	The joint's stiffness setting is selected when using IK. See Setting Joint Stiffness [ Character Animation ].
Stiffness	Sets the stiffness level, which is the amount of resistance a joint will have to rotate when using IK. Stiffness values can range from 0 to 1.

Chain or Subchain Behavior

For more information, see Creating Subchains for Independent Movement [Character Animation].

Chain/Subchain Type

Sets the type of joint used by the bone. A setting of Default means that the joint is the same type as the rest of the chain or subchain. (The first joint in a chain or subchain is always a 3D joint.) A setting of 2D or 3D means that a subchain starts at this joint and the subchain will use this type of joint.

Changing a setting of 2D or 3D to Default will remove a subchain, unless the joint is a pseudo-root.

Rotation Limits

For more information, see Setting Restrictions on Movement [Character Animation].

Active	When on, the rotation limits will be used to restrict the joint's range of motion.
Minimum/Maximum Angles	Specifies the minimum and maximum angles that determine a joint's rotation limits. A 2D joint only uses the Z angles.

Resolution Plane

Res Plane

By default, the resolution plane of a 2D chain is determined by the local X and Y axes of the first joint. The resolution plane can be modified by selecting Up Vector or Preferred Axis, either of which you can define using their associated parameters below.

Roll

When a 2D chain is animated with inverse kinematics (its effector is translated), you cannot rotate its bones in X. This is because solving the chain in IK overrides any animation that has been done on a bone's X (or Y) rotation. To solve the problem of being able to rotate the IK bone in X, you can set its Roll value.

The Roll defines the rotation of the bone relative to its own axis. This rotation is propagated to the other bones. Roll is only considered if a 2D chain (or subchain) is animated with IK.

For more information, see Rolling an IK Bone [Character Animation].

Use Preferred X Rotation as Roll

Uses the chain's preferred X rotation value as the roll value.

With this option on, you can interactively rotate the bones in X (local or global) if you are using the 3D Behavior mode.

Up Vector

For more information on these options, see Constraining the Chain's Up Vector (Direction) [Character Animation].

X, Y, Z

If you select Up Vector from the Res Plane list, you can set these values to define the up-vector constraint's X, Y, Z location in global space. This lets you set an up-vector constraint without using a constraining object (this is known as a static up vector).

Use Root Coordinates

Specifies a static up vector using the chain root's coordinates instead of global coordinates. There are two main implications of using the chain root's coordinates:

The static up vector moves with the chain. This is a good alternative to using an up-vector control object when you know the up vector won't change relative to the root.
You can override the default resolution plane behavior.

Preferred Axis

For more information on these options, see Constraining the Preferred Axis of Rotation [Character Animation].

X, Y, Z	If you select Preferred Axis from the Res Plane list, you can set these values to define this constraint's X, Y, Z location in global space. This lets you set a preferred axis constraint without using a constraining object (this is known as a static preferred axis).
Use Root Coordinates	Specifies a static preferred axis using the chain root's coordinates instead of global coordinates, same as for up vectors (see above).

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