Blender IK/FK switching in Animation (Tutorial) [Part 1]

[@CGDive]

*Take your Blender Rigging to the next level with my advanced Courses* academy.cgdive.com/courses

[@jayok1930]

honestly the best soft tutorial ive ever seen. short and straight to the point ! i love it

[@silverkinde]

Taking in it to the dissection room with ease. Your tutorials make me leap forward big. Thanks a bunch man. I had no choice but respecting your teaching materials with a subscription to your cause and likes for the consistency.

[@R_FangZ]

This tutorial was a godsend, I was worried I couldn't switch to IK after animating a model with FK for 2 hours, and I couldn't understand how those options in the Rigify menu worked either. You just saved my project, thank you so much!

[@CGDive]

That's so cool! Glad I could help!

[@heiro5]

Todor! Another crucial tutorial answering the questions I am just now struggling with. And as always, in your clear, thorough and concise style. Class is in session! Thank you.

[@CGDive]

Oh, cool! Glad you are enjoying the content!

[@mynzelah6883]

Can't tell but it feels like this was a direct response to a question I asked in your discord. Very much appreciated.

[@CGDive]

Yeah, it's possible. But it's been a while so I can't remember exactly. :)

[@markokovacevic3225]

Always great seeing the notification of you posting!

[@Patricebrouh]

Wow, this video is so instructive. Thanks

[@velvetwulf6803]

Thanks, as always your videos are a great help!

[@binjiling]

Thank you so much, this walkthrough is very instructive!

[@alexandermoyle9034]

nice! ive done the whole rigging process myself before, which is fun and interesting, but im using rigify to faster concept ideas and movement, i really appreciate all the work u put into this. edit: been watching a whole lot of ur videos, so this is more of a general comment ^^ tho this IK/FK switching is helpful knowledge too

[@dkvsmkbna]

this is legit! thx bro 😊

[@KinnyLovesYou]

Thanks! I need this one. you save my life hehe

[@CGDive]

You're welcome 😊

[@dave-cripps]

Tutorial idea. I wondered if you had investigated the various muscle addons, such as X-Muscle System and what your thoughts might be on them.

[@CGDive]

I haven't tried them but I am very interested in muscle suolution. It's already on my todo list :)

[@n0ahg1]

@@CGDive I'm interested in you doing a video on x-muscle system's integration with auto rig pro... held off on the purchase! Love your vids!

[@CGDive]

@@n0ahg1 got it. Maybe not coming very soon but I would like to do something like that.

[@SheigonSheffield]

Really interesting new series.

[@paulo.dionisio]

I got a 3 bone ik chain for arm, low arm is ik parented to an offset bone near hand joint. All works fine, but when switch to fk with influence set to 0 hand won't follow low arm cause it's a child of ik target bone. Can you point me a solution?

[@9b8ll]

Thanks fam, this is well informed about ik and fk 😀

[@petarbaltiev3051]

Hi, great video! I have specific problem with 2 hands rigging and this is the first video that partly solves it but I still face some difficulties. I think it will be interesting subject for another totorial too. Long story short - I am trying to make a barbell push with a mocaped rig and It turned out to be more complicated than I expected. If you have some free time I would appreciate if you give me a chance to explain my problem.

[@CGDive]

Please explain your problem :)

[@hotsauce7124]

Hello. May I ask, what is the correct method of using Dynamic Parent with an arm with the Rigify IK/FK switch? If I use Dynamic Parent a gun to the Rigify “IK” hand control, the gun will not move with the hand if I switch to the Rigify “FK” control.

[@hotsauce7124]

Do you have a video describing how to set up body morph target corrections with Rigify?

[@CGDive]

Don't think so, sorry.

[@MRZNOISYBOY]

rig main properties not showing

[@buriedomasta3375]

just what I needed thanks

[@coverdestroyer3572]

Why when I switch fk to ik there is a little bit rotate, not perfect like yours?

[@CGDive]

Hmm, I am not sure. Did you snap the IK to FK or vice versa? It is possible that the IK snapping is not perfect in some cases. Correct it manually if you have to.

[@kellyjohnson768]

what about when you are combining motion capture with frame by frame animation with a character? As soon I switch to IK after the motion capture animation, all the animation starts acting weird and not like its supposed to

[@CGDive]

"weird and not like its supposed to" is a feeling and is not relevant here, sorry. Technically, I can assure you it is acting exactly as it should. You need to learn the technicalities. If you know how switching IK/FK works, it should not be a problem.

[@kellyjohnson768]

@@CGDive well, if you want me to be more specific, if I try to use the process you describe between time 3:32 and 4: 48 when switching between the FK mocap and where I start the IK manual animation keyframing, it doesn't give the smooth transition in the this video.

[@dongiovanni1993]

Note thou that this IK/FK switching can break if you use sub-frames (e.g. if you use sampled motion blur). When the sub-frame is calculated, the "immediate" switch becomes gradual and thus visible. So, if you consider to use sub-framing (or other time manipulations) in the future, try to avoid these "immediate" (one frame) switches.

[@CGDive]

Any advice on how to deal with that?

[@dongiovanni1993]

@@CGDive If we deal with 'analogue' switches like IK/FK it's simpler because in subframes its value is correctly calculated, and the transition is smooth, and rarely noticeable. Usually it's enough to key everything involved (all FK, and all IK bones) at the frame of switch change, and at the frame immediately before. Things become worse if we deal with pure 'digital' switches (like constraint ON/OFF, physics ON/OFF, etc) which evaluate to 0 and 1 (non-zero) only, with no lerp in between. In this case the only reliable way I found is to explicitly scale the timeline (having enough frames), then move critical keys closer by hand, and then render just needed frames (merging them together if the Sampled motion blur is intended). The same I do with keys if I scale the animation time (increasing time, slower motion). I think there bust be a better way, but I don't know it yet.

[@CGDive]

@@dongiovanni1993 Thanks for the info!

[@caspersuniverse565]

please make a video about extra bones, how to rig skirts, cloaks, armor, or how to set up physics in unreal

[@CGDive]

Those are a lot of requests. One at a time! Will get there 😆

[@curiaproduction2.020]

I can't understand, I do the same thing as you but it still busts me I use the mixano rig and then whole character as key non location and rotation with autokey activated maybe it's different I don't know could you help me?

[@CGDive]

I don't understand your long sentence so no I can't, sorry. Make sure you understand the rig you use!

[@candyeyes1660]

If I switch the hands to FK mode before I start animating, can I just do the whole hand animation in FK and not get distracted by switching between FK and IK during the animation? As I've noticed, when animating the walking cycle, the IK at the hands only gets in the way of putting the hands in the required poses. I'm new to Blender and 3D animation, and this rigging issue sometimes makes me want to just delete blender and go work in a factory.

[@CGDive]

Haha. Animating certain movements such as the bar swing shown here are very tough when using fk. That is what this video is for. But you can do whatever you want. For a walk cycle, sure, fk works great.

[@greasy_breads]

i have seen animation tutorials where the ik automatically follows the fk and you can just use them separately and its all seamless. how are they doing this?

[@CGDive]

Show me the tuts you saw. I'd love to take a look. In Blender, I think only one system had automatic IKFK switching but it is not being updated.

[@greasy_breads]

@@CGDive kzbin.info/www/bejne/g6uti2qveqqaiKM i can see the red following as he adjusts the green, and vice versa.

[@CGDive]

@@greasy_breads Ah, that's just a button that switches the mode, hides the controls you don't need and unhides the ones you need. It's a nice automation and saves clicks but it's nothing you can't live without.

[@aa-ct6uu]

i would like to use the same referense you use in this video so if it's on youtube can you please tell the name or url?

[@CGDive]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bHeoqHuuoc1ogK8

[@davidffortesmeireles5328]

great tip

[@CGDive]

Glad you liked it

[@Zano3D]

Can you show how to do this on auto rig pro?

[@CGDive]

Yeah, I think I could make a similar tut using ARP later on in the series.

[@JamesNeutron115]

I’m not using rigify I’m just using a metarig I wanna know how to snap fk to ik and ik to fk but no one has a tutorial on how to do it with the base metarig without having to make a different armature.

[@CGDive]

Noone has a tutorial because it's not possible.

[@NOVO75]

hi! when I snap IK to FK it doesn't achieve the correct position, besides if I continue pressing the switch IK>FK it go to a different position each time... any idea of what is happening here?

[@CGDive]

With a Rigify rig? I am not sure, sounds like something is broken :)

[@NOVO75]

It’s a rigify rig produced by Human Generator V3 add-on, when I snap fk to ik there is no problem, but when snapping ik to fk the rotation of the arm bone is different when it goes from the previous frame in fk to the next in ik (which I get from snaping from a fk pose and then switching to ik to achieve continuity like you teach in the video) the the arm goes crazy and spin strangely in the transition from one frame to the next

[@hotsauce7124]

Thank you

[@jryu619]

hey! where is the ik parent control in auto rig pro?

[@CGDive]

Hi. See under Tool > Rig main properties > Snap Child of..

[@tanmoyroy9081]

I would like to know that how to switch IK to FK for finger bones?

[@CGDive]

The same way as switching the arm but first finger IK has to be enabled in the metarig and you have to generate the rig :)

[@tanmoyroy9081]

@@CGDive As suggested, I have checked the option for IK to FK switch in N panel but no option for switching, like hand or leg, is found for fingers. As also advised, both IK and FK for fingers are enabled in pose mode. Both IK and FK can control the fingers but when I did keyframes for finger by IK bones and then want to transfer those keyframes for FK finger bones, no such option is appearing as it happens for hand or leg. :(

[@alberttarimo]

Rigman properties don't appear in mine, what could be the problem?

[@CGDive]

Rigman?

[@alberttarimo]

@@CGDive it think I mistyped but I meant the settings that allow you to switch between ik and fk, never mind though I already found a solution, it's to run the python scripts in the scripting tab. Cheers 👍.

[@MatheusLima-dn4fr]

I have joined my rigify with facerig, is there a way to regenerate my rigify and keep facerig controls?

[@MatheusLima-dn4fr]

Facerig was done with face it addon

[@CGDive]

No, at least not easily. That's why I always warn against using "Frankenstein" rigs. Is the face a Rigify face or a customer one?

[@MatheusLima-dn4fr]

@@CGDive It is an addon called Faceit, it has a different interface and some features to help on face rigs, but it is based on rigify.

[@CGDive]

@@MatheusLima-dn4fr Ah, FaceIt... I haven't tried it yet so not sure about the workflow...

[@hfvcefvvbb]

I have problem, When, I'm switch my character to pose mode, and I doing some pose, eyeballs staying and don't moving with whole body (yes I join them). Someone have solutions thanks

[@CGDive]

Sounds like the eyes are not parented or weighted the same way as the body. Make sure you understand weight painting well. This is my playlist about that. kzbin.info/aero/PLdcL5aF8ZcJsFEdlMJ7To0Iu9s-XCFV3W

[@CaCriGuz]

Thanks :)

[@rek001]

Change from IK to FK 1:17

[@kashifjameelghouri]

Please make collection folder for the series videos, all videos have randomly mixed that quickly got out of series, between lots of videos it's hard to find the next series correct video.

[@CGDive]

Like a playlist, right? I'm already doing that. Just look at the Playlist section of the channel 🙂 This is part of the Bar Swing playlist.

[@adrianthomas608]

Where can I get the custom pivot rig if I am not using rigify? thanks

[@CGDive]

It's a Rigify feature. You can build it yourself of course but don't ask me how 😆

[@RUPROBASS]

Dudeeeee!!!!! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@CGDive]

Brooooooooo!

[@RUPROBASS]

@@CGDive The IK to FK and vice versa snapping was under my nose the whole time... Thank you so much, also the constant transition tip was very much welcome!

[@CGDive]

@@RUPROBASS Awesome, I am glad it was useful :)

[@n0ahg1]

Please can you compare AccuRig with Auto Rig Pro and Rigify (ARP would be good as you have already compared these two!)?

[@CGDive]

I'll make a video about AccuRig soon but how should I compare it to ARP? They are quite different.

[@n0ahg1]

@@CGDive It would be nice to compare the paid (I own ARP) options and the free (but obvious commercial drive) options. Reallusion are pushing AccuRig and it would be a help to see a basic character rigged in both to see which wins (joint deformation etc.). Does AccuRig use Voxel Heat Diffusion or some other technique to produce better results. Sorry if this is off the mark, I'm new to rigging :-)

[@stezyrz9081]

nice

[@camilocarreno8672]

GRACIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!!!!!!!!!

[@CGDive]

de naaaaadaaaa

[@cytcrickettoper7768]

YESS

[@mithilinamdar2783]

I get it

[@CGDive]

Cool! 😎

[@andrewprahst]

The thumbnail looks like some goofball is getting ready to tickle some feet

[@CGDive]

Hahahaha 🤣

[@jasonwilliams8730]

👍

[@forestlong1]

Ahhh! I from Russia ,sorry!

[@CGDive]

?

[@senyourgman9915]

Nasty charge never said it did but ok

[@CGDive]

I'm sorry, what?