FK IK switching in Maya using Set Driven Key

[@fallency5747]

I know I'm like 8 Years too late but this tutorial helped me alot to understand how the switch works. Great Work! Thank you.

[@danodanoo]

I know this video is a few years old but still have to say, great tutorial, you would make a great teacher, thank you :)

[@nathanronaldwebb]

Thanks, I actually use to teach at the Art Institute a few years ago. That's why I made these videos. Glad you like it.

[@orozcoapaza1660]

By far the best explanation about this topic, better than any payed training videos I was watching, thanks Nathan....

[@nathanronaldwebb]

Hello. I'm glad that you found the video useful.

[@sandipkumar-dl4gv]

Best tutorial on IK/ FK switching. Thanks, Nathan!

[@crowdsmurf]

Hey Nathan, just wanted to thank you for a great tutorial; helped me a lot!

[@articfoxz]

Thanks for the tutorial I was having troubles linking the 3 chains of bones, :D i wish you to have a nice day and a great week

[@ORANGAMI]

thanks Nathan, really helpful stuff, and straight to the point as well

[@himanshi869]

Thanks a ton. Waiting for more tutorials

[@nathanronaldwebb]

Hey. I'm glad that you found it useful. On my own rigs, I use the 3 joint chain method, as I find it easier to animate, and the rig seems cleaner.. At my current job, our rigs are like that too. I haven't used the new IK blend method before, except for just a quick test. Using the old method lets your rigs be more backwards compatible too, so that's a plus. Try both though and see what you like though.

[@callmedooni]

Thanks Nathan! Needed this info in a quick bind, you were much help! :)

[@mananrb]

Best tutorial for this, everrrrrr

[@yogeshgaikwad3546]

plz can u tell wats the use of using old method of creating ur own ikfk switch when maya now has built in ik fk.???

[@jhonut84]

Great tut Nathan !! keep it up!

[@ThundrKnight]

how would you do to have the fk follow the ik, or how to get the circle controlers to dissapeer acordingly id like to see a continuing cuss this rose to many questions and i away and answer despretly.

[@henrytoys4205]

Super excellent friend, nice, very educational!

[@ambrizje90]

Hey thanks for the tutorial very helpful...How do you show the constraints in the outliner because i cannot see them when i orient the bones?

[@rima-chan]

You saved my grades omg. thank you.

[@mariobortas462]

Really great tutorial!

[@NathanaelXavier]

wow, I've been trying to find this method of FK IK switching all over the internet, and I finally found it! Thanks so much for making this tutorial, VERY VERY helpful. Just one QUESTION: which method is easier when it comes to controlling and animating the character? The New or the Old Method? Thanks again man :)

[@chuchioooo]

hey nathan, i was wondering if the switch( Visibility on/off) between the controlers of the ik and fk that you create when doing the arm can be turn on and off with set driven too, or do you have a run a script for that.

[@nathanronaldwebb]

Hi. I think using the IK blend value is okay for simple rigs where you directly animate on the joint chain and ik handle, but I've never rigged anything with it, or used a rig that used it. On professional rigs, you animate on NURBS curves that control the rig. If you can setup something like that using the ik blend, go for it.

[@Sleyn89]

I was wondering if there is any reason to use the blendcolor node method over this one? Because this seems much simpler to me.

[@mrbanana101]

Excellent tutorial! I was looking for hours lastnight for a simple manual FKIK switch tutorial, and here it is --- thanks! One question though - when it comes time to animate, the FK arm and the IK arm should be hidden, right? (but, with a visible object to control the IK handle, of course). Naturally, to rotate the real arm with FK, I would just select joints on the real arm and rotate them, rather than on the FK arm since the FK arm would be hidden. How would I go about this?

[@ferochas]

Hi, Nathan for the legs it´s the same example? or change any

[@streuselkuchen1]

really helpful tutorial!!

[@nathanronaldwebb]

Hello. I'm glad you like the tutorial. I have one on doing finger rigging. Just look at all my videos. It's a 2 part video on finger rigging. I believe it covers setting up finger roll and spread using set driven key.

[@deemuun]

great vid- thanks so much!

[@nathanronaldwebb]

Hi Fernando. When rigging legs, you can use the exact same method.

[@Tilr701]

hi thank you for this tutorial. I needed one on the Finger roll and finger spread set up so if you could upload that it would be very helpful. thank you

[@nathanronaldwebb]

Hello. Yes, you can use set driven key to do the same thing with the visibility.

[@jonalbertson5241]

Hi Nathan. I am in my first semester of teaching computer animation and found this very useful (and practical) for an explanation of an IK/FK switch set up. Great job. I would greatly appreciate hearing your version of set up for a biped character squash and stretch spine. I have followed several videos (including the long series on the Maya Learning Channel) for spine setup process, but I find them all to be a bit too complicated for first semester animation students. I know that expressions are used frequently (to drive the scale of the joints), but I am just curious on what your take would be. Thanks for your time.

[@jonalbertson5241]

Also. On the FK IK blend control, I am not sure why you set the value from 0-10. It appears I get the same result whether I the set the value 0-1 or 0-10. Is the higher number supposed to slow down the fade of the switch?

[@Simple1DEA]

how do I link visibility of controllers with set driven keys? (or any other method)

[@nathanronaldwebb]

+Simple1DEA Hello. To have the controls visibility driven by set driven key, you'd make the your ik/fk switch value be the driver, and the visibility of all your controls be the driven. Set your ik/fk switch to the "I'm using IK" value (either 0 or 1), make the visibility of the IK controls be "on" or 1 in the channel control, and make the visibility of the fk controls be "off" or 0. Hit the "set" button in the set driven key box. Next, set your ik/fk switch to the "I'm in FK mode" value, turn the IK controls visibility to "off" or 0, turn the FK controls visibility to "on" or 1, then hit the set button in the set driven key. That should work. Test it out by changing the value of your ik/fk switch from 0 to 1 and see if the controls switch their visibility.

[@Simple1DEA]

+Nathan Webb Thanks a lot!

[@mrbanana101]

Because in the video, you'd rotate the FK arm directly. But I'd prefer to rotate the real arm directly for FK. In a sense, rotating the real arm would drive the rotations of the FK arm... but yet the real arm's rotation are affected by the FK arm. I'm confusing my myself, but hopefully my question isn't too confusing! lol

[@nathanronaldwebb]

Hi. I'm glad that you like the tutorial. You don't want to actually animate the joints themselves. Setup NURBs control objects that orient constrain the fk joints, and control objects to move the IK arms IK handle (point constrain or parent it), rotate the IK wrist joint (orient)_, and move the elbow pole vector (point const or parent it). Setup a switch someplace to blend between the IK/FK constraints. Good luck! You can see examples on my site, nathanwebbanimation.

[@Simple1DEA]

I need to figure out how to rig the fingers so that the finger pose stays the same when I switch IK and FK. I can't figure out a way that avoids a cycle which I definitely don't want.

[@nathanronaldwebb]

+Simple1DEA You'll need to write a mel script which makes FK match IK, and the other way around. When going from IK to FK, you get the attributes of the IK joints, then set the FK controls to those values. When going from FK to IK, get the position of the fk end joint (last fk controller) and translate the IK control to that position. I don't remember how to get the pole vector in the right place, but it can be done with mel. If you find out, please post here. Thanks, and good luck.

[@cristiandragomir3266]

BRO, I LOVE U....hondres of tut on rigged character, and this is very easy and fast 2 work with..but is still working with full character constraining? u dont have pole vector,aim and all of the constrains...i only ask, BUT again, never cross my mind this method. thks

[@wyj2315]

Thank a lot ,I need your tutoial!

[@mickey321qw]

You need his tutorial? But you already watched it

[@wyj2315]

I' m sorry, I mean it is exactly what this video is the tutorial I need.

[@nathanronaldwebb]

To get the FK to follow the IK, you could write a MEL script to snap the FK controllers rotation to the rotation of the IK joints. Do a google search for "fk ik mel script" and you'll find some help. To get the FK controllers to be hidden with the rig it set to IK, use set driven key to have the switch control the visibility of the FK controllers.

[@IGarrettI]

Hey man! Love this, right now I will stick to the first method, but will for sure come back here soon to try the second one. I was wondering tho, If I use the first method, and I have my control curves (let's take the one around the wrist) Should I parent it both to the IK and the wrist bone?

[@nathanronaldwebb]

+IGarrettI Hello Garrett. I'm glad that you like the video. If you're using the built in ik/fk blending in Maya, I'm not sure that you can use a control object to animate the arm and still keep the cool ik/fk blending. If you parent a control object to the IK handle, the IK handle will move the controller. If you parent the IK handle to the controller, then the controller will move the IK handle, but it may not work in FK mode. Remember that you can only have one parents, so you can't parent the controller to both the IK and the wrist bone. You could use 2 parent constraints to do it like that, but then you'd have to have them blend on and off. On all of the rigs that I've worked with professionally, the use the 3 bone chain system that I explain in the 2nd part, so I'm honestly not to versed in the built in switching method. Good luck!

[@IGarrettI]

Nathan Webb Alright, thank you for the help! I would use the Human IK, but it isnt too customisable for models that stand out from the human shape (like having a tail). Anyway, will try it out. Is this method supposed to be used for arms and legs only, or anywhere that IK were used, like fingers and spine (But I guess It would create a cluster?). Also I would love to see your approach for facial rigging D:

[@nathanronaldwebb]

The 3 joint chain method is usually used with arms, legs and spine. For spines, you usually use spline Ik, because it allows for using more then 3 joints, and has twist features instead of a pole vector control. You usually don't need IK on fingers; fk is fine for most cases. For faces, I have a two old videos that shows what I use to teach my students. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2TMnZ6hmrKJjtk I pretty much use the method from the book Stop Staring. Worth getting on Amazon.

[@IGarrettI]

Nathan Webb Damnnn Thanks a lot!!Will check it all out

[@nathanronaldwebb]

Hi. No, I don't see any benefit to using the blend color node method. It seems overly complicated to me as well.

[@vinicimmm]

thanks, fast and usuable

[@Tritoon710]

Thank you so much

[@shevanvfx]

brilliant

[@Ravi57731]

Best video for me....can I know ik & fk stretch rigging without script....and using node editor..I need that tutorial PLZ

[@zwarth123]

thank you

[@nathanronaldwebb]

Hi. In a fully done fk/ik rig you'll hide the joints for the FK and IK rigs, and have fk and ik control objects to drive the skinned (real) arm, and a switch that blends between them. You won't touch the skinned arms joints, but it'll look like you are, because it's driven by the controls. I have examples of this that you can download on my website, nathanwebbanimation.

[@nathanronaldwebb]

Hello Jesus. The constraints should show up with red exclamation marks (!) in the outliner, underneath the thing they are constraining. The constrained object should have a + mark next to it, noting that there are things underneath it. Click on the + to expand it, and you should see the constraint.

[@nathanronaldwebb]

Hello. Did you rig the character yourself, or is it one of the free online ones? Many free online ones have ik/fk snapping functions. If you rigged it yourself, you can write a mel script to do it. You can google ik/fk mel script and find one that you could modify to work with your rig. I can send you one I wrote if you mail me at nathanwebb at hotmail dot com.

[@FilthyVirus]

Very good tutorial!

[@santodkewl]

Thank you thanks a lot