[#3] Foot rigging in Blender using IK constraints

This video demonstrates how to rig a foot and leg using IK constraints. The entire foot and leg can be controlled simply with 2 bones, one master bone for the position, and another for the heel/toe lift. This makes it a lot easier to animate a character's walk cycle.
► Previous Video: • [#2] Skinning your cha... (Skinning)
► Next Video: • [#4] Creating foot rol... (Driver Bones)
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Thank you!

[@rikmertens6353]

3:14 create ankle controller 4:12 add knee constraint 5:34 knee controller 7:07 heel controller 8:11 pin toes to ground 10:08 master foot controller 11:45 rotate ankle 12:49 test 13:55 create armature layers 14:35 lock X rotation ankle controller 15:43 fix mirroring problems with symmetrize

[@nooras2260]

4:40 THANK YOU! I was struggling on other tutorials.

[@ImNorman]

THANK YOU! I have watched a bunch of tutorials trying to figure out the best way to do this, and yours was the first that was super simple to follow, and actually worked without too many extra steps or bones.

[@mailmaxxxx]

I have watched a lot (and I mean A LOT) of videos on Blender rigging and IK - and this was by far the best - no fuss, just getting it done, but with those little extras, like the toe bend and heel lift that other tutorials sometimes omit. Thank you!

[@LawrenceAaronLuther]

Based off you and Mr. Bill, people from New Zealand seem chill AF. Thank you for the many educational tutorials.

[@donmiko345]

These additional bones are super useful. I was just animating my first walk cycle, and couldn't get it to look good with the basic IK setup. And the next video with drivers makes it even better! Thank you for sharing this!

[@TheKiwiCoder]

Glad I could help!

[@scientificviking]

simple, to the point, but still explains what youre doing and why- this is awesome for anyone looking to learn blender rigging! super helpful, thank you!

[@Mr.Sozzled]

this is an amazing tutorial it has taught me a lot of simple little details that I was missing thank you!

[@KathyRoss]

3 years old and still be very handy and useful tutorial, thanks!!!! ❤

[@marcelievsky]

The best didatic tutorial for leg and foot ik!

[@Nickynoxe]

This solved a problem I had for years, you’re awesome thank you 🤘✨

[@TheKiwiCoder]

Back at you friend!

[@drendelous]

thanks to your tutorials i have finally started understanding rigging. i hope there is one on fingers along the way

[@isabel-mj1rs]

Best IK Tutorial I've ever watched

[@Roiser101]

Best tutorial for the foot rig. And very simple mechanism.

[@a52productions]

This is super helpful!! Really great tutorial and I'm having fun following it when I had some problems with other similar tutorials. I don't even need that much rigging at all for my game, as most characters will be 2D sprites in a 3D environment, but I'm having so much fun making the foot move and stuff that I can't stop myself from following along anyway.

[@RelaJavo]

dude this is really detailed, it helped me a lot with a small project. I'm not a 3d artist but was playing around with blender and riggin is amazing once it gets to work. thank you so much :D

[@allawi8120]

THIS IS ACTUALLY THE BEST WAY TO IMPORT IT TO GAME ENGINE WITH NO PROPLEMS THANK U SO MUCH

[@E3_Productions]

Great Tutorial you absolute LEGEND! Foot Roll is something I tried to learn myself. But i do not have the complex thinking to do it. Thanks!

[@wardd5265]

I Have been looking for a tutorial that actually explains what everything does like you did! thank you so much for sharing!

[@TheKiwiCoder]

Glad it was helpful!

[@shynnobi]

Thank you for this extremely helpful tutorial! I was able to rig my mecha's legs 🤩

[@JackNoble5]

Your video has helped me out so much, thank you for making this! Most videos I have seen over complicate this or go way to fast.

[@Stefan-tw3fo]

The problem with the IK approach for the toes is that as is you can't actually control the toes. A better alternative is to have a separate bone for toe control, that is parented to the leg IK bone and copy the world space rotation of that toe control bone in the actual toe bone constraints. That way you can use the toe control bone to control the toes, and everything else is working like expected. You should still keep the original toes IK target bone since it's used as the pole target for the foot roll ik! Another small advantage is that it's computationally faster to just copy the rotation, compared to using IK (in the case of a simple rig I don't think it is significant tough).

[@markbay9275]

Great explanation on the foot rigging, friend. Made it east to understand.

[@sikelgaita9861]

Hands dow 1 of the best tutorial series, on another note make shure the leg bones are align with the x axis of the knee IK or a twist will apear, and in my opinion you can parent offset the knee IK to the sole of the foot IK, since a human foot has almost no Z rotation and is rather done by the articular cartilage in the femur

[@rafaelguzmangranado4285]

thank you, i follow a characters in Maya tutorial and many things are diferent whit the constraints but your video help to me to get the goal needit

[@CosmicComputer]

Absolutely fantastic info, thanks!

[@refaking735]

very easy to follow thanks

[@Janovich]

bro there is no control for the toe to move up and down?

[@TACKO3D]

Nice tip on the heel roll. Definitely gonna try on my next rig.

[@nravitsuwanplai4970]

thanks for making this video it's help alot :D

[@mrmensje1]

awesome stuff, great rigging! Thanks so much for sharing

[@unexplainedoccurrences]

This is a great tutorial, it really helped me, thank you.

[@社長-i1f]

THANK YOU

[@TommyLikeTom]

thank you kindly bro

[@SuperDesiree2012]

THANK YOU!

[@super_morto]

I F'N HATE RIGGING!!!!!! sorry just had to get that out after today. Edit: Great video btw!!!! Edit 2: THIS IS AN AMAZING tutorial!!!!! Subbed for this!!!!

[@TheKiwiCoder]

Whoever thought rigging was a good idea needs a talking to 😅

[@super_morto]

I have emotional damage over it!!! 😅@@TheKiwiCoder

[@DarkShroom]

this tutorial is epic, very short and too the point i sorta used this following on from makehuman :) works great, i would rather learn just the animation

[@rosickygaming6888]

Thank you my love

[@pigagu]

Hi, awesome video! I just have one question: after creating the riggings according to the video I then applied it to my base mesh with automatic weights. however, the result was that the heel part of the mesh was welded to the floor as the foot rolling bone was moved. would you happen to know what can cause this problem? thanks!

[@ituachannel3]

thanks

[@TommyLikeTom]

You should have the root of the master bone at the postilion of the toes because when you are rotating the feet usually you rotate from the balls of your feet near your toes, unless you are dancing. Might be worthwhile to add a another bone at the heel for "child of modifier parenting" for dancing. Scratch that, use a pivot modifier to the pivot bone and the master bone, then drive their Y transform with another bone in order to slide the pivot point of the foot

[@TheKiwiCoder]

Awesome tip, thank you!

[@colbyweaver8855]

Hi Kiwi. Awesome video - very clearly explained. Do you mind if I give a shoutout to this video in a video I'm currently making right now?

[@TheKiwiCoder]

Yes please do!

[@rosickygaming6888]

Oh my God you are Really the best you are a great man

[@haruka3203]

let's say you want to make the character do squats, you'd only have to move the entire body down right? But then won't the feet/legs also go down through the floor? So in this case, is there a way to lock the IK feet in place on the floor or something?

[@TheKiwiCoder]

Hey, yes checkout video #5 on spine rigging, I cover some of the concepts there

[@ThatCube1]

4:40 it just moves the bone only. Can you please tell me how to make it move the other bones :(

[@TheKiwiCoder]

Ah I am sorry for not understanding. Please join the discord server and try the blender channel

[@ThatCube1]

@@TheKiwiCoder Never mind, I just did something wrong

[@ThatCube1]

@@TheKiwiCoderJoined your discord server

[@MarvinVolkery]

I cant clear the User transform With the feet… i dont know why this Happend pls help

[@agaerialcinematics1489]

In your final IK armature, the bottom bone that spans from the toe to heel that you are using as a foot placement control, is there a way to input a constraint for a positive Z value such that when animating it prevents the foot from penetrating through the ground plane more easily?

[@patriciafarag2545]

Hello. Amazing tutorial. I wanna ask you how do I put a limit on the shoe so that it does not pass the ground.

[@Annatar0]

how did you set so that rotation in pose mode is always around the selected bone pivot without having to "set cursor to selection"?

[@TheKiwiCoder]

Hmm I'm not sure it just does that automatically for me. Try changing the Orientation space for the cursor from world to local maybe?

[@lm2193]

nice tutorial but don't need any music, quite disturbing.

[@matthowarth5930]

great tutorial, thanks. What is the quickest way to copy across all of the constraints to the other side of the rig? Thanks again.

[@SaniveK_]

@15:30 = Edit mode > select bone to copy > Armature > Symmetrize

[@matthowarth5930]

@@SaniveK_ many thanks

[@eobet]

Fantastic video! I followed it closely, but my toes and feet roll 180 degrees if I lower that "heel" bone too much (the one locked to everything but X). Disabling "inherit rotation" on the toes stopped them from rolling, but the foot bone still flips irregardless of that setting. Will try to figure it out, but if anyone else have encountered it, please let me know how you solved it!

[@eobet]

A limit rotation constraint on the "heel" bone set to local space fixed it, but if there are better options I'm still interested in hearing about them.

[@tiffanysu4184]

how do we make the walk cycle

[@honeste6652]

How do you get the active tool window to disappear again?

[@omnibaker]

Chur bro!

[@TheKiwiCoder]

Chur

[@javednoman3051]

You purchased Final IK for unity, how did you find kindly give me your review, i am thinking of purchasing it too.....

[@TheKiwiCoder]

I only purchased the animation converter. Purchasing final IK will save you time, but another thing to learn too. I prefer to understand the rigging process in DCC tools before I’ll consider purchasing an animation package.

[@plumserve]

Good tutorial for me, having tried others, this one is on my level. I have a problem though. At 12:05 you add a pole target to the IK for the foot bone, pointing at the end toe controller bone. When I do this my foot appears bent and also the heel is off the ground. Ive checked my bone names and parenting etc and all looks ok. The only difference I see with my figure is that the feet are pointed slightly outwards and the foot bone is accordingly pointing out a bit. The controller bones Ive added are all pointing straight along the y axis, so are not fully aligned to the foot bone. Is this likely to be causing my problem?

[@TheKiwiCoder]

It could be, there is rotation property for the pole target also I believe, try tweaking that. I’ve found most success when rigging is constructed all aligned perfectly by default. Then the pose can be tweaked afterwards to point the feet outwards etc.

[@plumserve]

@@TheKiwiCoder yeah I thought it would work better in a straight line. I’m going to build my man again anyway, Mark 2 will be an improvement in design etc! Thanks for the reply.

[@plumserve]

@@TheKiwiCoder Hi - just a quick update, I adjusted the rotation and it looks much better now. Thanks for the tip! I will probably rebuild at some point anyway. Im new to this and need the practice.

[@Mark_bretner]

Somehow I cannot move the legs separately(when I move the left foot the movement is mirrored). Maybe it is a common problem, can someone please help? Thanks

[@jamadolfi8410]

Maybe something wrong with weigh painting. Are both legs painted instead of just one?

[@Mark_bretner]

@@jamadolfi8410 redoing the weight painting helped to improve the overall look of movement so thanks for that. the problem was a stupid one: the Pose options/X axis mirror was switched on -.-'

[@leviathansperch7228]

Hey man , Any chance I could give an inbox somehow? I have run into a problem with my skeleton layout as well as the beginning of this tut with the constraint as mine isnt doing what yours is. Please man , I'd appreciate big time

[@TheKiwiCoder]

Hit me up on discord

[@itsmeatrin]

idk why but when i add the poles the knees wont bend anymore. help

[@TheKiwiCoder]

Ah it’s tricky.. check the bone roll Value. It might be different for you and the pole angle might be different to what’s in the video

[@ImSamhel]

I'm having the same problem. Could you find any solution? Changing the pole angle doesn't work : /

[@inferbee2572]

Please, Please, Please .. NO music at all .. We here to listen to you and not to listen to music that i am very sure you don't listen to while you do this complex tutorial. As it is difficult enough trying to follow you, than having to block out that music, if you wanna call it that. It does not match your level of expertise and skill at Blender.

[@TheKiwiCoder]

I really wish KZbin had two volume controls, one for music for those who enjoy, and one without 🙃

[@inferbee2572]

@@TheKiwiCoder That would be great. I would have the music off so i could hear you :)