ikboost.com

Please note this page has been heavily edited since its first appearance. The animation specific info has been expanded and moved to a seperate page. This page now concentrates on IK Boost specific workflow.

The Posing Pass

Download the scene files used in the videos if you want to play along

IK Boost is a Posing tool - it is not an animation tool - just a Posing tool.

However there are some workflow practices and IK Boost features that we can use that will help us out some more:
First let’s re-cap some of the basic principles of IK Boost.

• IK Boost is a Posing tool - it is not an animation tool - just a Posing tool
• IK Boost is not a full-time IK system, it is a part-time IK system, all of its results are actually FK!
• The only time IK happens, is when a controller is dragged about the screen.
• Controllers are dragged around in screen-space, this means the view-port alignment of your character has a very big effect on where your character’s ‘bits’ go.
• There are FK, World-Space and User-Axis controls too, for a full review of all tools please see the Introductory Videos.
• You can ‘ik stop’ at any controller, a typical usage is at the hip-joint, for when you want to pose a leg - but don’t want the rest of the body to follow.
• You can Fix or ‘Pin’ controllers. Controllers are mostly found on body joints, but they can also be added anywhere they are wanted or needed. You can see this in action and how it helps to draw a pose in the Introductory videos.
• A Fixed controller will only have its position fixed in space - not it’s rotation. There is a simple way to fix its rotations (over a range of frames) as well, and I will show this separately in a tutorial of its own, because it has caused some confusion.
• All of these tools can be quickly turned on and off during the drawing of each separate pose.

Weighting

When the animation requires a Weighting Point to remain in place right through a weight shift, you can leave that controller Fixed while you create the all three poses.

If you try to over stretch the character so that the fixed controller cannot remain in place, IK Boost will draw a little yellow warning line from the controller back to where it should be.

Don’t forget to un-Fix a controller when finished posing the weight shift!

Fixed controllers do their job best when only one controller per chain is fixed. Two fixed controllers on one chain can put enough pressure on each other to nudge one out of place.

In IK Boost we will make these Poses with the Keyframe mode set to All Items. Since these Poses have to be strong, we don’t want any other motions interfereing with them.

And it will help when we add actual timing bewtween Poses, when moving keys on the DopeTrack or in the Dope Sheet.

Timing

OK! So you have all your Beginnings, Middles and Ends perfect! Now you want to add some timing…

Let’s assume you are finished working out the timing in the Dope Sheet (nothing for IK Boost to see here), and have transferred all that into Layout as gaps between poses. Now just to have one last look at the timing to see how cool you animation looks…. and oooohhhh shhiii…..

What just happened? My character is floating all around the place!
Don’t panic, that’s just the computer trying to guess what you want - and the computer is stupid… If you look at your keyframes only (Shift+Left/Right Arrow Keys), you’ll notice they are still perfectly formed and intact, it’s only the bits in between that are going off track. And IK Boost is going to help you fix them in a Jiffy….

This is also a good reason to do your timing outside of LightWave with ‘pencil-timer’ software such as MonkeyJam, because the floating movements of your character will be a distraction from concentrating on the timing between Key Poses.

Clean & Polish

Um… did I say that IK Boost was a posing tool, not an animation tool? I did? oh….

Well… it’s kinda true, no it is true… but -

IK Boost also has some cleanup tools than can operate over a range of Frames.

It can go through a selected range of Frames and adjust each Pose to get rid of that floating we saw after adding the timing.

Step forward Bind and Bake

Bind and Bake work in two different ways, but both will take a controller, look at its position in one frame and move it in the following frame so that it is in exactly the same place.

How Bind works:
Bind will look at the position of a selected controller and moved the whole character so that the controller stays in exactly the same place over a given range of frames. Bind can only be used on one controller in a given frame range, Binding frame ranges cannot overlap.

So how is this useful?
Since Binding will effectively keep a controller in one place, that makes it perfect for something - Weighting Points! As a weight shift happens, the Weighting Point remains in place from Beginning through Middle through End, then this is exactly what we need.

This ensures the weight we have drawn in our Poses carries through to the weight in our Animation.

BUT, BUT, BUT…
My characters is standing on the spot, and he’s moving a really heavy crate from the top shelf to the middle shelf - The soles of his shoes are glued to the floor all through the action ! ? !
(I might argue that the weight will be shifting from the heels to the balls - but that wouldn’t be very helpful would it?)
The solution for this situation is to fix the ankles, but not just in position - in rotation too.
And Yep, you’ve guessed it - this is where Bake comes in…

How Bake works:
While Bind moves the whole character to keep a controller in place - Bake moves the actual controller, in exactly the same as if you were to try and do this manually with your mouse. It will go through each frame in the range and drag that controller back into position so that it remains perfectly in place for every frame. Bake can be used on multiple controllers in a given frame range, Baking frame ranges can overlap.

Baking is best done with Keyframe Mode set to current.

But wait a minute, I just spent 2 days making my Poses perfect - and now you want me to let the computer adjust them ?!?
NO! IK Boost will read your perfect Key Poses and use them to correct the bad Poses in between (the ones it had guessed for you). You could of course, do this manually, and you probably will if animating on 1s, but very few computer animators have the time to draw a full pose on every frame. Poses can often be on 3s or 4s (by this, I mean the frame interval between poses). Of course, we will be rendering every frame, so the action will need to be right for every frame.

Isn’t it a bit troublesome to have all those keyframes written on every frame?
No, the keyframes only get written on a Point that you don’t want to move, and since they are giving us exactly what we need, then that’s no trouble at all.

If you have been following along… have you noticed anything yet? Yes, you’re finished… But isn’t there supposed to be some pain and anguish during cleanup? editing curves or something?

…not with IK Boost

Binding and Baking is probably still a bit confusing, so here’s a couple more videos to help clear them up.

Baking and Binding for cleanup

Glueing the feet to the floor