SEAMLESS IK/FK

ACS3, much like ACS2, is not only about rigging but it’s also about improving animation experience.

As part of this effort I’ve been experimenting with seamless IK/FK workflow. The idea is that you should not need to worry about IK/FK blending and matching - ideally at all. More realistically - in most situations. You can pose a rig with either IK or FK, you do have to switch between IK and FK as you work (only IK or FK controllers are visible at a time) but thanks to automatic matching the change is quick and seamless. Then when you are done you leave the chain in mode in which you want to perform the interpolation between this and next/previous keyframes. For example if the leg is on the ground you will want to leave IK on and when the leg is in the air you might prefer FK for interpolation - regardless of which mode you used for posing this particular frame.

And that’s it. As mentioned above IK blending will be handled automatically for you. The same goes for matching - Every time you change the pose in IK - corresponding FK chain is updated and vice versa.

Please note that the video below presents an incomplete prototype, there is no FK to IK matching yet.

I have to say I found this workflow quite fun to work with, I can’t wait to bring it to you (although there’s a lot of work left before that happens) :).