Biped Rig

Animator Friendly Rig

While creating this Biped Rig special attention was given to making it easier for animators to use. At the most basic level is organization, naming everything properly and making sure the animator can only select or keyframe what we want them to. This attention to detail was applied to each of the following areas as more advanced features were incorporated:

  • Head
    Space switching to minimize counter animation needed
  • Torso
    Independent rotation of hips and shoulders along with a stretchy spine
  • Arms
    Ability to lock elbow and switch between IK/FK
  • Legs
    A no-flip knee with individual controls for finer control of the leg and foot
Biped Rigging Reel

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Details of Biped Rig


Rig Feature List

The Biped Rig has many standard features that are seen on most character rigs. The following list attempts to itemize most of them followed by an in-depth look at a select few characteristics of the rig.

  • Stretchy Spine
  • Stretchy Limbs
  • Adjustable Foot Roll
  • Toe Pivot
  • FK/IK Switching
  • Matching for FK/IK
  • Elbow Locking
  • Twist Joints
  • No-Flip Legs
  • Space Switching
  • Moveable Pivots
  • Global Scale and Translate
  • Isolated Head/Shoulder/Hip
  • Independent Shoulder
  • Unique Iconic Controls
  • Hand Plant/Bend


FK/IK Switching

IK/FK Matching

A common problem when implementing the ability to switch between IK and FK is a visual "pop" in the animation at the point in the timeline where the switch occurs. An animator can spend countless amounts of time trying to match the previous pose and never get it exactly right.

This has been solved by using a small script that reads the transforms of hidden dummy objects and applies those values to the resulting rig.

  • Works on both the arms and legs
  • Match IK to FK or the other way around


Moveable Pivots

There are times when the easiest way to get the motion you want is to adjust the placement of a pivot. Perhaps you don't want the head rotating from behind the ear but the lips or forehead instead. Or perhaps your character is falling through the air and you need to animate them spinning around their center of mass and not their hips.

All of this and much more can be accomodated by this rig. With the help of a small script, new pivots can be created with ease allowing you to control where a joint will rotate from.

Moveable Pivot