Bird Rigging Part 1: FK to FK

So a while ago i worked with an animator who requested that she had the ability to shape the wing after the bird tucks in the arm. The FK to FK system was born!

Think of it like a IK to FK but instead you have you rest control chain and your open chain.

If you get the blending of your feathers just right it work perfectly!

In this setup i used a combination of matrix nodes to blend the feathers, and 3 joint chains a Fk for the wings, Fk for the rest pose and a result chain.

here's a simple bird rig demonstrating the setup. Its goes without saying the rig should have ik option for animators.

Bird_fkfk_setup.zip

Download ZIP • 466KB

Again if you need me to run you through it reach out. Jason