The Kinematic Tool for Blender

Kinematic switching so effortless, you can actually animate.

For animators tired of the sluggishness and lack of control common with entry-level rigs, the Kinematic Tool for Blender offers a ground-breaking approach to animation:

-Revolutionary automatic FK to IK snapping.

-The first and last keyframes of IK ranges remain in IK, so you can edit your poses immediately.

-Movable IK pivots, freedom of footwork.

-Invisible inactive chains, clean workspace.

-Mindless kinematic chain rigging.

Here's how to wield it:

1. Select any 3-bone deformation chain (say of the arm or leg). Assemble a Kinematic Limb.

2. Animate by defining IK ranges. Every frame of an IK range, from the first to the last, is in IK.

3. Turn on automatic alignment to avoid manual snapping and extra clicking.

4. Unlock the IK pivot point, move it, and lock it in place. Twist and pivot however you desire

The tool gives access to slephy.discord and comes packed with 4 pre-rigged models so you can start playing about immediately.

Want a full layout of all the features (such as FK to IK batch alignment, the built-in follow-rotation operator, automatic system keyframe interpolation, deformation bone motion path calculator, automatic motion path updating, and standalone follow-rotation rigging), and how to use them? ---> Check out the User Manual at kinematictool.xyz

The current release is version 2.0.2, available for Blender 4.2+ (as of July 27, 2024). Version 2 has been developed and refined since February 2023.

Rigging is mindless.

Movable IK pivots come with every rigged limb.

IK ranges define IK and FK starts and ends.

Setup IK ranges quickly.

Batch align (snap) FK to IK with the push of a button.

Toggle visibility of inactive kinematic chains without hiding animation data.

Automatic FK to IK chain alignment.

Automatic motion paths updating.

Switch between Follow Rotation ON and Follow Rotation OFF.

Top right tool shelf for heavy-use animation operators.

Prototyper f & m come pre-rigged with the Kinematic Tool.

The Uniped & Biped pre-rigged practice models also come with the Kinematic Tool.

LICENSING:

The Kinematic Tool and the pre-rigged models that come with purchase are licensed for any commercial use (such as for games or animation) except resale and merchandising.

UPDATE LOG:

2.0.3

September 8, 2024

Just some minor changes:

• Renamed "Auto-update" button to "Automatic features".
• Changed the automatic features "Max limb count" setting to 4 by default.
• Resolved a bug in "Select Nearest Kinematic Keyframe Column" of the timeline operators that wasn't selecting the pole bone.
• Removed "Error Reset Threshold" from auto settings. Ain't no reason to adjust it.

2.0.2

July 27, 2024

• Newly updated Prototypers! ~Half the vertex count!
• "Set + Keyframe Pivot Bone" operator now only keyframes the end and pivot bones. Make sure to key the location bone if you don't use auto-keyframing!
• Changed the default value for "Delay before firing" for auto-updates to 0.25.
  

2.0.1c

May 9, 2024

• I accidentally left some masking settings on in the Prototyper - f model, so I removed those. If you were having trouble rendering your f model's hands and legs, either remove the Mask modifiers in the object stack or just turn off the render settings. Carry on!
  

2.0.1b

April 17, 2024

• Super minor change: somehow I overlooked setting the rotation mode on certain bones of the pre-rigged models to quaternion, despite saying in the user manual that the bones of the pre-rigged models are all set to quaternion by default, so I updated the rotation modes on rig bones to quaternion (this can be changed according to your preference without a problem). I also removed some channel locks on some of the bones that were a hold over from various testing. Cheers and carry on!

2.0.1

March 31, 2024

• Using the IK0, IK1 or FK operators now keyframes the FK middle & FK end bone location channels (despite them being grayed out from direct access), as well as the Follow Rotation mode. This probably should have been done from the start, but it's now apparent how useful it is for working reliably with the Automatic Features.
• Made a slight change to the auto-update code to overlook certain custom properties in the timeline (makes auto-updating while on IK keyframe columns more reliable).
• Changed some wording on options inside the Rename panel.
• The original deform bones used for assembling a limb now maintain their parenting relationships with each other until changed with the "Set Limb Parents" operator. The base deform bone's parenting is maintained but "use_connected" is turned off to allow the assembled limb to have priority over movement of the limb.

2.0 Full Release

March 29, 2024

• A complete revamp of the entire system to work with Bone Collections released in Blender 4.0
• Added a location bone to the pivoting system to unburden the pivot bone from too many movement problems
• Improved UI by providing the ability to add Kinematic Tool operator icons to the top right tool shelf while in Pose mode
• Added a Chain Visibility toggling system, which allows you to toggle visibility of inactive chains without hiding animation data.
• Smoothed out all the problems with the Automatic Features system.
• Added an easy way to scrub and adjust Automatic Features settings.
• Created a much better way to adjust the scales on custom shapes that drive the Chain Visibility system.
• Rigging a 3-bone chain can now be done by selecting all three bones (rather than just the end bone)
• The addon does not need to be installed to play animations that were made using the tool! (big win!!)

Beta 0.7

IMPROVEMENTS:

• Added 'Dissolve Alignment Columns' to DOPESHEET menu
• Added 'Dissolve Extra FK Columns' to DOPESHEET menu

Beta 0.6.1

BUG FIX:

• Problem with active pose bone inside Key Follow Rotation that was causing an error if no pose bone was active
  

Beta 0.6

IMPROVEMENTS:

• Simplified the 'Set Chain Parents' options to just 'Parents' & 'Root'
• Created 'Setup Single Bone Follow Rotation'
• Created 'Rename Follow Rotation Bones'
• Created 'Change Follow Rotation Layers'
• Created 'Dismantle Follow Rotation'
• Improved the Auto-updaters speed and snappiness
• Moved the 'Updating' section of the Kinematic Tool Panel to the top of the panel
• Cleaned up the wording and design on the Alignment fields
• Renamed 'Update Keyframe Columns' to 'Align'
• Renamed 'Set Keyframe Column' to 'Key Alignment Column'
• Renamed 'Keyframe Follow Rotation' to 'Key Follow Rotation'
• Renamed 'Select Nearest Keyframe Column' to 'Select Nearest Alignment Column'
• Updated 'Add Missing Drivers' to support 'Follow Rotation' sets (esp. for symmetrizing)
• Updated 'Update Driver Dependencies' to support 'Follow Rotation' sets

BUG FIXES:

• Fixed a bug where 'auto-interpolate' wasn't firing after 'auto-update motion paths' had fired
• Fixed a bug where 'auto-update motion paths' was firing continuously when off a keyframe column or when no bones were selected
  

Beta 0.5

• Changed 'Inverse Start', etc to 'Inverse Kinematics Start', etc in Update Keyframe Columns

Beta 0.4

• Fixed a missing part in update_keyframe_columns concerning registered chains

• Rearranged the 'Maximum Per Auto Alignment' button order
  

Beta 0.3

• Added timed_motionpath_update to DEPSG, for auto-motionpath update feature even without a registered chain on an armature

Beta 0.2

• Fixed duplicates on graph_editor context menu (forgot to remove a menu when unregistering)
• Created 'Calculate Actual Motion Paths' + 'Clear Motion Paths' + 'Update Motion Paths'
• Upgraded DEPSG timed_action to include updating motion paths
• Added chains that are 'registered' to UpdateKeyframeColumns
  

Beta 0.1

• In RebuildConstraints, removed lock rotation on inverse.base + inverse.middle
• Removed a separator in Pose Context Menu
• Improved a bit of operator descriptions
• Change 'snap' to 'align'
• Added dopesheet menu to F-curve GRAPH_ context menu
• Returned 'Update Keyframe Columns' & '...Interolation' to always present in context menu