Arms – IK or FK

[fabmedia]

Which is better when animating Arms. Forward Kinematics or Inverse? And what advantages are there to each?

A

[crogbert]

I just finished up an short where I experimented with both. Neither one is better than the other. It mostly depends on how you want to animate. If you have a situation where the hands will need to stay put and the rest of the body moves, then definitely use IK. One disadvantage that I found with IK was the problem that occurs where the arms will kind of pop from one position to another. I know a well designed rig won't do this, but I'm beginner when it comes to rigging. With FK you have full control and can get some very smooth motion (or jerky if you want).