Animating ARMS (FK vs. IK) - Doodley

Animating arms can be a challenge, yet they're one of the most important parts of character animation! Even if you've never animated in your life, how do you convey personality and emotion while overcoming technical issues and body mechanics?

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Animation by David Oneacre

Music by Jayfoo

Assistance/Support by Melanie Tan

Gimberly uses kamone416's toon shader, which you can find here:

(JJJReact)
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0:00 Intro
0:23 FK vs. IK
2:40 Character Animation
3:59 How Emotions Affect Arms
5:16 Body Mechanics
7:13 Emotions vs Mechanics via Weight
8:01 Space Switching
9:11 Elbow Pins
10:22 Outro

[doodleyd]

When I say "in 2D it's really easy to animate arms", I just mean in terms of technical issues. There's tons of drawing skills and animation principles in animating 2D characters -- but much of those skills apply to 3D as well, while the technical aspects of animating arms in 3D that I describe in the video don't apply to traditional 2D. I've been a 2D animator my whole life so I know how hard it is! I could have phrased it better, but hopefully you can look past it.
Also, FK and IK mean "forward kinematics" and "inverse kinematics." The full names doesn't really matter to animators, but I wanted to mention it here as I should have at least shown the full definitions somewhere in the video. Sorry!

-25k views and almost 6.5k subs so far!!- WELP that's gonna get progressively more and more outdated, so why don't I just say a big THANK YOU. It's difficult to describe what a week I've had -- I've been reading every comment and It's super encouraging to know that I'm helping people not only learn animation but, to non-animators, understand and appreciate it. Part of my motivation from the start was to reach people who love animation but have never animated and wanted to understand it better, and it's mindblowing how many comments I've received that fit exactly that.

The next few videos will explore some different things (I want to bounce between art, animation, rigging, etc.), but I do plan on doing the next in this "body" series eventually, likely seasonally.

Also, the example girl's name is Gimberly! She's inspired by 80's fitness instructors.

EDIT: Giving more visibility to my notes above. Also, did you know that editing a comment unpins it? I sure didn't!!

[jayfoo]

Wow what an incredibly high quality tutorial and well produced video. As someone who is clearly unbiased, I think everyone should like, comment, and subscribe to boost it into the algorithm

[zimmbopaulmosende]

Youtube: "Are you an animator?"
Me: "no"
Youtube: "do you wanna learn about animating arms?"
Me: "heck yea!"

[Stickguy]

I don't even animate, but this video's presentation was so captivating that I couldn't look away for even a second. Absolutely stunning!

[almondjoy]

What I like about both of your models is that they feel like they have their own character. You could have just made basic figures and call it a day but you took the time to make both of them emote in a way that make them feel like... people instead of dolls.

[ledjonsinanaj]

This guy has everything checked out:
Marketable characters ✅
Creative✅
Simple tutorials✅
Memes✅✅✅

[CaseyAnimates]

What an excellent tutorial my man!! I love how dense it was, all killer no filler and a good enough length to not gloss over important aspects. Looks like this took a ton of work but this is easily one of my favorite videos for studying 3D animation, and I know I’ll be coming back again for references before too long.

[AgentOrangeX]

Gimberly is very cool! She's really expressive and the red/blue design is sweet. Looking forward to more tutorials with her, and I'm not an animator lol

[marsfeathers]

I love your 3D example animation girl!!! her design is lovely and so easy to read for education purposes.. absolutely wonderful

[KittydogCrystal]

i'm a 2d animator, but this video helps a lot with understanding arm movement, even for 2d animators! this video is incredible and high quality, easy to understand! you've earned yourself a new sub :D

[ayvee]

This has an insane amount of effort and its also just... SO NATURAL. Its like youre teaching a class youve taught s thousand times and still love. Unbiased, unfettered, and yet to be topped. This is awesome

[Somerandomjingleberry]

You really be out here animating the part of Gimberly’s body for the tutorial but also going the extra mile and animating every other facet of her being with not just making it all natural and make sense for the action you’re focusing on but with so much extra flair and personality.
I can’t wait for the episode(s) on faces or whatnot so we can hear what kind of voice you manage to get for her! Lip sync is something that always sticks out to me with animation, as the act of talking is one of the most essential yet one of the most potentially boring things to look at, and seeing animators make talking NOT boring is just… *chef’s kiss*
So I can’t wait for that, but even without that she’s so… good! And just a flex of your own skill, as well as how powerful the things you’re explaining can be.
Your own avatar is also cute as all heck, I LOVE characters that talk THROUGH their facial hair like that.

[thgradedropout]

i think this is probably the simplest and most intuitive guide ive seen on anything 3d, like, ever. as someone starting out with 3d software (currently using blender) this has made posing and animating a HELL of a lot scarier and easier to wrap my head around
more intuitive and beginner friendly guides like yours are definitely the one thing 3d tools need the most as of now!

[IdkWhoPixelIs]

7:40 I like the implication that because this clip is included as an example that means that Robbie is canonically an animated character

[OutHereCorbin]

Gimberly is so expressive in this animation! What a cutie. Well done on this animation though, it's really helped me out.

[Two_Teapod]

9:55 i've experienced funny bone pain enough in middle school that this image hurts me just by looking at it

[duffles]

Wow, terrific video! Love how informative this is while still being super accessible and clear. Plus it's got super cute character designs thrown in!

[MarsTheMellow]

3:40 Thought i was about to get flipped off.

[duck]

I love your animation characters design. She has so much personality and expression!

[LucasRPDJ]

This is an excellent tutorial that I could recommend to everyone who wants to learn 3D animation.

I started switching to 3D animation recently (by knowing the basics and having animation experience for years)
And I think the FK/IK types were something I was missing, since almost all models I animated yet were on a FK basis, it’s more easier to know that I can switch between the two modes.

Thank You 😊