The Comprehensive Guide to IKBooster IKBooster has baffled and bewildered Lightwave users for over a decade. Despite the incredible value it adds to Lightwave’s animation toolset, it is a fact that IKBooster has remained as a tool of obscurity due to lacking documentation and an unusual and unorthodox (but extremely efficient) interface. It’s time to change that right now. The Comprehensive Guide to IKBooster finally introduces complete documentation, simple yet powerful workflows, lightning fast rigging, and animation functions that are complete game changers in terms of Lightwave’s animation capabilities. If you thought Lightwave’s animation tools left something to be desired, let this content prove otherwise. The videos below explain how awesome your animation workflow can be. The downloads include:

• The IKBooster Comprehensive Guide videos
• Scenes, prefabs, and example/demonstrative Lightwave content to open and play with
• 5 character models
• Sample IKB relative motion files
• Sample commented Lscripts demonstrating time saving functions
• Supplementary videos

VIDEO DETAILS Total runtime (all videos combined): 3.6 hours Video size: 1600×868 Subtitles are included with all video content. ☼ VIDEO PART 1: User Interface and Fundementals ☼ With exception of motion files and dynamics (covered in more detail in later parts), every conceivable aspect of IKBooster is revealed in this segment. After watching this part, you will know what all of IKBooster’s tools do and be provided with insight as to where those tools are useful. Additionally, I include tips and advice that are absolutely required for smooth operation of IKBooster. Why doesn’t Apply Keys work all the time? Why would anyone use FK control? Why do my characters wobble around after I use and animate with fixed bones? Why can’t I load my IKBooster characters into a new scene? Countless questions like this are answered entirely, allowing you to use IKBooster seamlessly in your workflow. ☼ VIDEO PART 2: Rigging and Animation ☼ Just knowing what IKBooster’s tools do isn’t enough. You need to know how to use them and how they all work together to give you a completed production. The following is covered in part 2…

• IKBooster’s advantages vs. normal character rigs in Lightwave
• Creating a master template rig you can use on all your characters, includes basic usage relativity (little to no math! I promise!). I explain the control mechanisms, the reasons behind bone placement, and other details.
• How to quickly (in minutes) adapt your master template rig to other characters.
• Micro Scale Hold Nulls. These allow for easy 2-channel click-drag movements without using any motion modifiers or adding bulk to your scene.
• Expressionless Multimorphs. A more visual and interactive approach to combining morphs (uses micro scale hold nulls).
• How to do Character Interaction… by clicking a checkbox. I’m not kidding.
• Using IKBooster to rig other things like lights, cameras, and other things to make animation as a whole much easier.
• Why you should NEVER, EVER do character animation at above 20 frames per second… no matter what program you are using, Lightwave included. (Animate… then interpolate!)
• I demonstrate the basic animation process and how it relates to IKBooster’s workflow. IKBooster’s animation workflow is more traditional in approach rather than technical.
• How to make any looping animation in half the time. Literally.

☼ VIDEO PART 3: Relative Motion Loading ☼ Relative motion loading is a workflow in IKBooster that allows you to load animations and poses so that the character will perform the actions contained within that clip “relative” to their current position and orientation in 3d space. Because the motions are relative, one can, for example, use a run cycle, make the character turn while running, and not worry about slipping foot placement which is a typical problem in most 3d animation programs. This also introduces the concept of a “tweaker’s” workflow, where one simply edits existing motions in order to create entirely new ones. Relative motion loading will change the way you work, whether you prefer IKBooster’s part-time IK or not. Also included with this tutorial is how to edit and blend these relative motions. ☼ VIDEO PART 4: Motion Capture Adaptation ☼ Motion capture sounds great, but often times it is a real pain to take advantage of in production. One problem is simply knowing how to adapt a custom character rig to a motion capture clip. Another is the fact that normally, tedious re-positioning is required in order to seamlessly blend the motion into the production. This section introduces how one can end up with a “1-click” workflow for adapting a character to motion capture, and how to utilize the techniques learned in part 3 to make the motion capture clip play relatively to the character’s position. As a bonus, I also demonstrate how to adapt a custom character rig for use with Nevron which greatly enhances the usefulness of its retargeting and kinect capabilities. ☼ VIDEO PART 5: IKBooster Dynamics ☼ IKBooster dynamics can be difficult to take advantage of without knowing how it works. For instance, I’m sure more than just a few people have run simulations only to have their calculation times skyrocket, have their bone chains explode or have their items snap unexpectedly in random directions. Here, I demonstrate how these problems can be eliminated. If you want to do things like have characters interact with long ropes, or simulate things but retain total control over them at the same time, this section shows how to achieve that with IKB dynamics. IKBooster is Lightwave’s most powerful animation toolset, so discover its secrets and blaze through your animation projects like never before! Finally, here is a video containing some sample clips from parts 3-5: PURCHASE LINKS: IMPORTANT: If you intend to get both parts 1-2 and 3-5, you should get Ryan’s Animation Kit which will save you some bucks. The Comprehensive Guide to IKBooster: Parts 1-2

($49.95) The Comprehensive Guide to IKBooster: Parts 3-5

($49.95) Click here for links to Ryan Roye’s other training products