Visual QuickStart Guide: Flash Professional CS5 for Windows and Macintosh

13. Intro to Inverse Kinematics

In This Chapter

Using Armatures to Connect Symbols

Creating IK Shapes

Working with Poses

Constraining IK Motion

Editing IK Elements

Practice Session

Inverse kinematics (IK) is a method of animating objects and shapes that relies on a structure—called an armature. An IK armature works something like a skeleton, with multiple linked segments called bones. Once you set up the structure, you can manipulate it to create various configurations, or poses. Imagine manipulating a human skeleton; if you raise the hand and bring it in toward the torso, the forearm also raises, and the elbow bends. Similarly, if you move one bone in an IK armature, connected bones move in response. Flash interpolates changes between poses ...