Flash CS4 IK Example

I’ve been trying some of the latest builds of Flash CS4 and I have to say that I’m blown away. I wish I could give you details about it but for now you will have to settle for the various sneak sessions that have taken place at various conferences. One of the coolest new features is the IK tool set which allows you to create really complex animations using bones in a similar way in which you do in 3D software. What’s even cooler is that you can access these IK structures at runtime using ActionScript.

The example below is an interactive IK piece that was laid out on the stage. You can click and drag the balls to see the IK motion in action. The coolest part about this is that there is not one line of ActionScript in this example. All of this functionality is built in so you don’t need to be Keith Peters to do these types of interactions.

This text is replaced by the Flash movie.

Comments

  1. seanlail
    March 6th, 2008 | 9:14 pm

    Awesome. I was just looking at an IK example (Paperdude: http://www.lessrain.com/projects/luis/paperdudemocap/v2/p1/) and wanting to learn more about it.

  2. March 6th, 2008 | 9:27 pm

    WOW it’s hard to believe that there’s no ActionScript involved in this example …. Flash CS4 it’s gonna rock :)

  3. March 6th, 2008 | 9:41 pm

    looks great :)

  4. LEE
    March 6th, 2008 | 9:43 pm

    IK motion, built-in? Weird! I can’t wait to see CS4, I’m doing for Flex-like code completion, and internal package management! w00t!

  5. LEE
    March 6th, 2008 | 9:44 pm

    ^dying!

  6. March 6th, 2008 | 9:44 pm

    FIRST!

  7. Cypher
    March 6th, 2008 | 9:48 pm

    Teh fakk awesome!

  8. March 6th, 2008 | 10:06 pm

    Very cool stuff, Flash CS4 is looking better all the time, and so is Astro!

  9. March 6th, 2008 | 10:30 pm

    Guess I better learn some new tricks. :)

  10. March 7th, 2008 | 1:35 am

    Looks nice Lee.
    Do you know when the release date is ?
    And how did you get this CS4 example ?!?! Do you have a beta or something ?

  11. Basiley
    March 7th, 2008 | 1:52 am

    So, when we can use Flash CS4?

  12. March 7th, 2008 | 1:55 am

    Is it the case that cs4 is generating on the fly xml/as3 code to do this? I haven’t read too much on cs4, but I am under the assumption that as3 is still the language, is this assumption correct?

  13. oliver_l1
    March 7th, 2008 | 5:21 am

    Awesome! Adobe we want a beta release!!! did you hear that ?

  14. steve
    March 7th, 2008 | 5:46 am

    I’m assuming a Flash player 10 is forthcoming for this release.

  15. March 7th, 2008 | 5:59 am

    WOW!
    What I just can’t image that!
    Can’t wait for CS4!
    But first LEARNING-HARD is also needed for me~~~

  16. March 7th, 2008 | 6:11 am

    W0w!!1
    Could you show “Advanced Text Layout” example, please!?

  17. March 7th, 2008 | 6:17 am

    fl.ik.*
    Sweet =)

  18. March 7th, 2008 | 6:17 am

    nice head ups Lee for the news. this will help lots of flash animators.. cant wait to see more on CS4

  19. March 7th, 2008 | 6:21 am

    When it will be released?
    Does it going to support AS3 or AS4?
    What about third party components?
    We’ve now having huge plans to launch several complex components for animations within Flash CS3 and AS3, how can we work with you in order to make these accessible sooner for Flash CS4?

    Can we have access to beta non-commercial releases and docs? Please respond on the email if possible, thanks.
    Adobe Flash is just great! :P Lovin’ it

  20. Pavel Simek
    March 7th, 2008 | 6:26 am

    “not one line of AS”? More likely: “Many lines of AS, but added by the editor”, is it right? Since it is running in Flash Player 9 (not v. 10 required) I assume this functionality won’t involve any Flash Player API extension. It will be part of “fl” framework?

  21. March 7th, 2008 | 6:50 am

    it’s coooooooooooooooool~~~~

  22. March 7th, 2008 | 6:54 am

    So Flash 10 has a Keith Peters build in..
    Very nice!!

  23. March 7th, 2008 | 7:04 am

    Wow…wait a minute…did anyone of you guys noticed that…the drag n’ drop feature goes beyond the flash stage?

    I’m not certain that is a new feature…

    correct me if im wrong…

  24. Mike
    March 7th, 2008 | 7:13 am

    I keep reading about Flash CS4, new version of AS, etc. I haven’t been in this community very long, is it normal for things like this to pop up so soon after the previous release?

  25. seanlail
    March 7th, 2008 | 8:15 am

    @Mike. No. Code-wise the big change was AS2->AS3. The AS3 core is pretty solid now and AS4 will probably just build onto that. We won’t have to change the way we do things again. As for the IDE, they’re just adding and improving, I dont’t mind if a new version comes out every week :)

  26. March 7th, 2008 | 8:46 am

    ^@ seanlail

    If thats true why do you think adobes naming the new version as4 and not something like as3.2

    As for as4 I have seen some cool stuff about the ECMAScript4 that may fined it’s way in to as4 like the strict type arrays.

    hey lee was the demo made with AS3 or the New AS4?

  27. March 7th, 2008 | 8:52 am

    ^@me dam should have read more. NOT ONE LINE Code? is it safe to say you could code this functionally if you wanted to with CS4?

  28. March 7th, 2008 | 9:18 am

    Thanks for the sneak Lee. Looking forward to it, can’t wait!!

  29. March 7th, 2008 | 9:56 am

    Eat it Microsoft. No jk. That is great though.

  30. lee
    March 7th, 2008 | 10:19 am

    Let me clarify, I didn’t have to write one line of code for this. The functionality is ActionScript-based but you never see the code. But you can write code if you want to interact with it in a different way. This is the “out of the box” behavior. Also, there will not be a new version of ActionScript for the CS4 release so you can expect to programming AS3 for quite a while.

  31. March 7th, 2008 | 12:28 pm

    Awesomeeeeeeee!!! Is good to know AS3 is still alive!! Thanks Lee.

  32. March 7th, 2008 | 3:01 pm

    There is also a video I recorded of the CS4 IK sneak peak from Flash on the Beach here:
    http://natejc.com/blog/?p=69

  33. seanlail
    March 7th, 2008 | 3:16 pm

    @Josh

    I said, “We won’t have to change the way we do things again”.
    What I mean is that we won’t have to completely re-learn everything again with AS4 to create the same outcome. The learning will be for new additions / tweaks to the current AS3. This question was asked at Colin Moocks tour in London and that was his reply in a nutshell.

  34. KL
    March 7th, 2008 | 7:00 pm

    Amazing Stuff there! I currently use Maya on the job alot so this will be amazing stuff to see running in the Flash IDE.

  35. March 8th, 2008 | 7:03 am

    “Also, there will not be a new version of ActionScript for the CS4 release so you can expect to programming AS3 for quite a while.”

    ;( I was hoping that ECMA4 will come with CS4. Definetley you make bunny cry;)
    http://diveintomark.org/public/2006/07/you-make-bunny-cry.jpg

  36. March 9th, 2008 | 8:02 am

    @Keith Peters
    :) ROLF .. i am sure you gonna hit us with another amazing book about using these new capabilities in flash to keep things moving !!

  37. aw
    March 9th, 2008 | 11:16 pm

    It’s the time for designers. They’ve been waiting for so long since 8. ^_^

  38. Srikanth Reddy
    March 10th, 2008 | 1:45 am

    It’s great have the feature of 3d IK into the flash, now we can do thing better then Autodesk Maya and 3d. i am waiting for the CS4 to come out so flash designer can show there talent.

  39. March 11th, 2008 | 7:58 am

    IK is no doubt a very great feature, but that is only one part of 3D world. Is there any other features coming up related to this?

  40. Richard Galvan
    March 12th, 2008 | 12:07 pm

    Lee, thanks for all the support. Its nice to hear that everyone is excited about this new feature. I will make sure the Flash team knows.

  41. March 17th, 2008 | 6:54 pm

    [...] (especially for designers and animators) is the Inverse Kinematics engine, as demonstrated on Lee Brimelow’s blog. Flash animators have been screaming for IK for years, and Adobe has finally [...]

  42. April 4th, 2008 | 10:35 am

    [...] (especially for designers and animators) is the Inverse Kinematics engine, as demonstrated on Lee Brimelow’s blog. Flash animators have been screaming for IK for years, and Adobe has finally [...]

  43. April 5th, 2008 | 1:37 am

    [...] TheFlashBlog, flepstudio, officina-creativa Segnala [...]

  44. April 7th, 2008 | 7:06 pm

    [...] Una delle più interessanti è IK tool set (cinematica inversa) che permetterà di realizzare animazioni complesse utilizzando “bones” e “constrains” come i programmi 3d (esempio) [...]

  45. April 8th, 2008 | 3:43 pm

    [...] the flash blog Categoria: Dalla teoria alla pratica top [...]

  46. April 9th, 2008 | 1:37 pm

    So you can chain multiple bones within a single symbol (like a drawing of a snake) and it will deform the driven vector art without kinking or weighting issues? Awesome! That’s so great! Flash has been sorely lacking in deformation tools like Illustrator’s Envelope Distort commands for so long now, I cant wait to…

    Wait. What’s that?

    Oh.

    Nevermind.

  47. April 21st, 2008 | 3:15 pm

    This looks promessing!

  48. April 23rd, 2008 | 10:09 pm

    [...] Lee Brimelow ????? Flash CS4 (Flash 10) ??? IK ?? ??? Flash Player 9 ????. ?????????????. (Flash Player 8 [...]

  49. April 24th, 2008 | 7:08 pm

    [...] fin, eso con muchas mas cosas, entre las que se encuentran Astro, el sistema de “animación por huesos”, tal vez un motor 3D integrado, una especie de PaperVision Lite, el cielo es el [...]

  50. May 1st, 2008 | 4:33 pm

    [...] How much will it be I do not know but if you slip me a £50 ill tell you, lol kidding, check out Flash Cs4 in [...]

  51. May 4th, 2008 | 3:56 am

    flash need 3D

  52. weedmanpoler
    May 8th, 2008 | 10:04 am

    hoooot stuff!!! Kinematics with 3d support.. and changing the FLA to a non-binary form yuh ruckz

  53. May 20th, 2008 | 4:25 pm

    IK source: http://rapidshare.com/files/116396270/Action.rar.html
    whole ik class package. For lovers of :)
    greetings

  54. May 22nd, 2008 | 2:19 pm

    Any body know about hebrew support?

  55. Piloto
    June 6th, 2008 | 6:25 am

    Very cool!!!

    MUITO BOM MESMO!!!

  56. JGM
    June 20th, 2008 | 11:54 am

    Soooooooo, THIS is what happened to the reanimator plugin!!

  57. marto
    July 7th, 2008 | 4:27 am

    if this advancements keep heading this direction, actionscript gurus will be rendered jobless hehe!!;)

  58. phantom
    September 3rd, 2008 | 4:17 pm

    Flash player 10 . . . mmmm I would like to see some improvements on live streaming. it looks like crap when there are lots of motion involved. specially utilizing h264.
    VP6 no comment

    FLASH CS4 . . it’s exciting. what sucks is the way that adobe handles the release dates. Everyone knew about the upcoming CS4 this year. Wow. they made it official.. Now we have to go thru the bull of the new launch date which will probably be on nov08 or no later than jan09 after everybody spent their money on xmas gifts.

    Anyways. . can’t wait to get it.

  59. September 5th, 2008 | 3:20 pm

    Thanks for news lee wait with emotion

  60. Chaz
    September 12th, 2008 | 4:47 pm

    Can Runtime IK embedded inside of MovieClip? How advance the IK is? I can’t wait to see how much it can do, Thanks for the info!

  61. September 16th, 2008 | 10:44 am

    [...] And, those of you sending files to me for help need to send them to alternateaccount[AT]frozenhaddock.co.uk, and they need to be in Flash 8 format or below, I don’t have CS3 yet! (And I doubt I ever will, what with CS4 being released rather soon) [...]

  62. Larky
    September 24th, 2008 | 12:28 am

    From what I’ve seen on the Adobe Demo’s the IK is not actual IK, just a slightly modified version of FK. I hope they integrate full IK into this thing. But more importantly is the bone use, is it all rigid binds to movieclips or can we put more than one joint into an MC to enable bending of said MC? Because that would be sweet.

  63. Larky
    September 24th, 2008 | 3:24 am

    OK, I take it back. I’ve seen a demo now and it is full blown IK and it allows for smooth and rigid binds. Cannot wait for the release so I can play.

  64. October 2nd, 2008 | 10:04 pm

    Holy cheese. This is awesome!!!

  65. Nayan
    October 14th, 2008 | 2:32 am

    Awesomeeeeeeee…It’s the time for designers.

  66. JLM
    October 22nd, 2008 | 6:25 am
  67. October 24th, 2008 | 8:51 am

    [...] No no ! Non preoccupatevi… questo non significa che la prossima versione sarà ancora più improntata su Actionscript, anzi ! Leggendo questo articolo : Flash CS4 IK Example [...]

  68. Noel
    December 17th, 2008 | 6:15 am

    Hi ppl… am tryin to download some pdf on CS4… but am nt able to find 1… if any1 has plz mail it to me….
    thanks in advance…
    My e-mail id is ajay_noel@yahoo.co.in

  69. The Boss
    January 8th, 2009 | 4:14 pm

    Cry for help!

    Apologies
    I live in the real world. How does this help?
    I may buy as part of a package – why should I pay the extra?

    Thanks

    Not quite a Luddite

  70. January 11th, 2009 | 9:45 am

    Hey guys check out some secrets about Flash CS4. Checke here http://pravinranjan.com/blog/?p=29

  71. b3vad
    January 27th, 2009 | 9:58 pm

    i was wondering if any1 did a full human bone system (i did 1 and i find some issues and some fix for it) but its better to see if any1 can do it better than me

  72. February 17th, 2009 | 7:07 am

    [...] looked at David Stiller’s tutorial and Lee Brimelow’s blog on the subject, I decided to see how easy it would be to do something similar to David Stiller’s puppet of [...]

  73. February 19th, 2009 | 10:24 am

    thats good

    who know about make this only with code

    thanks

  74. Max Cuiabá
    April 10th, 2009 | 11:19 am

    Marco has discovered by chance how to create it with only
    code?

  75. April 10th, 2009 | 11:22 am

    … If found put here.

  76. Hrishikesh
    April 17th, 2009 | 9:41 pm

    Hi lee,
    I am 2d animation student. (Indian)
    Can you help me?
    My question is,
    I would like to know Project cycle of 2d animation project(Planning execution, team Hierarchy ….

  77. sasank
    July 10th, 2009 | 4:48 am

    hi,
    i did my 2d course and wanna write ACE.
    can u help me for dat preparation …

  78. denni
    November 9th, 2009 | 8:36 pm

    Thx for the great example, I look for it.
    Any source file(*.fla)? please..

  79. December 22nd, 2009 | 4:07 am

    ya this is example but not great becouse it is simple n anyone can do this try something innovative, attractive and somewhat bony

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