Creating movie clips to be used with iK'motion

Movie Clip instances

In order to make a Flash symbol useable by iK'motion it must be an instance on the stage of type 'Movie Clip'... Graphics, Buttons, Shapes and other symbol types cannot be used. If your instance is not set as a Movie Clip, you can change it by selecting the instance on the stage and then selecting 'Movie Clip' in the type drop down box inside the 'Properties' panel.

Setting up the registration point of your Movie Clips

Inverse kinematics requires a lot of precise rotations in order to apply the correct movement to the chain. This means it's important to find the center of rotation for the movie clip you intend to use as a 'bone' that's part of an IK chain. To do this may require changing the placement of the contents of your movie clip:

1. Open the movie clip for editing either by double-clicking the instance on the stage or the item in the library.
2. Select all elements on the stage and position them such that the point 0,0 (referring to X and Y in the Properties panel) is at the center of where rotation would occur. This sets the center of the 'joint'.

The center of rotation is demarcated by the crosshairs which are located at (0, 0). Even though the entire shape has an X, Y position of (-30, -30), the center is placed correctly. Also see the movie clips in the IKarm.fla supplied with the iK'motion package to see how movie clips are centered.