Perry Leijten shows off a foot roll setup that can always keep contact no matter what.

When it comes to character rigs, keeping contact with the floor is essential for animation. We are all used to the “standard” foot roll setup, where the controls allow us to do a heal-to-toe and side-to-side contact. What if you wanted to animate that contact, though? Check out this foot setup, as explained by Perry Leijten, that offers more control for animators.

A Foot That Always Keeps Contact No Matter the Roll.

The setup is based on a configuration inspired by @chrislesage. Leijten uses nearestPointOnCurve and pointOnCurveInfo nodes to keep joints moving along a curve controller. “The idea and question were to get more control as an animator, making sure that the pivot for banking and the footroll is exactly where the edge of the mesh is,” Leijten says.

More Than Feet.

The setup is a useful one, offering more control for other things than just feet. For example, a coin spinning or flipping. Perfect for lots of cartoon-like setups. Check out Perry Leijten’s Footroll R&D article that has a download of the scene file.

About Perry Leijten

Perry is a Lead Workflow Rigging TA。Square Enix. He is an experienced Senior Technical Artist working in the computer games industry with a bachelor of engineering-focused in 3D technical art.