The Controls

This page names every control the rig draws, what it moves, and which gear setting shows the ones that are hidden by default.

Hover any control to see its name. That name is the one the HUD, the Character Picker and the Animation Editor use.

Colours

• Blue is the character's left side (names starting L_), red the right side (R_), yellow the centre. With the character facing you, the blue side is on your right.
• Secondary controls use a lighter shade of their side's colour. The detail-level crosses and boxes along the limbs are paler still.
• A few controls have colours of their own: the light-green crosses that shape the spine and neck, the orange Pelvis ring, the orange-red jaw box, and the green spheres at the base of the toes.
• The face sliders take the colour of their face region. The gears follow the side colours, except the two face gears: Face is pink and Face Blendshapes is pale blue.

Detail levels

Every body control belongs to detail level 1, 2 or 3: the main controls, the secondary ones, and fine detail. The LOD 1, LOD 2 and LOD 3 buttons on each gear show and hide one level at a time. See Gears.

The tables below give each control's level.

Root

What you see	Name	What it does	Level
Yellow disk on the ground	C_main	Moves and turns the whole character.	1
Yellow circle on the ground	C_layout	A second root control under C_main. It also moves the whole character.	1

Spine and hips

The spine is a spline: you move its two ends and it bends between them, the way SideFX's Spine component works.

What you see	Name	What it does	Level
Large flat yellow loop around the hips	C_cog_ctrl	Centre of gravity. Moves and turns the hips and upper body together. The IK hands and feet stay where they are.	1
Yellow loop at the hips	C_pelvis_ctrl	The bottom end of the spine.	1
Yellow loop at the chest	C_chest_ctrl	The top end of the spine. The spine bends to follow it.	1
Pale yellow circles along the spine	C_spineMid_ctrl, C_spineEnd_ctrl	Move and turn the middle and top of the spine on top of the curve.	2
Orange circle	Pelvis	Rotates the pelvis bone, the one the thighs hang from, without moving the spine.	2
Light-green crosses	C_pelvisCv_ctrl, C_chestCv_ctrl	Shape the curve near each end.	3

The spine gear's stretch setting lets the spine lengthen to follow the chest control (see Gears).

Neck, head and jaw

The neck is a spline like the spine; see SideFX's Neck Head component.

What you see	Name	What it does	Level
Yellow circle at the base of the neck	C_neckRoot_ctrl	The bottom end of the neck.	1
Yellow circle around the head	C_head_ctrl	Turns the head. Turning the head also drives the head-turn morphs (see Face Tools).	1
Pale yellow circle mid-neck	C_neckMid_ctrl	A secondary control for the middle of the neck.	2
Pale yellow circle on the head	C_headMain_ctrl	A second head control on top of C_head_ctrl.	2
Light-green crosses	C_neckRootcv_ctrl, C_headCv_ctrl	Shape the neck curve.	3
Orange-red box at the jaw	JawRoot	The jaw bone. Rotating it opens the mouth.	1

To open the mouth by curve, see the Jaw Open note on Face Tools.

Arms

The arms start in IK: you move the hand and the arm follows. The arm's gear switches it to FK, where you rotate it joint by joint. Only one of the two sets is drawn at a time (see Gears).

In IK, the default:

What you see	Name	What it does	Level
Box at the wrist	L_ArmTarget_ik, R_ArmTarget_ik	The IK hand. Move and rotate it, and the arm follows.	1
Box beside the elbow	L_ArmPolevec_ik, R_ArmPolevec_ik	Points the elbow.	1
Cross at the shoulder	L_ArmClav_fk, R_ArmClav_fk	The clavicle.	1
Cross near the hand	L_ArmClavTarget_ctrl, R_ArmClavTarget_ctrl	The clavicle's target. The shoulder follows it by the gear's AutoClav amount.	2

In FK:

What you see	Name	What it does	Level
Rings on the arm	L_Clavicle_fk, L_Upperarm_fk, L_Forearm_fk, L_Hand_fk (and the R_ set)	Rotate the arm joint by joint.	1

At detail level 3, pale crosses and boxes appear along the arms and legs. They belong to the limb's twist setup, and you rarely need them. To rotate the twist bones themselves, turn on twistControls on the arm's gear.

Hands

What you see	Name	What it does	Level
Ring at the wrist	L_Hand, R_Hand	Rotates the hand at the wrist, on top of the IK box.	2
Ball on a short line beside the hand	L_Hand_selector, R_Hand_selector	Click it to select the hand ring and all fifteen finger rings at once.	2
Rings on each finger	L_Thumb1 … L_Pinky3 (three per finger, and the R_ set)	Rotate the finger joints (FK).	2

The Character Picker's Hands tab selects the same controls (see Animating), and the hand poses in the Animation Catalog are keyed on these finger rings.

Legs and feet

The legs work like the arms: IK by default, FK through the leg's gear. The feet are reverse feet: the foot turns about pivots at the heel, the ball, the toe tip and each side.

What you see	Name	What it does	Level
Box at the ankle	L_FootAnkle_ik, R_FootAnkle_ik	The IK foot. Move it and the leg follows.	1
Box in front of the knee	L_LegPolevec_ik, R_LegPolevec_ik	Points the knee.	1
Rings on the leg (FK only)	L_Thigh_fk, L_Calf_fk, L_Foot_fk (and the R_ set)	Rotate the leg joint by joint.	1
Small spheres around the foot	L_footHeel_ctrl, L_footToe_ctrl, L_footTiltA_ctrl, L_footTiltB_ctrl	Pivots. Rotating one turns the whole foot about the heel, the toe tip, or one side.	2
Wire ball at the ball of the foot	L_FootBall_ctrl	Pivots the whole foot at the ball of the foot.	2
Cross at the ball of the foot	L_FootBallRot_ctrl	Bends the toes up or down at the ball, without moving the foot.	2
Green sphere at the toes	L_ToeBase	The toe joint: all toes together.	3

The last four rows give the L_ names, and there is an R_ set as well.

The foot's gear has roll and tilt sliders that drive the pivots for you, and toeControls for a control on each toe (see Gears).

Eyes and Look At

What you see	Name	What it does	Level
Yellow frame in front of the eyes	MainTarget	Moves both eye targets together.	1
A cross per eye, inside the frame	L_EyeTarget, R_EyeTarget	Where each eye looks.	2
Yellow three-ring control about a metre in front of the face	C_look_ctrl	The Look At target. The eyes, head and chest turn toward it by the Eyes gear's settings.	—

See Auto Animation for how the two targets work together, and Gears for the settings.

The face

• Sliders on the face (coloured balls on short lines) and a panel of extra sliders beside the head, left of it by default. The Face gear picks which sliders show and where the panel sits.
• The face board, when the Face gear's boxlayout is on.
• The face sprite at the bottom left of the viewport, which opens the list of slider sets.
• The Face Puppet pad and its two sprites, above the face sprite.
• Three gears beside the head, top to bottom: Face (pink), Face Blendshapes (pale blue) and Eyes (yellow). See Gears.

All of these are explained on Face Tools.

Hidden until you ask

These controls are hidden by default to keep the viewport clear. A gear setting shows each group.

Controls	Shown by
The arm's FK rings (in IK) or its IK box and pole (in FK)	The arm gear's IK/FK switch
The leg's FK rings (in IK) or its IK box and pole (in FK)	The leg gear's IK/FK switch
A control on each toe	toeControls on the foot gear
Rings on the arm's and leg's twist bones	twistControls on the arm or leg gear
Rings on the two breast bones	breastControls on the spine gear
Rings on the two ribcage bones (the ones Auto Breathe moves)	ribcageControls on the spine gear
The lower teeth and tongue	mouthControls on the Face gear
A control on every joint beyond the standard Character Creator skeleton, such as hair bones	extraControls on the root gear (only on characters that have such joints)