Controllers

Limber gives every limb a start controller and an end controller. You cannot remove either, unless you delete the entire limb. Controllers don't automatically rotate along with the limb like Locators do.

FreeK controllers

You need to add a FreeK Controller to a limb in order to use the Free Blending animation mode.

Select one of the limb's layers and click the + / - FreeK button. Limber will assign a FreeK controller where the joint currently is and turn up the Free Blending property to 100 on the current frame, so you can now animate the joint freely by keyframing the position of the FreeK controller. To blend from IK or FK mode to FreeK, you might need to keyframe the Free Blending down to zero on a different frame.

To remove a FreeK controller from a limb, hold Option / Alt and click the +/- FreeK button.

Parenting FreeK controllers

You can parent FreeK controllers to whatever you want, apart from Locators on the same limb - things will not work correctly if you do that.

Controller appearance

You can change the size of all the controllers and locators for a limb. Select any one of them and click the +/- Size button to make them bigger. Option / Alt + click to make them smaller.

Clicking the Hide / Show button will hide them all. Option / Alt + click to show them again.

Go to the Settings panel to change the default shape, size and color of new controllers and locators.

Hold Shift and click the +/- Size button to reset the size, color and shape of all controllers and locators in the current comp.

Hiding, showing, changing the size, and resetting controllers and locators.

Artwork by Millie Woodcock

Why don't controllers change size?

Controllers and Locators retain their apparent size in the comp, regardless of how you scale layers that they are parented to. It can sometimes look like they are not scaling, when they are.

Color Dynamics

As well as the main Limber effect, End Controllers also have a second effect with a Color dynamics checkbox. Turning this on enables a color shift when the limb is almost fully stretched. When it becomes dead straight, the color changes abruptly to red. This can make it easier to predict when pops are about to occur in your animation.

Turn on the Color dynamics checkbox and End Controllers will change color when they're almost straight