Weight map
Locate balance, transfer, suspension, and the moments a body negotiates gravity.
Character Handle / Field School
Make a character’s choices legible.
Kirepaxo is an information-led field school for character animation and rigging: a place to observe intention, build handles that answer it, and refine the shot one decision at a time.
Charcoal tools, mint signals, lilac observations, off-white paper.
STUDIO WALK01 / HANDLE
Observe firstFind the choice before you reach for a control.
Build touchpointsDesign a handle for the thought behind a pose.
Polish in contextJudge a moment inside the shot, not in isolation.
01 / Intent notebook
Start with what the character is protecting, pursuing, or avoiding.
Before a rig becomes a list of controls, it can become a translation tool. These field notes keep physical options connected to observable acting choices.
- 1Look for pressure.
Where does the pose gather effort: heel, shoulder, wrist, jaw, or breath?
- 2Name the change.
Describe the shift in plain language before translating it into a control.
- 3Leave a trace.
Mark the choice so another pass can challenge, preserve, or sharpen it.
Use playable verbs: brace, negotiate, conceal, lean, recover. A useful phrase is specific enough to alter timing and broad enough to invite several physical solutions.
Move one variable at a time. Change the contact point, then the delay, then the arc. If the purpose stays readable, the handle is doing useful work.
02 / Skeleton and control lesson stages
A route from structure to performance.
Each stage is a study lens rather than a finish line. Return to earlier stages whenever a later decision loses the character’s reason for moving.
Control logic
Map controls to intentions so a hand-off between keys remains understandable.
Range rehearsal
Test reach, twist, compression, and recovery before a shot needs them urgently.
Shot proof
Place the system inside a simple action and ask what the audience can actually read.
Joint response
Shared reading
Reach and counterweight
Cause and effect
Pose family
An expression is not a face shape. It is a change in attention.
04 / Facial acting desk
Treat the face as a sequence of decisions.
A face can lead, resist, arrive late, or reveal a thought after the body has already acted. Use small studies to separate those possibilities.
Set the gaze
Choose the target, then observe whether the gaze settles, flicks away, or returns with a new thought.
Hold a contradiction
Let the brow, mouth, and head carry different amounts of certainty rather than resolving every feature at once.
Delay the answer
Give an expression time to register after the trigger. The pause may carry more story than the shape.
05 / Constraint troubleshooting map
When a relationship fails, trace the agreement—not just the symptom.
Drifting contact
Check the anchor space and its update order before correcting the apparent slide by hand.
Unhelpful stretch
Ask whether the range supports force and direction, or only makes the silhouette louder.
Broken hand-off
Compare which control owns the intention during the transition, not only which object is selected.
Late discovery
Build a short test action early enough that failure can inform the setup, not merely patch it.
06 / Shot polish archive
Archive questions, not trophies.
A polished pass becomes more useful when it leaves behind a readable reason for its choices.
Pass note / 14
Does the hand lead the thought?
Compare the first contact against the character’s attention. A good arc cannot rescue an unclear motivation.
Pass note / 22
Can the control disappear?
Review whether the viewer notices a mechanism, or simply understands an action moving through space.
Pass note / 31
What survives simplification?
Strip back detail to find the decision the shot still needs to communicate.
07 / Weekly practice tracker
Small observations accumulate.
Use this local checklist as a gentle rehearsal board. It stays in your browser only; it is not an assessment and it does not send any data anywhere.
This week’s field notes0/5
08 / Field FAQ
Useful questions deserve room to breathe.
Kirepaxo is an informational resource. These answers describe ways to study the work, not a promise of a particular outcome.
Send a specific questionBegin with actions you can observe rather than with a long inventory of controls. Choose a simple lift, turn, reach, or hesitation; describe what changes in the body; then ask which handle would let an animator preserve that change. This keeps technical choices connected to performance from the first study.
A helpful control has a clear job, a predictable relationship to the character, and a range that supports the intended action without demanding constant correction. It does not need to be spectacular. It should make a readable choice easier to explore, compare, and revisit while the animator remains focused on timing, weight, and intention.
Treat reference as evidence of decisions: where someone gathers force, changes attention, delays a response, or protects their balance. Make notes about those relationships, then test several interpretations with your own character. The aim is not a surface match. It is a better understanding of why a movement communicates what it does.
Return to the character’s change of mind. Identify the instant where the internal decision should become visible, then examine gaze, weight, timing, and contact around that instant. Often the problem is not missing detail but an even distribution of emphasis. A small delay, redirect, or interrupted action can restore the sense of thought.
09 / Contact the field desk
Bring one clear question.
Tell us what you are observing or untangling. This form prepares an email draft in your own mail application; it does not send a message automatically.
[email protected]