Inverse Kinematics

Definition: You've probably heard the term "inverse kinematics" before and wondered what it meant and how it related to animation. To put it simply, the physics of inverse kinematics simplifies the process of animating jointed / segmented figures by making the motion of each part related to the motion of the linked parts. That way you simply have to animate the starting and ending joins, and the ones in between will adjust themselves according to the physics programming and create more natural looking movement. In forward kinematics, each piece would have to be animated separately.