1. Prepare the artwork
Separate every moving part onto its own layer: head, torso, upper and lower arms, hands, thighs, shins, feet. Draw a little extra at each joint, such as a rounded end on the upper arm, so the overlap hides gaps when the limb bends. Name layers clearly.
2. Set pivots and build the skeleton
Start with a root bone at the hips. Add the spine and head, then each limb as a chain: upper arm, forearm, hand. Place each bone's base exactly at the joint pivot. A clean hierarchy matters more than the number of bones.
3. Bind art to bones
Attach each layer to its bone. For smooth bends, use meshes with weights where your tool supports them (Spine Professional, Rive, Moho, Harmony deformers) so the elbow area deforms instead of rotating as a rigid piece.
4. Add IK
Create an IK target for each hand and foot and constrain the two-bone chain to it. In Spine, select a bone and its child and create an IK constraint (Professional only). In Moho, set target bones. In Rive, add an IK constraint to the chain. In Blender, add an IK constraint to the lower bone with the target set. Check the bend direction of knees and elbows.
5. Test and refine
Pose the character in extremes: crouch, reach up, kick, cross the arms. Fix joints that break, limbs that flip, and parts that draw in the wrong order. Add controls for the face, such as Moho Smart Bones or switch layers for mouths and eyes.
6. Animate
Block with IK for planted limbs, polish arcs with FK, and use IK/FK switching where contact begins or ends.
In ExodeUI the steps are the same: draw bones with the Bone tool, bind them to paths or meshes and paint weights, then add an IK constraint to each limb. Its MCP server can also create FK or IK bone chains from a prompt. We make ExodeUI.