AXIS Panel

Performance Tools

This section is designed to improve viewport performance while working with the rig.

• Toggle Simplify

Enables or disables Blender’s simplify option. When active, it reduces visual complexity (such as subdivisions or effects) to ensure a smoother experience—especially useful in heavy scenes or during animation playback.

• Hair Curves Reduction

Available on rigs that use curve-based hair systems. This control lets you reduce the number of displayed hair curves in the viewport, significantly improving performance without affecting the final render. 

Facial Widget Layers

This section controls the visibility of the facial widget’s bone groups, making it easier to isolate specific facial regions while animating.

• Show/Hide Legend

Toggles the display of the visual guide (legend) that labels different facial control groups. Useful for identifying control zones quickly.

• Visibility Toggles

Each toggle corresponds to a facial bone collection. Turning them on or off shows or hides the respective controls:

• Face -Main facial controls.

• Sticky Lips - Natural adhesive tension between the lips.

• Expressions -Expression-based deformers.

• Mouth Shapes -Extra phonemes or specific shape controls.

• Lips Shapes - Direct control over the tension and volume of the lips. 

• Visemes -Phoneme-driven lip sync controls.

• Widget Options – Follow Head

This slider adjusts how much the facial widget follows the head’s movement. Higher values keep the widget visually attached to the head, which helps with orientation during animation.

Main Rig Layers

This section manages the visibility of the main rig’s bone collections, organized by anatomical regions. It allows you to isolate limbs or facial areas to streamline your animation workflow.

• Head

Controls related to the head and facial deformation:

• Basic Face – Main facial control layer.

• Face Deform – Bones responsible for facial deformation.

• Gaze – Eye look controllers.

• Tongue – Tongue controls.

• Gaze Option – Follows Head

Adjusts how tightly the eye controls follow the head. Useful for keeping the eye rig either aligned with the head or moving independently.

• Arms

Separate layers for left and right arms:

• Arm.L IK / Arm.R IK – Inverse Kinematics arm controls.

• Arm.L FK / Arm.R FK – Forward Kinematics arm controls.

• Arm.L Tweak / Arm.R Tweak – Fine adjustments for each arm.

• Fingers / Fingers Detail – General and detailed finger controls.

• Legs

Leg controls follow the same logic as arms:

• Leg.L IK / Leg.R IK – Inverse Kinematics leg controls.

• Leg.L FK / Leg.R FK – Forward Kinematics leg controls.

• Leg.L Tweak / Leg.R Tweak – Additional tweaks for the legs.

• Torso

• Torso – Main spine and chest controllers.

• Torso Tweak – Fine-tuning bones for subtle torso adjustments.

• Root

The global control for moving, scaling, or rotating the entire character rig.

Global IK/FK Switch

This tool lets you quickly toggle all arms and legs between IK and FK modes with a single click.
It mirrors the same functionality as the Global FK -> IK button inside the AXIS Core but is placed directly in the basic AXIS Panel for faster access during animation.

Info Section

This section provides quick access to important resources and version details:

• Version Display – Shows the current AXIS Panel version installed in the scene.

• Documentation Button – Opens the official online manual.

• AXIS Core Add-on Link – Direct access to the main add-on repository for updates.

• Need More Characters? – Opens the creator’s web directory listing all stores and compatible character editions.