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View Full Version : Referencing problems with IK in maya 7

textureyes
11-29-2005, 03:22 PM
Im having lots of problems with my IK characters that are in reference files.
about every hour or so the IK will stop working. An arm joint will suddenly only move from the sholder and not bend any more. This is happening with the arms, legs, and my IK foot set up.
The only way i can get round it is to make a new reference and copy the animation over.
Any one else found this? other people in my office have had it once or twice, but not as many times as me.
Im using maya 7.
I have unloaded and reloaded the reference.
Closed maya and reopened it.
Deleted my preferences and started fres.
there are no limits set up on the joints.

Im going nuts here... spending more time loading and reloading reference files than animating.
can anyone help me out with this one?
thanks for your time
dan
thematt
11-29-2005, 04:33 PM
ohh man..another weirdo thing from maya7..pfff..I'm sick of hearing those kind of stuff, makes me so worry for the upgrade on next project since i use referencing a lot.
have you contact Alias to know what they say about it?
Good luck with that keep us inform, if you find a solution.

cheers
Keilun
11-29-2005, 07:57 PM
Perhaps you could add some more detailed information about what your referencing hierarchy looks like. eg. Which parts are referenced (where is the animation, where is the geometry, where is the skin?)? Are they all in separate files or a single file? Are you using multiple levels of referencing? etc. With what you've given, it's hard to provide help.

Also understanding what you're doing at the time that it stops working is helpful as well.
textureyes
11-30-2005, 08:35 AM
Well Im using a referenced character. The original file is the whole character bones and skin and controls.
The reference file was also built in maya 7.
The file Im using brings in the character and i animate that. There is also a camera that is referenced in the scene. I have no problems with the camera.
There is nothing regular that I do to make all the IK go wrong. I am animating in the graph editor and using character sets.
The environment is in the scene, not refereneced.
I have tried to animate with just importing the character and that works fine. But it would be a lot better if i could just reference it.
Hope thats a bit more information.
thanks
Keilun
11-30-2005, 02:36 PM
Ok let me try to paraphrase what you have so I understand it properly:

A.ma = character file, with bones and skin and controls
B.ma = file that references A.ma and a camera. And the environment is native to this file as well.

Does animation exist already in the referenced character file (A.ma)? Or are you animating from scratch in the top level file (B.ma)?

Do you unload/load your reference at any point during this?

Where do your IK handles live? In the referenced file? Or in the top-level file?
textureyes
11-30-2005, 03:46 PM
ok
all animation is done in B.ma.
there are no key frames in A.ma
all Ik and controls are in A.ma
I dont load or unload the reference. I have only tried it to see if it will correct the problem (which it dosent).
they are both .ma files.

so to make it clear...
A.ma has all the IK, bones, curves, skin, model.
B.ma has a couple of environment models and A.ma as a reference file.
ALL my animation is done in B.ma
Keilun
11-30-2005, 08:30 PM
Hm. There is a known bug when IK is in B.ma and bound to referenced joints and having the IK data lost when reopening the B.ma. I thought it might be related but I guess not. This sounds more and more like a bug with referencing than a workflow or best practices issue. Perhaps you should log a bug.
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11-30-2005, 08:30 PM
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