Controlling knees and elbows in an IK setup

[dwalden74]

pole vectors.

BTW, what's a UK solution???

:beer:
David

[svenip]

make a control object, select it and shoft select the ik (must be rotational) and do constraint-pole vector

now the plane of the ik will follow the control

[Eudaimic]

Originally posted by dwalden74
pole vectors.

BTW, what's a UK solution???

:beer:
David

The same as shoft select :beer:


Thanks guys.

[GrafOrlok]

A UK solution is maybe what you get if you do a shoft selection...:p

Seriously, a thing that is pretty important is to have the control object perfectly aligned to the existing IK-polevector. This can probably be done in many ways but I do like this: select the control-object, shift select the joint were the IK begins (ie the thigh or shoulder...), press P for parent, select the control object and zero out translation and rotation (zero out=mark translate and rotate in the channelbox and press 0), the control object pops up to the joint and gets the same rotation. Translate the control object in its local axis outwards (ie tZ or tY). Shift select the IK and do the pole vector constraint!

[Eudaimic]

I've been looking into the documentation on this whole pole vector thing, and it's a bit vague.

What exactly is a control object? Any arbitary object?

[lostpencil]

Hey Eudaimic,

Yes, any object will do.

Another thing I like to use to control the elbow is the twist channel on the IK handle. Click on the name of the channel (twist) and then middle click drag in the perspective window. It's pretty quick and accurate.

If you have a control object which contains all your keyable attributes (like finger rolls etc) you can simply add another attribute and use set driven key or connection editor to connect it to the IK handle twist channel. That way you don't have to pick all sorts of different objects to get at some common control attributes.

[Eudaimic]

Twist Channel you say?... I don't see it. Is it something I add myself?


And on that note, is there some kind of definitive or pseudo-definitive site with character animation material for Maya? Because I'm getting confused here :)

[lostpencil]

Yep... it's on the IK handle. So select the IK handle, and then near the bottom should be a channel that says 'twist'.

The thing with Maya is that there are usually a bazillion different ways to do things. :)

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