IK leg Setup help with 3dsmax 5 rig tut

[gaggle]

For what it's worth, your english seems perfectly fine to me.

I don't know what's going on with your setup, a lot of things could've gone wrong. Have you tried starting from scratch? Delete the leg and go again.. not the most fun way of doing things though...

At least you could try to make a new leg next to the current one, and just go straight for this control-target thing. Bones can be very temperamental in my experience, it can take a long time to fully understand what a hell is going on when something isn't behaving like you'd like it to.

Sorry for not being able to provide actual help :\, maybe someone else can step in for that. It is a tricky buisness trying to troubleshoot misbehaving bones though.

[Robbert]

well, i have a 3 for my english on my school (that's very low) ;)

gaggle: I started the tutorial from the beginning, and i followed all the steps
And i made this tutorial 3 months earlier and then i had the same problem.
The only option i can think is make another shapeCTRL for the foot and target the other 2 IK goals to the "feet"CTRL, but that's a bit weird solution, there must be a easier way, because in the tutorials sample it works well,
So is there anyone knows what it is?? :shrug:

[Mahlon]

Robbert,
The way you have it setup now is sometimes the way people do it.
But, if you want the swivel angle to be COMPLETELY independent of the foot, then I think you must set the parent space of the Middle IK Chain (ball of foot) and the last IK chain (Toes) to "IK Goal" instead of "Start Joint". It's in the IK solver properties below the swivel angle settings in the IK rollout. The Ik chain at the angle should remain set at "Start Joint".

Here's an example IK leg I did recently (very similar to the one in that tutorial) that might help you out.

http://personal.mem.bellsouth.net/m/a/mahlonb/Leg%20IK%20Example/

Hope this helps.
:beer:

Mahlon

[Robbert]

Mahlon: Really great that you help me out!!!,,, you are my IK hero :)
Another question for you: the tutorial says that you have to set the timeline from -1000-10000, if i do that, and i move a helper, then i have to wait 30 sec before he moves,,, why is that? (i have a 3,06 ghz) And if i open the tutorial sample, the helper/shape moves normal. And it's only with the helpers/shapes that are in connection with the splineIK (i hope you understand)

Can someone look at it, move the center shapes (example: spineBotCTRL): http://www.vi2.com/getFile/117757.max
(the IK system is not yet finnished)

[Mahlon]

Thanks for the nice moniker, but the only things I know about IK are what I've picked up from the real max IK heros like Sergio Mucino and Kees Rinjin and Paul Neal (don't forget Dominique Gantois). I'm just a parrot for these illustrious noblesmiths of the kinematic art.

As far as setting the timeline for such a great range, the only reason you want to do this is because when you create a wiring or custom attribute, it will use a 'playable' range which is equal to whatever the timeline range is set for. In other words, if your range is set for 100 frames when you wire your parameters, then after 100 frames the wiring will not work and appear to be broken. You can always change them later, to be more than the standard 100 frames, but it can be quite tedious if you've got lots and lots of wiring or CA. There is a script at scriptspot.com to facilitate this but I can't remember it's name.

As far as the helpers being so slow..... I don't know why this is. There was a discussion about it on the discreet forum, say, maybe two months ago. But I can't remember the explanation. The workaround would be to go ahead and leave the frame range at something reasonable, like 100 (or as high as you need, but not 10,000), and then manually (or with the script I mentioned) adjust any wiring or custom attribute ranges in the curve editor later if you need them to extend beyond 100 (most likely you will).

Again, I don't know why this happens with spline IK, but maybe you should ask at the discreet forum. I'll bet Kees Rinjin would answer you right away.

Glad to be of help :beer:

Mahlon

[Robbert]

Mahlon thx for the reply (you have a pm from me)
I have more things too figure out, the localhelp, localworld and the betweenhelp on the arms, doesn't work too
i will look at the discreet forum.

[Mahlon]

Hi Robbert,
Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you, but I've been busy. And sorry, I don't have an answer for you about the local help/local world/between help. I don't remember that part very well. Could you tell us your problem with it is exactly?

Mahlon

[Robbert]

My IK system is fully working now except for the character node doesn't work right (animation>>"create character")
If I save my characters position with "Set as Skinpose" and then i change my characters helpers in wathever I like, and then I do "Assume Skinpose", he flips back too it's normal position and that's right,,, but if i save my max file and open it later, if set all the helpers in a different position (or save it in a different position) and then i do "Assume Skinpose" again, he flips back in his normal position except one foot, why doesn't that foot flips in his normal position???? and how can i resolf it?

[michaelcomet]

FWIW that tutorial which I wrote had a few mistakes like the IK Goal space vs. Start Joint since Max 4 had the opposite default, and they switched the default in r5 at the last minute, right before release. :(

Also as mentioned the timeline is large so that you won't have to adjust the range of the wiring and other controllers after the fact. However MAX is odd in that it likes to calculate stuff for the entire range when things happen....so before you animate, you'd of course make the range smaller... But for rigging it's easier to have it larger.

Assume skinpose stuff and set skin pose stuff should work. However "Create Character" may or may not work, sicne if you do it's you'll likely have to select EVERYTHING including all teh hidden pieces and such. The character node has a bunch of limitations that make it hard to work with custom rigs with differen't hierarchies like this.

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