dwalden74
06-30-2003, 10:20 AM
I just wanted to get some feedback about these thoughts...
It seems that the biggest problem in Maya in regards to IKFK and character animation is that the animator always has to switch between IK and FK mode. The reason is that IK and FK cannot exist in Maya contemporaneously (at least in nothing I've discovered so far): In Maya, one either has to animate in IK mode, or in FK mode, and then blend between them. Yuk! This can cause a lot of extra overhead work on the part of the animator who is now forced to pay attention to these technical details; things that can distract from concentrating 100% on the performance of the character, which is the animators job (and joy).
Now, some collegues of mine have told me that other software, for example Messiah (although I personally have not checked it out yet), can indeed handle cycles of this type. Maya animators, imagine this: a system where keying the IK handle actually keys the joints' rotations(not position information), and keying the joints rotations also moves the ikHandle in space. You have the best of both worlds AND no IKFK switching (yeah!). Your keyframes are now always on rotations (which I think most people prefer), but you the option of controlling it via ik position, or fk rotation. It seems that this is how IKFK should really work.
Does anyone know for sure which softwares support functions like this? If I were working at AW it would be something I would invest some serious time in developing for a future Maya release. What do you guys think???
:beer:
David
It seems that the biggest problem in Maya in regards to IKFK and character animation is that the animator always has to switch between IK and FK mode. The reason is that IK and FK cannot exist in Maya contemporaneously (at least in nothing I've discovered so far): In Maya, one either has to animate in IK mode, or in FK mode, and then blend between them. Yuk! This can cause a lot of extra overhead work on the part of the animator who is now forced to pay attention to these technical details; things that can distract from concentrating 100% on the performance of the character, which is the animators job (and joy).
Now, some collegues of mine have told me that other software, for example Messiah (although I personally have not checked it out yet), can indeed handle cycles of this type. Maya animators, imagine this: a system where keying the IK handle actually keys the joints' rotations(not position information), and keying the joints rotations also moves the ikHandle in space. You have the best of both worlds AND no IKFK switching (yeah!). Your keyframes are now always on rotations (which I think most people prefer), but you the option of controlling it via ik position, or fk rotation. It seems that this is how IKFK should really work.
Does anyone know for sure which softwares support functions like this? If I were working at AW it would be something I would invest some serious time in developing for a future Maya release. What do you guys think???
:beer:
David