When it comes to IK control objects, what types of mirroring do you find your animators like most? Here’s a quickie example file of what I’m talking about if it sounds like I’m out in left field: http://www.jenniferhoffman.net/mirrorTypes.ma
Negative Scaled Null Group
Pros:
- Identical results from both your local transformations and rotations, which means super easy copy and pasting of animation curves between left and right.
Cons: - Can cause problems with parenting chains and constraints, which requires extra rig massaging to work out.
- The mirrored side will rotate unintuitively when selected by itself.
180 Degree Null Group Rotation
Pros:
- Identical results from local rotations on left and right.
- Clean parenting chains and constraints
Cons: - Reversed translations on 2 axes, which requires flipping when copy/pasting animation curves
No Mirroring
Pros:
- Clean parenting chains and constraints
- Simplicity… I suppose.
Cons: - Reversed rotations on 2 axes
- Reversed translations on 1 axis
So which styles do your animators appreciate more? If you know of a better way than any of these, please do share.
I’ve found that while you can easily make a button to flip the appropriate animation curves in a 180 degree mirror set-up, I actually get a lot of flak from my animators for any extra buttons I give them. Yet if you go with the negative scale set-up it can be a mess from the rigging side, and you have to deal with the local rotation manipulator being reversed on half of your controls. That can make posing tedious, and its not really worth the time saved from not needing to flip your animation curves later.