Help needed with spilne IK in Maya

#1

Hi all!

I’m really hoping someone can help me. I’m rigging a braid for my character, using Maya and an IK spline.

I’ve created the joints and parented the root to my headjoint so the braid will move with the rest of the rig.

I then created a cv curve starting at the second joint of my braid and ending at the last joint. I selected the “ik spline handle tool” , selected my second joint, my last joint and finally my cv curve. ( the “auto parent curve” and “root on curve” options were on)

I selected my cv curve and in the “edit curves” dropdown menu I chose “selection” and then “cluster curve”. This created a cluster for each of the cv’s on my curve.

Next I created some nurbs circles to act as control objects. I positioned each over the cluster I wanted it to control and hit “freeze transformations” on the circles. I then went into the connection editor and linked the circle and cluster so that the circle will drive the cluster’s translation.

Ok so far so good - now the problem . My circles control the braid quite nicely , however when I rotate the head, the joints and curve move, but the clusters and circles stay behind. I’m not sure how to parent these into the hierarchy without causing double transformations or freak outs. The clusters are all set to “relative” and parenting those to the root of the braid works. But then the circles get left behind…

I’ve tried so many different parenting and constraint combinations my head hurts…Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a bunch!

#2

Hi.

First, your curve should not be parented to any joints. You will control the curve with the clusters, so if you move the clusters and the curve, you will have a double transformation.

Then, your clusters should not be set to “relative”, and instead of connecting the translate attributes, you simply parent the cluster to the control curve.

Finally, you have to parent the braid’s control curves to the head controller, and you’re done.

#3

Crying.Happy.Tears.

Thanks so much Pahuska, it works :slight_smile:

Would have taken me forever to figure out!

#4

Hi again !

So now my bone system moves fairly nicely - only issue is , my IK handles and joints seem to “slide”
along the curve. I was wondering whether it’s possible to constrain the IK handle to the end cv or cluster on the curve. I’ve attached an image to clarify (hopefully)

Thanks again!
K

#5

Look at this tutorial from Step 5 to the end : http://tutnuts.blogspot.fr/2010/04/stretchy-spine-rig-with-spline-ik-maya.html

#6

It’s nice and stretchy now, thanks :slight_smile:
It still slid a little bit so I added in an extra joint at the end , which wasn’t part of the spline IK. I then used a parent constraint to keep that last joint in place and the stretchiness in the IK chain to get smooth looking movement - not sure if I’m making sense?
Thanks again for your time and help , it’s much appreciated!
K

#7

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