Hello there,
recently I found out a cool method of animating switch between IK and FK without any flip and any pain - through the Animate > IK/FK Keys menu. Instead of using normal keys, you use Set IK/FK keys. Switching between IK and FK is done by checking/unchecking the Enable IK Solver option. If the IK handle was left behind while working in FK, you just need to do “Set preferred angle” in Skeleton menu. It totally works! :wip:
In the light of this, I really do not understand, why do we need all these scripts for seamless IK/FK switches, heavy 3-chained joint systems (I mean IK, FK and skinned chains), when it is already there. From the very beginning of Maya actually. Do people forget nice simple things? Or is there some hidden problem I do not see?
IK/FK switch - an old good method?
better control maybe?!?i.e. i’ve seen riggers putting an extra joint at the knee and wrist because the end result is much better,more natural instead of the logical one joint.
also i’ve heard more than once how maya has things implemented but it’s not gonna be what you want so you’ll have to personally do the work.one such example is weight painting.when you first bind maya does some painting but nearly everytime it’s bad.
i can’t claim i know the answer but these are possible answers.i doubt so many people are doing it out of boredom,they don’t have anything else better to do and they decide to do this.
there is another possibility.maya’s version.not all people work with new versions of maya.some might be still working with 8.5 if it’s qualified for their work.but that version might not have that feature you’re talking about.
in the end though i feel it’s more convenient to have alternatives.sometimes certain techniques don’t work for some reason.so if you have alternatives there is still hope.
I suspect there’s something “wrong” with this simple old system, but I’d really like to know, what exactly. I tested it and did not face any problems with it… Control is complete :). Advantages: no need for building custom switches. Disadvantages: please, tell me!
And it is there from the very first versions of Maya.
i did say i didn’t know for sure and they were just possibilities ;)…perhaps some seasoned rigger might enlighten us.
… and until that I will retain the illusion that I’ve just re-discovered the best IK/FK switching method :buttrock:
But it’s late and time to sleep! I hope I will be able to - this things are too exciting! 
Hi,
I don’t understand how you got it to work, when I tried some of those menu, none of the seems to work the way I expect. So, I never touch any of those since I first stated learning rigging. Could you do some video clip to demonstrate this?
There’re still some today-standard features that I don’t think gonna work with this single chain method -stretchy ik, ik space switching, fk align(world/local), elbow/knee lock, etc.
I ran across this a while ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNfSG1DEj58
Hey Nuternatif, I’ll check the thingy with stretchy IK and other stuff you mentioned. If it’ll work, I promice to make some tutorial (may take a while)…
Hey there again,
i tried out the method and i find it quite limiting (especially if i want to use in a production pipeline) since you have to animate the ik it self instead of the controller but i havent tried it out in a fully rigged character yet tho…
Besides that i found something that might help you out on your question as well.
http://mayaspiral.blogspot.com/2012/05/rigging-making-sense-of-maya-ik-fk.html
hope it helps
Hey, here I did the tutorial on this thing: http://letsrig.wordpress.com/rigging/ikfk-switch/
In my hands it worked smoothly… I did not have to animate the IK handle, it’s important to press “Connect to IK/FK”, when control object is created, maybe this was the reason…
Anyway, would be glad to have any feedback!
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