Easy IK for arms or legs

[Mike Hawkins]

1 I note that Thomas is pretty much finished developing Diffeo (and many thanks and kudos to him for doing it), but I think one worthwhile option is missing, and I think (hope) it would be quite a simple enhancement to an existing function rather than a lot of work to make something completely new.

2 IK is often/usually very important/crucial on the feet, if a figure is to be animated. For the arms, though, I can usually manage with or without it.

3 I don’t want IK on the arms because it becomes the only way to pose them, and moving G8.1F’s arms back from the shoulder with Simple IK gives poor shoulder deformations. (Try posing the figure at Stand Easy with hands clasped behind its back.) The body morphs, though, achieve the same movements with excellent shoulder deformations (“ArmsFrntBck” and “ArmsUpDwn”).

4 Currently the Simple IK can be created for both arms and legs, or neither. I assume it’d be easy to apply it to one or the other and not both.

5 So could we have two import/rigging options, one to create IK just on the arms and one to create IK just on the legs? (Presumably some folks will continue to want both, so the options should work as now if both are selected.)

[Thomas Larsson]

Such options are implemented in the last ocmmit. I think that most people would use either mhx or rigify for animation, and in that case you can turn off ik. But the option was straightforward to implement, so here it is.

[Mike Hawkins]

Could you point me at this option that you mention? I can see options to switch IK on and off, snap IK to FK and suchlike, but even if I switch IK off, by this point IK has been created on both arms and legs, and the arm-related body morphs therefore can’t be used (they create ‘noodle arms’).

I agree about MHX and Rigify. I’ll mostly use them, but right now I’m trying to stick with the DAZ rig so I can import poses and actions and then tweak them. Starting with an imported pose is much the easiest way to start, and the Skamotion walk cycle is better than anything I could make.

[Thomas Larsson]

It’s in the options of the Add Simple IK tool.

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[Mike Hawkins]

Excellent. Got it now. Many thanks. All done.

I thought I’d installed the latest version, but my previous installation must have failed miserably.