Reply To: NH Rig Update 2

[Harris Clook]

@waylow a quick question about IK’s. Is it (if not imperative) at least ideal to have a pole vector when setting up an IK chain? I remember you mentioning the usefulness of them in the Core course, but can’t recal if you said how vital they are.

I’m trying different ways of setting up my legs (not my legs, but Noodleheads), and I like the way they move without a knee pole. I have however come across an interesting situation where due to the way the bones are positioned, the rotation of the Foot IK doesn’t align with the rest of the chain. Ie: I’ll rotate the foot widget 90 degs on the Y, but the rest of the chain will only rotate as far as the chain allows it, and not 90 to match the widget. I’ll post some screenshots tomorrow morning before I head off to work (or if the file is tidy enough, I’ll upload it via a dropbox link if you’d like to dig around).

Secondly, is it common to see multiple IK constraints in a leg that has more components than the average foot-shin-thigh number of three? The back legs of Noodlhead have five, possibly 7 depending how I resolve things. Sorry again, not at my comp to add photos until tomo morning, but these renders might help for now just to show what I mean. I’m wondering if I could benefit from adding multiple IK constraints given the length of the chain and the angles at which each subsequent bone differs from the last, or if it might make things muddy instead. I’ll give it a go next time I jump on either way.

Cheers!