IK pointers
 

Well guys just a few thoughts on my mind, and see what any of you think about it. Please post some of your thoughts on IK and animation.

Firstly i see that there is a plugin called Keytrak... Is it with Lightwave... Think i saw that somewhere.

Then i am just getting into animation. I found out the hard way that weight maps are very important if you want to get bones and your mesh to deform nicely... Is there any other way around this... Maybe a different method. Just wanted to know.

I kind of little puzzled by IK, well i know that you need a goal object, like the arm for instance,,, you setup the bones and you might want to add a null at the wrist to set it up as a goal object and so forth. Then whats the effector and other stuff.

All i need is a nice explanation about Goal Objects, Effectors. If so then what is FK?

A basic explanation will do as i am exploring the whole idea already and have basic understanding.

Thanks ,
Kumar:D

Guess not many have explored yet. But here is what i have done so far. Well point selection weight mapping is a more accurate way of mapping. Weights are really needed if you want to deform your mesh well. Use the same name and the map somehow gets assigned automatically to the corresponding named bones. Somehow i get joints that pop out of place,,, Hmm i think that its the reset bone rotation thing.... But i try to select the bone and rest rotation, set the values to 0 and then record the rest rotation. It doesnt quite fix the problem... Any thoughts on this.
As for IK, well still playing around with bones,,, IK will be explored later i guess.

did you learn about IK yet? if so do you know any good tutorial, i need to learn it but all the tutorials ive done end up with mine not working at all or looking copletley different from the sample leg.

Well i learnt it, the hard way as the tutorials seem very confusing.

guess i'll have to try myself then >_<
the only tutorial i got to work was the rock on a rope one from lightwaves tutorials but i need one for a simple box man.

Well, actually IK is simple now looking at it. Just make sure you do your bones in a logical way. If you are planning on IK on the Arm, then remember that you need two small bones, one at the base (collar) and one at the wrist. These are very small. And then you will need one null at the small wrist bone. Then open the motion options for the bones and set them to IK, then when you get to the wrist set IK goal to the null. The base of the arm, you need to set the unaffected by descendents.

Good Luck.