suggestion: force ik_fk

[brad friedman <xsibrad(at)fie.us>]

I was putting together a hybrid IK/FK reverse foot rig on friday when I noticed some odd design choices with the integrated IK/FK blending in XSI.  It brought on some questions and ideas.

 

previously, I had assumed a chain has three states of manipulation behavior... unkeyed hybrid ik/fk... keyed ik, and keyed fk.  I had been going by the assumption that the way to get between these modes was by keying the IK/FK blend, to IK, FK, or not at all.  However, it turns out there is a fourth state... when you key the ik/fk blend to fk, but have not keyed the rotations of the bones yet.  In this mode, the bones can be rotated.  however, if you pull their root, they snap to their end effector as if they were in IK mode ( if the effector is constrained).

 

now, these crazy cool but sometimes annoying hybrid manipulation modes seem to have prompted the inclusion of the "Forc! e IK" switch.  However, there is no "Force IK/FK" switch which eliminates all the other weird semi modes and leaves the bones in either pure IK or pure FK based on the blend, without keys.

 

My frustration is that I can't create a rig that uses the internal XSI IK/FK switching that acts correctly when it comes in without keys.  It seems silly to me to have to have fcurves on my legs in order for them to act correctly.

 

So, anyone have any thoughts?  Unless I'm missing something (entirely possible) it seems to me there need to be  a "force IK/FK" switch on there so I can constrain the IK leg but blend it to the FK leg which is totally free, due tp ignoring the constrained end effectors completely, without the need for fcurves to be on the rig already.

 

btw, please don't tell me "just make a compound leg."  I know that already.  The point is to make one that u! ses pure internal XSI IK/FK blending.

 

Thanks.

 

-brad