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Uses for the Squetch rig's Toe IK on the leg


Mechadelphia

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So I'm finally settling in and taking a very close look at the Squetch rig.

 

I have a question and I'm not sure if it has been addressed before.

 

There is a switch to set the legs to use Toe IK. I tried it out some and I think it is kind of neat... but I'm not entirely sure why I have that feeling.

 

In what situations might an animator opt to switch a leg or legs to Toe IK control with the Squetch rig?

 

I'm not much of an animator yet but I've found that I liked switching to it to quickly point the the leg from the toe when the actual position of the tip of the toe is important (conveniently bypassing the foot control altogether). After positioning the foot/ leg that way, I felt more comfortable switching it back to regular leg IK.

 

Is that one of the intended uses of Toe IK?

 

Also, are there situations where some animators might want to leave Toe IK switched on for certain types shots rather than use regular leg IK?

 

Thanks in advance.

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  • Hash Fellow

I didn't know it was there but it sounds useful. Is there a "finger IK" also?

 

Uses for this would be rare but I can imagine situations where the fingertips.toetips needed to be stuck somewhere and the hand/foot somewhat flexible above them.

 

A hand moving that thing on a Ouija board... pressing piano keys...

 

Rare but useful if you when you need it.

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Uses for this would be rare but I can imagine situations where the fingertips.toetips needed to be stuck somewhere and the hand/foot somewhat flexible above them.

 

Thanks Robcat.

 

It's there. You should have a look at the Squetchy Sam example model when you have a chance.

 

What you wrote there is along the lines of what I was thinking. As soon as I posted my question though I continued to experiment with this.

 

I just thought of a scenario were I would want this to animate a shot more efficiently:

 

Think of Spiderman climbing vertically up the side of a building. It could be done with regular IK but it would be much easier with Toe IK.

 

Instead of the the IK foot control null being the fulcrum of the the whole foot setup at the rear of the foot, the IK toe control is the fulcrum (at the front) and you still retain the controls that you get with the regular IK leg set up (minus the regular IK foot control null).

 

That is interesting...

 

Thanks.

 

EDIT:

 

There is no finger IK that I can see. The hand set up is from Steve's Hand Gizmo.

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  • Hash Fellow

Typically we've animated walking on the toes by using regular IK and raising the heel.

 

There's a substantial part of a regular walk where a foot is contacting the ground thru the toe only, so that's sonmething animators learn to manage.

 

But i've not tried toe IK

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I'm not much of an animator yet but I've found that I liked switching to it to quickly point the the leg from the toe when the actual position of the tip of the toe is important (conveniently bypassing the foot control altogether). After positioning the foot/ leg that way, I felt more comfortable switching it back to regular leg IK.

 

Is that one of the intended uses of Toe IK?

 

Yessir.

 

Also, are there situations where some animators might want to leave Toe IK switched on for certain types shots rather than use regular leg IK?

 

I'm sure there could be situations where you would keep the leg in only toeIK. but I think they would be rare. It's useful for any situation where the toes need to stay in place. Having the foot squetch toward the heel instead of the toe could also be used if you wanted to have the toe stuck while the character tries to free it (I don't think I showed that in the leg tutorial...I'll add a quick clip here).

 

 

 

Is there a "finger IK" also?

 

I thought about it...it may eventually get added.

toeIK_SQUETCH.mp4

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