Quote - ...and postwork :D Which, of course, is no use for an animation....

 

Lies! You can actually export the frames one at a time as stills, and assemble them in MotionArtist or MovieMaker :)

I'm not going to get deep into IK, just tell you when you need to turn it off: from what you said, you have a pretty fair idea of what to do with it anyway :)

I'm going to get off my soapbox now, and let you get back to your day