Why won't the feet stay on the floor when I try to animate a figure bending down. In Poser the feet stay on the floor when you move the hip downward. But in C6, they won't stay still. Any suggestions? Thanks.

I was really hoping someone more knowledgeable would answer this as right now I am experimenting with different character setups myself.

If you go to create a new document and click on the presets button then click the Animations option on the left-side column you will see a simple character as the last scene to choose from. Select Character and click OK.  You'll see the character has some green null objects around it and the foot shaped objects should prevent foot slipping and keep them from passing through the floor.  In other words you should be able to create your own null objects and attach them to your character's skeleton to do what you need.

Although with that said my results have been less than stellar so far. So I'm still experimenting.

I hope this helps.

Thanks, but I need to do this with poser figures within carrara. I guess the same applies, so I'll try it out. If anyone else has some suggestions, I would appreciate it.

Quote - If anyone else has some suggestions, I would appreciate it.

Same here.  I'd love to hear about character animation workflows in Carrara from anyone that knows something about it.

This will be a bit vague, as I'm at work and don't have C6 here, but hopefully it'll point you in a useful direction:

When you're importing a Poser figure into Carrara from the browser, an option pops up with something or other about using target helper objects.  I don't recall exactly what it's called, but do import the target helper objects.  Then, you'll have the green boxes that Dwarg mentions; they're at the end of IK chains on the characters.  You can manipulate those to handle foot movements via inverse kinematics.  If you don't move the helper object associated with a foot, the foot won't move.

That's not entirely true, though.  The foot will not tesselate, but it will rotate.  So, I've had to go back and clean up the rotation of the feet, but their positions stay pretty well locked down. 

Hope that's helpful.

 - Dex

Yea, thanks, but I don't import the figure, I load it directly in C6 from the browser wich is conected to the Poser runtime. I guess, I'll just have to create my own trarget helpers. What a pain in the ass. Thanks.

Why is IK  with content so difficult in Carrara? The target helpers work inconsistently. Sometimes they prevent the foot from going thru the floor sometimes they stop working. Also when it works the foot may stay in place but it will rotate, like sliding around its Y pivot.

Yes, I agree, they SUCK!!!!!!! I wish Daz would fix this if he want's tro compete or replace poser with Carrara.

There is no way I will animate with Carrara instead of Poser when the IK is so weak. I hope Carrara made content doesn't behave like this because if it does I pity the Carrara animators. I too thought I could start using Carrara for animation instead of Poser but so far it has been disapointing. A pity since Carrara has many other features that Poser doesn't have. IK is basic for character animation and Poser's seems rock solid by comparison.

Yea, I agree. Even animation done in poser, saved as a pose, imported into Carrara, still is flaky at best. Carrara just renders so much nicer and faster. Oh well, I'll keep waiting for DAZ to ketchup with the real world.