Hi everyone :)

Currently it is possible to use Inverse Kinematics to fix the model's hands / feet , and one can move arround the model which is then adjusted to the selected limb.

Say, if I want to fix the model's upper body (e.g. all parts above abs), and make the hips / legs move accordingly to make some kicking / running poses, is there any ways to do it?

Many thanks in advance!

Technically it is possible. I doubt that it will be of much help, however; for one kicking people tend to move their whole body, unless they are attached to some fixed installation or are professional bellydancers, for second, there are not many bones between the hip and the upper body. Also Joint controlled morphs do not work with IK. But you can try that out for yourself: In the hierarchy editor, you can create a new IK chain by selecting "IK Chains" and click on the Create button. Then drag e.g. the "abdomen" and "chest" on the newly created chain. You then have a new IK chain in the Figure menu, which you can then enable.

To the best of my understanding, any part of a figure can be made the goal of an IK chain.

I sometimes make an IK chain with the head as the goal, but this is inconpatible with using the hands as IK goals.

you might try using the lock actor option.

Also Joint controlled morphs do not work with IK.

Is that true even when the IK bends match the JCM angles? If so, this is bad news since my figure is largely dependent on JCMs.

Just tested. It's true....

Many thanks for the quick reply guys!

I've tried the IK-Chains method and the lock actor method, both solve the issue to a certain extend.

IK-Chains

With this method i've selected the waist as goal and twist my actor a bit. It does serve the purpose (i.e. upper body not moving and lower body starting from hip moves arround). However it seems that the limitation of the joints are somehow not followed.. e.g. when i pull or rotate the hip, the waist will somehow be distorted... wonder if there's any limit to apply on this one?

Lock Actor

This does lock my whole model lol.. don't know if it can lock only a certain part of the body..

In short, i think my question can be: can the hip be somehow removed as a center of the body? (i am thinking if i can set it to the head / chest, this might work.. but does that mean i need to rework the hierarchy editor ? seems a bit heavy .. ;)

any thoughts? :)

Thanks!

"Say, if I want to fix the model's upper body (e.g. all parts above abs), and make the hips / legs move accordingly to make some kicking / running poses, is there any ways to do it?"

Hi if  I am under standing your stated goal correctly I submit that there is a way to put a hard Fix  or a "hold" on any body part during an animation while moving the others.

step one:
Decide in advance how many frames you animation will be and ADD them to the time line /frame counter.

Set two: put or even animate the desired body parts (e.g. all parts above abs) in the "fixed" position you need/desire.

Step  three: save the pose to the pose library and choose the 'select subset" option and the hierarchy editor will open

Step four:
 Deselect the entire "universe" and check box only those parts whom's fixed pose you wish to save.(e.g. all parts above abs)   and save

Step five:
when you ok your selections in the hierachy editor and the option to save one frame or multiple frames will be presented .. choose MULTIPLE frames using the number of frames you decided in step one.

Step six: do whatever animation you had planed for the non fixed bodypart (legs,hips etc.)
DONT worry that you are "messing up" your upper body pose.

Step seven: when you are satisfied with your lower body animation load that multi-frame "fixed "pose you saved  to your library in step four and it will apply that fixed pose (e.g. all parts above abs)  across the entire animation
while leaving your lower body movement untouched as you made them.

  I use this method all the time to Fix natural looking  poses across entire animated sequences to hands that get all weird from BVH/mocap files

P.S. BTW I am sure the process I just described above can be done with poser animation layers introduced in P7 but Alas I am still on poser 6.

Cheers

Quote - this is bad news since my figure is largely dependent on JCMs.

The workaround it to pose your figure using IK, then turn IK off when you have the figure in the desired pose. When you turn IK off, the JCM should kick in, and the pose should remain almost the same, though there can be slight changes in the pose when you switch IK off. This usually works OK for static poses, I'm not sure if it works as well for animations, you might need to add keyfremes to keep things good.

The workaround it to pose your figure using IK, then turn IK off when you have the figure in the desired pose. When you turn IK off, the JCM should kick in, and the pose should remain almost the same, though there can be slight changes in the pose when you switch IK off. This usually works OK for static poses, I'm not sure if it works as well for animations, you might need to add keyfremes to keep things good.

Yeah, that will have to do. It's strange seeing everything pop back into shape when IK is turned off.

"I'm not sure if it works as well for animations, you might need to add keyfremes to keep things good."

Hi If you use IK in your poser animation and then try to turn it off at a later point you will have many problems thereafter
this is a long standing issue/Bug that we have discusses here recently

just a heads up

Cheers