I'm working on a gym scene using various characters, and I'm trying to show everyone in a squat position with the hips just below parallel, as in real life.  I remember that Dr. Geep had a turotial where you use IK on the feet, and if you pulled the hip down, the legs and body would move accordingly.  I can't seem to find this tutorial for the other details, but does this still work?  I could manually try to maneuver the legs and body, then drop the character to the floor; but, I think it might be easier to keep the feet on the floor, and move the body down, especially with V4/M4, and A2/Tyler/Miki4, etc.  How would you go about it?  I'm curious to see how i13, DM, and others construct their poses.  Thanks, -Starkdog

I'd bend the legs manually because with IK on you often get unrealistic things such as knee joints twisting and shins moving sideways at the knees.

Even when you get the pose right you may not be happy with the results because most Poser figures don't have great thigh bends.  Then again, there are various add on packages or figure revisions which help to combat this problem.  

turn ik on for both feet, select hip and move translate Y down until its in the position you want. Adjust the feet for distance apart and any turn out. Then select the thighs and apply side-side movement to get the knees more realistic.

 

Its quicker to do than to type.

yep I'm with markschum on that one. 

andy - the first figure in an empty default scene has IK turned on by default.  grab his feet and have a practice making him squat. it's fun, and very entertaining.

I like the entertaining part. :-)

my 5 yr old thinks he's hilarious.

hey you're up!  Okay - talk.  what's the secret!

By the way there's some nice gym stuff here in free stuff (search the word gym) but beware, some free stuff has riders making you unable to ever sell your picture that you make etc.  It's very important to check the tab called details before downloading something.  the EULA is different for each "free" thing and it's not the same as the stuff you buy from renderosity.  It's a mistake I made when I was new to this game, so I always try and warn everyone before it ends up mixed in your runtime and you can't get it out.

Love esther

Just out of bed. :-)
Could not sleep after my discovery.

The secret?? Sorry, more testing required.
And it would not be a secret any more if I told here in a public forum, would it?

no one is listening...

yep, totally quiet here.  Pssst... tell me... quick!

You have to adjust the Z axis when you use IK and bring the hip down with Y translate, otherwise you wil get a lot of things going wrong. You adjust the Y translate a little bit, then adjust the Z translate and keep that going until you get your figure where you want it.

Here is Alyson in a squat pose. I didn't work very long on this, but it's close to what you are looking for.

I did it as above, and once I got her down there, I turned off IK and adjusted her legs side to side.

EDIT: adjust the Z axis forward. You will see distortion in her knees and ankles. Just adjust the Z translate until that distortion goes away, then keep moving down on the Y translate...

Hello Starkdog,

Here is the link to Dr.Geep tutorials.

http://drgeep.com/NPU/Directories/dir01-08.htm

In the design of your pose, don't forget to bend the trunk forward when squatting as illustrated in the attached figure. This is mandatory for the model to keep balance. The gravity center of the body should be within the perimeter defined by the foot. The hip, knee and ankle angles show in the figure are approximatively the real angle. Don't push the ankle bending too much. Instead, squat on tip toes.

Allstereo