I've run into a wall here; any help would be appreciated. I'm trying to set up the P4 male for a bicycle riding animation, but I am unable to get the arms into the desired pose. No matter what I try, I can't get the figure's hands onto the handlebars of the bicycle. The problem is that once the arm is in this position, both the "Twist" and "Bend" dials are producing essentially the same rotation. I need to be able to move the elbow away from the body (abduction, if you prefer the anatomical term). This is normally handled by the "Bend" dial. I'm pretty sure I know why this happening: it probably has to do with the way the joint axes are set up. I just don't have time to try to find a work-around. Does anyone know of a solution for this problem? Thanks in advance, Cal

Have you tried adjusting the collar? I created an image using a bike rider last year and thankfully saved the pose. Check out this image and let me know if it helps. Been there, done that :)

Yes, I did work with the collar, but I wasn't able to get the arm into position. (I was, however, able to completely mangle it--even with limits set to on). I haven't tried this with any other P4 figures, but this seems to me to be a real problem. The human arm can position the hand in just about any orientation in an entire octant of space, apparently Poser does not have that capability. Thanks for the suggestion. Cal

i neant to say,this is the best i could do,ive got some bad wrinkling but i think this is some sort of ik issue..........ohhhhhhh......."PHILC"........

Attached Link: http://yarchive.net/space/spacecraft/gimbal_lock.html

My guess is that it has to do with the way/order that the joint rotations are applied. I've seen this before in 3D Studio MAX. (The phenomena is similar to a "gimble lock" that mechanisms such as gyroscopes can experience.) It might be possible to fix it if the base orientations of the joints can be changed. I just don't have the time or energy to dig into it right now. Looks as if I'm going to have to scrap Poser for this project and dust off my trusty old copy of Humanoid. Cal

Using the joint editor fixed the gimble lock problem, but created more, as you can see. The meaning of the rotation dials has changed and the deformers are all messed up. Has anyone been down this road before? (I'm not really feeling too adventurous at the moment.) Cal

heyas; when i get gimbal lock, usually i try grabbing the arm part (ie the shoulder, here) and draggin the rotation tool across to move it. click on the shoulder to select it, then hold down the shift key, and drag the rotate tool sideways in the window. this might move the arm where you want it. the other solution would be to re-zero the collar and/or shoulder and start again. :/ it doesnt sound like fun, but it can be quicker than trying to force the arm around while it is gimbal locked.

I re-zeroed both collar and shoulder many times, there was just no getting to the desired postion. Changing the joint order to YXZ seems to eliminate the gimble lock. However, when I made the change, I got a warning that I might need to "readjust joint zones", and the upper arm is obviously not blending correctly. I was hoping someone had tried the joint zone thing and could give me some idea if it was worth a shot. Any ideas? Cal