IK Splines in Blender

Olá or Hello to everyone. I’ve just joined this website and I’m happy to start sharing stuff I make with you folk. I used Maya for a bit but since my time with it is coming to an end and I don’t feel comfortable on yet paying for it I decided to try out Blender.

I have to say I’m very impressed with what Blender can do, I’ve always heard ghost stories about it! And so far I’ve been having a good time however I think I found my first blender hiccup.

I’m creating my first character in Blender and I seem to be having a though time understanding Splines here. I mean, I know how to set it up, it’s easy. Just add the Spline IK constraint and it works, but I don’t seem to have much control over it and it seems like it breaks in certain parts. :\

I’ve tried using a Control Armature along with a Deform one but I’m not having much luck. I’m sure Blender is capable of Spline IK that work for character’s spines, tails, tentacles etc. I’m just seem to be missing something but I’m not finding. And not of information on Google either. :\

How do you properly set one up in Blender?

And I apologize for my poor English. :slight_smile:

Hi and welcome,

here is a good reference from toka https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?377761-Improving-Rigging-features-in-Blender/page2

In blender you have to use two armatures to avoid dependecy cycles.
To control the curve use hooks constraints with bones.
Another option are the new bendy bones, they act like spline ik just google.

good luck

Hi Pedro,

the setup Vanderhorst linked to is the best workaround to my knowledge. SplineIK is half-assed in Blender - there is no way (out-of-the-box) of controlling twist along the spline, so you have to make your own like Toka did. I’ve been asking the devs to give us some parameters to control it, to no avail so far.
Bienvenido en BA !

Hadrien

Thanks for the information! :slight_smile:

And gracias! : D