Hello. I would like to ask you a question about IK / FK operation.
The links below are rigs that work with Maya and 3Ds Max.
If you check the link you will see that it is an IK / FK hybrid system that works very flexibly without a separate IK / FK switch.
However, Blender’s Rigify or BlenRig has a completely separate IK / FK bone and provides Snap functionality to the animator for manual IK / FK conversion.
As a novice animator, this IK / FK manual snapping feature is cumbersome. Instead of the Maya and 3Ds Max examples, the wrists work as IK and the arms work as FK without any restrictions.
Does Rigify or BlenRig support automatic switching between IK / FK?
I have seen 2 other similar suggestions on other forums. That would be great, once you experience this system you can’t go back to a regular IK/FK switch, it’s a HUGE time saver and quality of life solution. So far, that’s the only thing preventing me from switching to Blender.
It’s been two years since I wrote this article, and I’m glad to meet someone with the same thoughts.
At the time, I spoke to people around Blender on this topic, but they didn’t agree with me.
Rather, they told me that animation is more convenient because IK / FK can be adjusted with a 0-100% slider.
I honestly don’t know what it is.
I still think the FK / IK hybrid rig is the better way.
If your arm is in FK on frame 1 and then you set an IK key on frame 10 , It interpolates between these two keys types automatically without having the extra step to set your arm in IK mode, then click on 'snap to IK …then set your arm in FK mode then snap back to FK and so on.
You can even tweak that value of that blend if you want a smooth trajetory blend of a straight linear blend.
On frame 1 , by default when you move the arm it sets it in FK no matter what controller you’r using, then on frame 10 you can move the arm and manualy set an IK type key on frame 10. If will blend between both automatically.
So then there’s two different ways to create a keyframe? You say, “make IK keyframe” or “make FK keyframe”? It seems to me that this ought to be pretty much scriptable (although I’m not a scripter, so I could just be smoking crack.)