I'm still fairly new to rigging in Maya so forgive me if this is a bit of a nooby question.
I'm having a consistent issue every time I rig. Basically, unless my joints are almost orthographically straight, my joints will bend and twist ridiculously when I do a simple drag of the IK along the Y axis.
I'm following along on Digital Tutors to ensure I'm doing everything properly and this issue still persists. I've got some screenshots to highlight the difference:
The joints start out alligned with the character leg. The first image is as I pull it up right above the knee
![bp1MUIH.png](http://i.imgur.com/bp1MUIH.png)
Then as I move it up even more, the knee flips around to the opposite side of the body.
![megeVL1.png](http://i.imgur.com/megeVL1.png)
I've tried Pole Vectors but it still has this weird twisting behavoir. By comparison, this is the Digital Tutor Rig as I do the same thing:
The leg goes up much straighter
![OdK6YNg.png](http://i.imgur.com/OdK6YNg.png)
And then when I go up even higher, the leg still points forward and the IK flips over nicely rather than spazzing out. (Even without any Pole Vectors designated for it)
![pVC8wx8.png](http://i.imgur.com/pVC8wx8.png)
I'm sure there's probably a very simple answer to this but it's completely alluding me at the moment. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Replies
I made it straight in the side view but then I conformed the joints to fit to the geometry. I thought this might be the problem, but I was under the impression that moving the joints or rotating/rotating their orient wouldn't make it flip out so radically.
Is there a preferred way to conform the joints to the geometry or is the goal to just ensure they're as straight as possible for IKs?
This is an example of a recent rig I did.