Simple Maya IK Issue - Need some help

Vaztor

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


Then as I move it up even more, the knee flips around to the opposite side of the body.


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


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)


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.

BARDLER

IK needs to be straight in order to work properly for most situations. Did you make the IK when all the joints were perfectly aligned from hip to toe in the front view?

Vaztor

BARDLER wrote: »

IK needs to be straight in order to work properly for most situations. Did you make the IK when all the joints were perfectly aligned from hip to toe in the front view?

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?

BARDLER

Yea for IK handles you need to make sure the are straight in the front view or you will get that snapping. If you have angled legs you can make the IK handle for the leg and then rotate it into place. Then for the feet make them perfectly straight and attach them to the leg IK later.

This is an example of a recent rig I did.

Vaztor

Okay I think I get it. For clarification, when you say "rotate it into place" do you just mean the entire leg joint chain, keeping it completely straight?