Rigging digitigrade character

Steve Schulze

I'm in the process of rigging this character. I'm wondering how best to handle hid digitgrade legs - would I run an IK chain from knee to ankle like a regular biped or down to the ball of the foot?

I haven't done much in the way of character rigging recently, so you could safely assume that I don't really know what the hell I'm doing here. 

antweiler

I would do it the regular way with an ik from the hip to the ankle, and a foot roll setup for the ball. Since the ball is more important than in regular human models, let the animator rotate it in all directions, not only forwards/backwards.

Zhalktis

Having to control the ankle completely manually, when the entire leg should work as one, can get somewhat tedious, making such a setup look natural isn't as easy as it sounds.

The best solution i've found is having a 3-joint IK for the entire leg, then building a 2-joint IK and an FK control (with its pivot at the ball) for the ankle on top of it. It's a little difficult to explain in text, but I suggest you watch the "Quadruped friendly rigging" video tutorials from Rigging Dojo (http://www.riggingdojo.com/rigging-101-rigging-dojo-present-quadruped-friendly-rigging), they go over it in detail and have other very useful approaches for rigging animals and similar creatures (even if you're not using maya).