Misaligned IK pivots on biped foot

Badgerman

I’ve been given a biped rig to fix with a problem with the alignment of the IK pivots on it’s feet (see attached image).



The pivots are offset from the foot itself, the toes pivot is in the correct place as is the ankle pivot. I’ve tried saving a fig file and loading it onto a new biped but unfortunately the foot now moves to the position of the offset IK pivots.


Any help explaining how this happens / can be fixed would be greatly apprieciated.

Mark Dygert

It looks to me like the foot was moved with "Affect pivot only" turned on in the Hierarchy tab. You could turn it back on and move the foot back, which actually repositions the toes, the leg and the IK pivots. They probably moved the toes back into position with either the same trick or in figure mode, so be ready to adjust them also.

Then remind whoever was screwing with the pivots on a biped like that, they are just asking for trouble...
They should probably not position the ankle this way in the future, instead do all the pivot edits in figure mode by scaling, positioning and rotating the bones.

OR


Edit poly was applied to the foot and the geometry was changed. In some older versions of 3dsmax if you collapse the stack it will go back to being a biped object instead of edit mesh. Even in newer versions it still remains fully functional like a biped object but is actually editable poly from then on. Which is a handy trick if you want your biped to resemble your character more then hide your mesh.

These kinds of edits don't save/load in figure mode so I don't think this is the case.

OR


A planted key was set and the foot was moved with auto key turned off. If this is the case the foot would snap to the planted key when you moved the anim slider.

Out of all of these I think its the top one.

Badgerman

Thanks for the reply Vig, lot's of useful stuff there I really apprieciate it.

Managed to get a copied and pasted posture onto a "clean" rig without the annoying offset.

I'm now taking over building all rigs on this project to try and keep things better controlled.

Mongrelman

My suggested approach, though perhaps not as 'technical' as Vig's, would be:

1. Take many screenshots of the problem
2. Print them out (large as you can) on the thickest paper you can
3. Stack the prints and roll them up
4. Dip in water
5. Put in freezer for several hours
6. Take out of freezer and put in a coolbox
7. Drive to the office of the person who made this mistake
8. Take roll out of coolbox
9. Beat the hell out of them with your frozen truncheon

Badgerman

Thanks Mongrelman, I'll certainly bear that one in mind for the future...