Spline IK spine for mobile

punkjoe

Hi,
im new here, and quite new to rigging.
My question for the forum users is if there's a way of doing a simple spline ik spine to use in a simple model for a iphone/ipad game.
The method i use is very similar to one method teached in a Digital Tutors lessons for game rigs, but it uses 5 bones for the spine. Since my character has a simple geometry, and the bone count cant go very high (we're using Unity3d) i was wondering if theres a way of doing a spline ik rig with less than 5 bones, something like 4 or even 3, that could perform similarly to a more complex rig.


Oh yeah, im using maya.

Thanks

Warheart

The benefit of spline IK is you get nice evenly distributed rotations across a comparatively large number of joints with only a few controls to animate. The less joints you have the less benefit you'll get from using spline IK.

I don't understand why spline IK wouldn't work with 4 or 3 joints but my point is that if you have that few joints why not just use FK controls?

Maybe I'm not understanding your question clearly though. Maybe a doodle of the shape of the model, the potential joint positions and the type of deformation you want to achieve would help get a better answer about the most appropriate way to rig it.

poopipe

I do it all the time on 2, 3, 4 bone spines and its fine.

I agree on the FK point but plenty of animators seem not to