Spring IK query

maident · Jul 2016

Hi, I'm in the midst of rigging and I got some advice for a creature's tail - in short, to use a Spring IK. The functionality should be independent of anything else except for the root control - in fact, the supposed desired outcome is that moving the creature would automagically animate the tail. However, I cannot get it to actually work that way, and am currently considering swapping it out for a Rotate-Plane Solver IK handle instead. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: Sorry, forgot to mention, but the program is Autodesk Maya (2015).

maident · Aug 2016

Update: I have tried the Spring IK in both directions (up and down the tail) with no success. I'm not sure if I need to make expressions for it, or if I need to set driven keys, or if there's something else that I'm not doing right. Can anybody help please?

jfeez · Aug 2016

I'm not sure if spring ik is the right thing to be using. If i was to rig up a tail to automatically move i would start with a spline ik solver, and set the spline ik's curve to be a nHair and build from there. You have to use interactive playback to see the simulation

http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/maya2014/en_us/index.html?url=files/StfH_Dynamic_spline_IK_chain_illustrated_using_a_butterfly_tail.htm,topicNumber=d30e537554

maident · Aug 2016

Thank you for your help. Unfortunately, that is out of my scope - ndynamics are too expensive. I am swapping for a Rotate-Plane Solver IK and relying on manual animation, because the Spring IK is not giving me any desired functionality.

Spring IK query

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