Spline IK help...

[jbw]

Ok I've tried on Discreet's forum and CG talk forum and no one seems to want to help me:!!!:
I'm using MAX 5.1 and need some serious help with the character rig I've made following the character rigging tut supplied with MAX 5. Everything has been working fine except I've come across something with the spine(which is made with the Spline IK). The controls for it work perfectly except when I select the placement_CTRL and rotate it. This should rotate the entire rig correctly - it does it fine in the files supplied with the tut - but not in mine! When I rotate the placement_CTRL the spine seems to move of it's own accord? See attached pics - notice the front fins of the spine bones are pointing in the same direction as the character is facing in pic1. But having rotated the placement_CTRL 45 degs as in pic 2 they've miraculously done their own thing??? The only difference I can find is in the IKSpline Goal - the supplied files rig doesn't have an Upnode, whilst mine does. I've tried re-creating the spline IK bones 10 times now and it always automatically assigns an Upnode? I've read that Mike Comet wrote this tut using MAX 4 and that some stuff got swapped around in MAX 5? Can MAX 4 create a spline IK sys without an auto Upnode assigned???

Ta,
jbw

[jbw]

and pic 2...

[Jenn]

I've gone thru that tut several times. But to be honest, I don't care for spline IK for the spine. It's too heavy and slow at least for my out dated computer. Not to mention there are still twisting issues with spline IK. I use fk for the spine (set up exactly like the neck and head in the tut).

I'm sorry I can't answer your question but I know who can. Micheal Comet. Have you tried emailing him directly? It may take him awhile to get back to as he's really busy but he's always very helpful.

[jbw]

I haven't tried mailing it to him. I was hoping it would be straight-forward... unfortunately I'm starting to think otherwise as no one seems to beable to find an answer. I'd love to just replace the SplineIK sys with an FK sys but it's being used by 6-7 animators and I'd rather not confuse them. He he... :D
I'm thinking maybe you've got it sorted though and my future rigs might just use FK?
I'll give it till the end of the day then maybe I'll mail Mike himself, you never know some bright spark might come up with the answer! :)

ta,
jbw

[Net Admiral]

Have u tried to use another axis!! because sometimes MAX filps object's axis so when u rotate X axis; Z rotates insted vice versa!!
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[jbw]

Admiral - I don't think it's a problem with the axis I think it's more a problem with twisting SplineIK 180 degrees.

Jenn - do you just create the spine with 5-6 bones and then link spline objects to each one for animation?

Does anyone know a decent spine set-up???

Ta,
jbw

[Jenn]

My the Gadget character (my avatar) has 6 spine bones. I set it up exactly like the neck, head and ponytail was set up in the max tutorial. So each spine bone has a spline shape as a control. In essence, it's a fk spine. So I manually rotate the spine helpers. There's no automation, however, it is fast and I have yet to have any problems with it.

[jbw]

Hey Michael Comet replied to my post in the Discreet forums... poor bloke I reckon I'd be getting a little sick of all the questions regarding this rigging tut. Anyhow he's suggested I create the SplineIK manually rather than automatically but I can't work out how? Michael told me to:

For that you must create the bones, then create the path...and then apply the spline ik modifier for the helpers on the path. Then apply the spline IK ik setup on the bones, and then points constrain the first bone to the first helper mover.

I've created the bones, the spline and the helpers added spline IK to the bones and picked the spline in the shape options but I can't get the helpers to affect the spline? Anyone give me a hand?

Ta,
jbw

[jbw]

never mind... RTFM was what I should have expected for a reply. :o