Makehuman 1.1.1 Rig: How much FK? IK?

[brkurt]

Over the holidays, I've been teaching myself inverse kinematics. One of the things I've discovered is how good Thomas' old 2.49 export rig was. He covered a great deal of territory that it took dozens of YouTube videos to get close to.

The reason that I'm bringing this up is because I'm wondering how much IK will be used in upcoming rigs. Animators need rigs with easy-to-use controls, but most hardcore 3d techs can get by without them.

Having created just a few simple IK controls, I'm amazed at how much more natural the poses are.

So...what are the plans for future rigs?

[joepal]

There are no plans whatsoever for changing the rigs in any way at the moment.

The pipeline with setting the default rig -> export via MHX -> import via MHX with overrides -> set rig to "exported mhx" already works for those who want IK in blender.

[Atom]

As far as FBX is concerned the file format itself is restricted to only FK rig support. There is no way to transfer IK within any portable file format, AFAIK. They all transfer baked or cached animation data, not constraint driven hierarchical setups.

[brkurt]

As far as FBX is concerned the file format itself is restricted to only FK rig support. There is no way to transfer IK within any portable file format, AFAIK. They all transfer baked or cached animation data, not constraint driven hierarchical setups.

Many thanks for the clarity.

Having slogged through a few dozen IK tutorials, I've discovered that for my needs (MH mesh, Karate & Kung Fu moves) I only need IK Targets at the lower leg and wrist, in order to create more natural-looking poses. The moves are too complex to be easily resolved in IK. I have also found that bone attributes need to be set for IK, and after, it's mostly turning IK off / FK on for the moves.

The IK thing must work better for cartoonish animation, as a opposed to the highly realistic stuff I'm doing.