facing a rigging problem

[wizzi]

I have just started to co-operate with LW and I'm facing a strange problem. I have rigged an animal (4 legs). I made goals for each leg (one for knee, ankle, foot and toes).
What is the procedure to "lock" legs to ground where they stand on? This problem pops out everytime I try to move the character - legs fly around.
And another thing - what is the right way to isolate different parts of the body (so that when you move torso it doesn't affect legs) ?
I have also posted files if someone wants to take a deeper look.

[allankiipli]

Rigging is by my experiences hard to manage without scripting.
Because of adjustments you need.

With inverse kinematics there are separate options on motion
options panel for every channel: and that is very good in lightvawe.

Basicly when you load a model into layout, add nulls and parent
them to the end bones of needed ik chains with scene having
'parent in place' disabled. They jump into proper locations.
Then unparent them, but first turn 'parent in place' on again.

The problem may arise when you forget the beforementioned
step and continue making them goals. Also making goal strenghts
high value helps. And having extra goals for knee orientation.

I personally have made for my human characters the all setup
scriptable. It converts skelegons and creates rig with nulls.

Then i have separate script to switch IK on and off: This involves
basicly deactivating goals for chains and again assigning them.
Also setting Rotational channels mode (keyframes of ik).

The problem with forward and inverse kinematics still was.
But i have created a good workaround: to animate complex animations with forward and then tracking the goals to follow
the chain ends trougout the animation. And finally switching
to inverse kinematics i can fine tune the moments.

[drfoley]

Hey Allan,

Could you post an example file of one of your rigs/scripts so that we can see what you do?

It would be nice to have one of your rigs on hand to study or use.

Thanks,
DrFoley

[wizzi]

Originally posted by drfoley
Hey Allan,

Could you post an example file of one of your rigs/scripts so that we can see what you do?

It would be nice to have one of your rigs on hand to study or use.

Thanks,
DrFoley

I would like that, too. LW is quite unfamiliar to me so it would be good to have some examples to study.

[allankiipli]

I uploaded them to my webpage:
www.composessed.com.

Read carefully instructions and check what is written inside
these scripts.