Exporting IK Chains in Poser as a morph injection

[pRabbit]

Hey folks,

I've created an IK chain that I'd like to provide as a freebie for the Big Cat, but have no idea how to export it so that it would work as a morph injection. IK chains themselves don't seem to show up when trying to save to library, so I'm a bit out of ideas. Any advice?

 

[English Bob]

Are you adding a completely new IK chain, or modifying an existing one? In general, a pose file can't add to a figure, only change the parameters of what's there.

There isn't a way to save an IK chain as a separate entity, to the best of my knowledge. You would have to do it by editing the CR2 file.

 

[pRabbit]

It's a new IK chain, so from what you say it appears I'll have to go further down the rabbit hole. Thanks a lot for the info, greatly appreciated!

 

[English Bob]

I've never messed around with IK chains, apart from using the ones that already exist in library figures, so this is a new field for me. There must be people out there who know more about the subject.

Just for fun, I tried hand editing a new IK chain into the P4 woman. It didn't work... I evidently have much to learn. At least Poser didn't crash.

 

[pRabbit]

They're tremendously practical when you know where the feet and/or arms are going to be but have no idea what the general body pose will be at the end - that is, if they don't cause medically distressing things with the model that makes one wince in front of the screen.

 

[English Bob]

Agreed! I use the existing leg and arm IKs frequently, for the reasons you give; and I usually save my scene first in case it all goes horribly wrong.

What was your additional IK for the Big Cat, and how did you create it, out of interest?

 

[pRabbit]

You can't ever have enough backups
They were general chains for all the paws, plus one for the head - they don't seem to be built in, so had to do them myself.

Creating them is not really hard, but the UI of Poser has some quirks sometimes that make me facepalm. IK chains are created in the setup room, so just load the character in and switch to the setup tab:

On the right hand side in the hierarchy of the model, there's a sub point "IK chains" - If you click it, you can select "Create IK Chain" (a bit further down) and give the chain a name (e.g. Left Leg).

Now you can drag down the body parts one by one onto the chain (I've collapsed the "Body"-Point on this screenshot to save some space). In my case, I dragged the left Left Thigh, down first then Left Shin, then lRearFoot, then lRearPaw. The last body part you drag onto the chain will automatically become the Goal, that is the part all other parts try to follow.

When you're done, switch back to the Pose tab and the IK chain should be available to activate in the menu.

 

[English Bob]

Ah, quirks. We love 'em. Don't we?

Many thanks for your trouble, saved for future reference. I rarely venture into the pose room; such rigging as I've done has been by importing hierarchy files and/or hacking existing CR2s, last millennium style.

I'm quite surprised to see that the Big Cat has no IK out of the box, given how useful it is. An omission by the team, perhaps? All the other animals I've looked at have it, even snakes...

You might consider asking permission to simply distribute your new CR2 - it would be no use without the geometry file, so people would have to own the Big Cat in order to be able to use it. This was the approach I used when I wanted to distribute the add-on EasyPose dials I made for a long hair braid. There probably are ways to inject such things into a CR2 - if nothing else, a Python script ought to be capable of doing it - but I'm all for keeping it simple.

 

[Minyassa]

Did you ever figure out how to save and export it? I just broke my cat out of his box and I'm so used to using IK to pose things that I was immediately stumped. If not I will try what you're describing above, but it looks intimidating.

 

[Gadget Girl]

Well I'd second loving IK chains for the animals. I use them all the time, and although I do know how to set them up on my own, I'd love to be able to save them.