I used to use follicles as pins to attach various features to the skinned characters.
This time I needed to add a scut (tail) to a character's bottom, and it happens to be on the central edge loop (smooth normals).
Placing the follicle, the direction was offset from the intended, updating the UV params for a .00001, the direction mirrored; it was not possible to use halved increment, it wouldn't register anymore. Dead end #1.
Decided to place two mirror follicles on both sides of buttocks, parentConstrained the scut, however on deforming the mesh, the scut flipped to 180. Tried point+orient constraints with identical results. Dead end #2.
Moved the follicles around, and noticed that those are not following neither the smoothed normals nor the hard ones, the rotational offset was present, and I could not get the logic of how those change. Tried static, dynamic, passive - all the same.
Ended up applying PointOnPoly to a locator, which also initially got pointing elsewhere, yet, at least here I could enter the offset values to straighten it parallel to the world axis.
Still looking for multiple pin solution as it would react to the motion of the legs, add that valuable extra motion that makes character alive with possibly less input from animator. Better working alternative suggestions are welcome.
