IK makes the Knee rotate weird

[fell.fabian.marcel]

Hi!
I have recently been trying to rig a chracter that I have rigged in Cinema 4D but now in Maya.
Since this chracter will be used for modding games, I am forced to keep the bones original rotations.

So when rigging in Cinema, I had no ik Problems, the knee was just pointing forward in the Z-Axis which was great.
In maya it is all kind's of wonky - what can I do?

Ps: While at it, how do I control the foots rotation seperetly, in Cinema I use a transform constraint on bone and IKHandle but in Maya Parent and Point constraints mess everything up.

Cinema:

Maya:

[Kahylan]

Hi!

If your rotation backwards and forwards is on one axis, you can set a preferred angle to the the IK how to rotate.

1) Delete the IK Handle

2) Rotate your shin bone Backwards

3) use the Skeleton -> Set Preferred Angle  command.

4) Recreate the IK Handle

If it isn't on a single axis, which seems to be the case since maya chose this rotation, you can use a Pole Vector Constraint to tell the Knee where it should be facing.

1) Create a Locator

2) Snap it to the knee and then move it away straight forward

3) Select the Locator and the IK Handle and use the Constrain -> Pole Vector command

I hope it helps!

[fell.fabian.marcel]

Thanks for the answer!
I have tried your solution but it still bends weirdly, the knee just doesnt point at the pole.

Any ideas?

I attached a example.

Many thanks!

[Kahylan]

On your Pole Vector you have 3 Values called "Offset X", "Offset Y" and "Offset Z". Depending on the orientation one of those attributes will allow you to rotate the leg toward the pole vector.

[fell.fabian.marcel · Accepted solution]

I tried out your solution but figured out that this problem was bigger than I thought!

After some more research, I found a very good reddit post explaining things.
- Export weights (great tutorial linked https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOjL-40P4-E)

- Unbind mesh

- Freeze Transformations on Legs only

- Bind mesh
- Import weights (also in same tutorial)

Thank you for your help though!
Many thanks,
Fabian F.