[Bf-committers] blender2.5's new IK

[Matt Ebb]

Goat Man wrote:
> What about just having a way to save the current frame as a
> "cache-save-point", this takes whatever state its in and saves for later
> recall by the solver.  Changes before the cache-save-point will NOT update
> this saved cache.  Then the animator can place these cache points to have
> predictable results where he needs it.
This doesn't sound too good to me. If you're talking about replacing the 
existing IK, animators should be able to use it the same way. No extra 
steps and hurdles, no caching to keep track of, no save points, no 
superfluous keyframes added. Animators need to be able to quickly and 
easily go to any frame in the animation and tweak poses immediately, 
working entirely fluidly. They also need to be sure that the pose 
they're looking at on screen is what they're going to get.

I hear in this thread about problems in the existing IK system, but in 
my experience (animation) I've never seen problems in practice, nor have 
I heard our animators/rigger complain about it either. I understand it 
may not work well for robotics, and it's good to make life easier for 
people working in this area. However robotics is not blender's primary 
target, animation is, so if there are to be any changes they should 
result in something at least as usable for animators as the previous 
system.

cheers,

Matt