Baking IK rig animation to FK rig?

DrGonzo62

Hi,
In Motionbuilder, I can select a character's rig and then bake its IK animation down to the rigs FK bones (Skeleton) and back.
However, I can't for the live of me figure out how to do that in Blender.

I've tried MHX > Animation > Transfer IK => FK, but that is not the same as baking down the position of the IK limbs to FK bones.
When I play the animation back with Set FK All, the limbs are moving. When I set them back to Set IK All, they once again stay in place.

I'd like to have the FK bones follow the IK bones and any constraints that where used, plotted down to a simple bone animation, playing
back the same but without the need for IK or other bone constraints.

I'm assuming that this is somehow possible in Blender as well?

crosswind

Bake to FK rig is under Runtime panel > Pose > MHX...

Padone

In blender baking is done as a last step and it is destructive, so you don't "set ik all" after baking to fk. If you want to go back and forth then you can "keep the daz rig" in the mhx options then use "mute/unmute control rig" in runtime > posing > mhx, which will keep the constraints. Unless I misunderstand what you're asking for.

https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Features/Pose Tools

DrGonzo62

Hi crosswind,
I've tried that, but I'm getting an error. Not sure if this is a bug or not.
It's just a G8 character imported with diffeo, then I added the MHX rig and then the animation:

 

Hi Padone,
I don't mind destructive baking. I can always refine the anim later on.
I just can't figure out how to bake the anim to the FK rig, so IK and constraints are no longer needed at that stage of the anim.
Maybe it has to do with the error I'm getting (below), if that's the only way to bake ik down to fk.
DAZ Runtime > Posing > MHX/Rigify > Bake Pose To FK Rig
 

crosswind

DrGonzo62 said:

Hi crosswind,
I've tried that, but I'm getting an error. Not sure if this is a bug or not.
It's just a G8 character imported with diffeo, then I added the MHX rig and then the animation:

Yea, I could reproduce the same issue, "Matrix" is not defined ~~ I think it's a bug because I tested the function with Blender 4.2.8 + Diffeo 4.2.1.2324, it worked well.

Hi Padone,
I don't mind destructive baking. I can always refine the anim later on.
I just can't figure out how to bake the anim to the FK rig, so IK and constraints are no longer needed at that stage of the anim.
Maybe it has to do with the error I'm getting (below), if that's the only way to bake ik down to fk.
DAZ Runtime > Posing > MHX/Rigify > Bake Pose To FK Rig
 

DrGonzo62

OK, thanks. Good to know I'm not too incompetent to run Blender.
I may actually have to move to ARP, even though I liked the MHX rig.
And ARP lets you pin elbows & knees natively. 8^)

DrGonzo62

Hi Padone,
Do you get that error as well when you click on
DAZ Runtime > Posing > MHX/Rigify > Bake Pose To FK Rig ?

That's pretty important functionality, especially to those who are planning on exporting out of Blender.

Padone

Yes, now reported to Thomas.

https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/issues/2427/

update. Fixed in the last commit.

DrGonzo62

Looks like Thomas has fixed it already.
I'll try it out later.

Update:
While this function no longer throws an error now, it's also still not working correctly.
When I bake an animation that is using IK down to FK, the FK rig does not follow the IK rig's motion.
So I have to wonder - what's being baked from what to what?

Once I switch limbs from IK to FK, they do not stay in place as they should. That's what a bake does.
Or at least should do. I'll have to see if baking with Rigify works.

I'm very new to Blender, and would have thought that fellow artists would use a DAZ - Blender - DAZ workflow for posing and animating,
but without a functioning bake to the skeletal bones of a character, that is simply impossible.