Snap Tool

Since FK/IK Rig is a very common but necessary setup, so is a tool that allows FK and IK controller matching. Snap tool is an animation tool that match IK controller to FK controller and vice versa.
Full Demo

About The Project

I've come across two methods to achieve FK/IK snapping/matching, both methods relies on assessing the joint info, as controller is a layer on top of the joints and can be drastically different across rig types.

• Constraint-based: used for easy setup

  • FK to IK: use joint position in FK mode to point constraint IK controllers
  • IK to FK: use joint rotation in IK mode to orient constraint FK controllers

• Vector math: used for generic setup

  • FK to IK: set IK handle and IK root based on joint position in FK mode; calculate mid-vector based on joint position in FK mode to set IK pole vector.
  • IK to FK: set FK controllers to joint rotations in IK mode

Getting Started

1. Unzip the snapTool.zip package under %USERPROFILE%/Documents/maya/[current maya version]/scripts/ or a custom directory under PYTHONPATH env variable.

2. Launch through script editor:

   from snapTool import snapUI
   snapUI.show()

Usage

Step 1: Assign Joints

the tools take a snapshot of the current active result joint, and record its transform information.

Step 2: Assign Controllers

assign either FK controllers or IK controllers for matching by selecting it.

Step 3: Snap!

click 'snap' will force the transform matching to the joint snapshot