Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
having to bother going through the
extra step of saving and loading the
different motions.
Right-clicking on the control for
any item in an IKB chain also brings
up a menu that you can use to save
and load both motions and/or poses for
that item and its children in the chain.
(Be sure to right-click on the control,
not the numbers. Right-clicking on
the numbers will open a different set
of menus that allow you to lock and/or
limit motion on the clicked-upon num-
ber's axis.)
Figure 16-41
Note
Quaternion Rotations
If you followed the information in the sec-
tion on rotation order in the first part of this
chapter on inverse kinematics and the prob-
lems with flipping that can occur because of
gimbal lock, you may find it interesting to
know that LightWave 8's IK Booster now
allows for a new kind of angular mathemat-
ics that can help with the problem of gimbal
lock: quaternion rotations.
You activate quaternion rotation for an
item within an IK Booster chain by select-
ing Options | Quaternion from its
controller's right-click menu.
Using this item-based way of saving/loading
poses and motions, you can quickly load
complex shapes onto, say, your character's
hands (clenched fists, martial-arts hand
shapes, etc.). Being able to load complex
poses onto parts of your characters means
you can really take your time to get those
complex poses perfect, knowing that you'll
only have to create those poses once!
It's a good idea, though, to put the name
of the item you had selected when you cre-
ated that pose in the name of the pose
and/or motion file you create. IK Booster will
let you load a pose or motion onto a differ-
ent item in your hierarchy than the one you
had selected to save its motion and the
motion of its children, which can create
some unpredictable results.
Figure 16-42
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