FK Overlap issue / bug?

[Morganimator]

I'm trying to use the FK overlap rig for a tail.

After running the script, the rotation creates the auto overlap, but the structure of the tail is not parented to the rotation controller.

If you parent the base structure of the tail to the controller, or to a pelvis controler, or hip structure, or anything, it disables the FK auto overlap. The "manual" FK controls work fine.

So in other words, you can rig the tail with FK overlap, but you can't connect it to the rest of the rig without losing the auto FK.

Hopefully an easy fix? Thank you!

[Duduf]

There is a checkbox in the effects of the controller called 'inherit parent rotation' or something like that, which will activate the auto overlap; when it is unchecked, the FK keeps its orientation no matter the orientation of the parent, this is very useful for hairs for example. I don't remember if it is checked or not by default.

But activating this is not always the best thing to do when animating tails, and it's often easier to just add a few keyframes on the rotation of the controller to animate the tail.
I've thought about a way to animate this 100% automatically, but it's too complicated and there are too many cases so I ended up with this solution.

[Morganimator]

No, that's not the problem, that checkbox works fine for rotation, the problem is that the position of the tail controller does not move the position of the root structure of the tail. and if you parent the root structure of the tail to anything, it disables the auto overlap. So you can't attach the tail structure to the rig and still have auto overlap.

[Morganimator]

Ok, nevermind!

It seems like the project file I was working in was corrupted or something...? The FK overlap wan't working in that project when the tail root was parented (I tried it a bunch of different ways), but I just made a new project, rigged it again, and this time was able to parent the root of the tail to the tail controller and it's working fine.

But maybe the root of the tail should automatically parent to the controller when the script is run? Might be a nice way to save a step...

Sorry for the false alarm!

[Duduf]

Well, I prefer to parent the root of the structure to other structures, but the rotation of the controller should control the FK anyway.
Be careful, some tools do not seem to work unless there are some keyframes, and maybe it's the case for this one. Nothing will happen on the first keyframe, but all other keyframes will show the effect.

I could change this, but it implies storing the initial value, and thus can be a bit more difficult to adjust or change afterwards, I'm not sure it would be a good idea.

[Morganimator]

Yes, you're right, structures parented to structures is better. Just tested it out with the base of the tail structure parented to the hips structure and it's working just fine.

I'm not sure what was happening yesterday. I think initially, I had the "curve" setting on, and some animation on the controller before parenting the tail structure to anything, and when I parented the tail structure to another layer, it made the curve bend out of shape - I realized this morning that that goes away once you cycle through the animation once - but I thought it was a problem, so then I tried some other versions with different parenting and it seemed that whenever I parented the tail structure the FK seemed to stop working, but it might have been lack of keyframes at that point.

So I think with all the versions I just got confused.

If I parent the tail structure before adding "curve" or animation there's no change in the shape of the tail. And everything's working just fine.

Again, sorry for the false alarm. Everything's working like a charm!

[Duduf]

Good!

False alarms may be useful, as they can be a sign that something could be improved in termes of UX/UI
Thanks!