Toggle pins?

Vaesark

In DazStudio the "toggle pins" option is available on the "Active pose" tool, Is there any equivalent tool on Carrara 8.5 pro? I've searched the manual, forums and I could not found anything like it.

If there's no such tool, is there any alternative to simply "pin" some bones and move the rest of the model using the move tool to drag other parts of the model?

Any help would be really appreciated.

evilproducer

Target helper objects and using the track modifier.

At the top of the assembly room there is the row of icons for inserting different things into your scene. The one that looks like a target is the Target Help Object. Drag that into your scene. You can use its effects tab to change its color and size. You can rename it in the General tab.

Position it near the joint you want to pin in place. To lock a foot down on a V4 or V3, you would want to position the Target Helper around the ankle as that is where the foot joint's hot point is located.

Next, select the foot, and then the Modifier tab and under Inverse Kinematics there is an option to track an object. You can also track the object's orientation as well. When you click the button to track the object, a little window opens with the items in the scene. Choose the Target Helper and click Ok. You may see a bit of a shift in the foot and leg as the foot's hotpoint aligns with the target helper.

I generally have good luck with it, but there are some things to consider. It will not pin something with no movement. If you move the Target helper out of range of the joints or figure, the figure will do its best to reach it, which can cause some unwanted effects. Joint constraints can also cause problems if you have the joint track the orientation of the target and you rotate or move the target in such a manner that you exceed the joint's constraints.

To get around some of it, you can adjust the constraint. In my example, to keep the foot locked to the floor better, I changed the foot constraint to ball joint and changed the little constraint rings to Limited. You can see the difference in these two videos. The first one uses V4s standard foot constraint, and the second, I changed it to the ball joint constraint as described above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY8nM1Uqsao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQhoy3hB9J0

You can also use Target helpers and IK tracking to automate animation processes. The hot point is tracked, so if you off-set the hot point from the target helper a bit, you can take into account an object's thickness or shape and avoid unwanted collisions. This video uses four targets. One for each foot and one for each hand. The targets for the feet are parented to the bike's pedals and the whole pedal and sprocket assembly has a spin modifier, which drives the movement of the legs, since the feet are tracking the targets parented to the pedals

The hands are locked to the handle bars by targets parented to the handle bars. I did do some minor animation for the torso and head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl5mq9Sdpwc

evilproducer

Screenshots continued from above...

Vaesark

Thanks a lot for taking the time to write such detailed instructions, I will try it right away.

Mosk the Scribe

EvilProducer -

I've been using IK Tracking modifiers with Target Helpers as well - sometimes works great, other times I seem to hit unexpected problems. Thanks for the detailed post. Excited to learn more about this facet since often provides easier way to animate and much more realistic results.

evilproducer

Mosk the Scribe said:

EvilProducer -

I've been using IK Tracking modifiers with Target Helpers as well - sometimes works great, other times I seem to hit unexpected problems. Thanks for the detailed post. Excited to learn more about this facet since often provides easier way to animate and much more realistic results.

Some issues I get are sometimes I move a target and the joints kind of "snap" into position. To get around it, I've used the graph editor with mixed results or I've disabled the IK tracking and fixed the snapping movement. Which brings up something that I forgot to mention and that is that enabling and disabling IK tracking is keyframeable and can be animated.