Thing is, I’ve been able to do all of those things my way without the extra IK root bones which is why I’m confused why they exist.
I’d be interested in examples of why I need the IK Hand Root and IK Foot Root bones as opposed to having those just be children of Root itself. I’ve never seen IK Hand Root and IK Foot Root move away from Root.
Same with that Gun bone…
Here’s currently my setup just to clarify some more:
Root
(Main Skeleton itself)
Pelvis
Spine 01
etc...
Left Leg
etc...
Left Hand IK Target
Right Hand IK Target
Left Foot IK Target
Right Foot IK Target
(Knee Pole Vector Targets, 2 Bone IK has the option of specifying these)
Left Knee IK Target
Right Knee IK Target
(Elbow Pole Vector Targets)
Left Elbow IK Target
Right Elbow IK Target
This is the setup used in Unreal 4 Mannequin that I’m trying to understand
Root
(Main Skeleton itself)
Pelvis
Spine 01
etc...
Left Leg
etc...
Hand IK Root (Not sure what this extra hand IK root is for)
Gun (Located at the right hand)
Left Hand IK Target
Right Hand IK Target
Foot IK Root (Not sure what this extra foot IK root is for)
Left Foot IK Target
Right Foot IK Target
(Also in UT4 I saw there were a few extras, not sure if these are even used, maybe for legacy UT3 anims because this is how it was in UDK)
Hand IK Root Alt
Left Hand IK Target
Right Hand IK Target
Foot IK Root Alt
Left Foot IK Target
Right Foot IK Target
With my setup, I plan on having either the left hand or the right hand reach out to interact with arbitrary objects in the world. I currently have it working beautifully for holding different sized guns by making the left hand move to the correct spot on the gun with IK. I had to modify existing Skeletal controls a bit which I can describe how if anyone’s interested but it works in the end.
Also in Maya my control rig is set up so I control knee and elbow directions using pole vector targets. And I can constrain the bones in the skeleton to those controls as well so what I do in Maya matches exactly in game.