Update IKRig when skeleton changes

Development Character & Animation
,
1

Heya,

We ended up changing the rig of one of our characters midway through development. The rig is very similar, but contains some key differences in structure.

I was hoping to use the IK Rig in unreal to retarget the animations based on the old rig to the new rig. This does work, but during the retargeting process, I’m noticing more and more issues with the new rig.

To fix these issues, I am updating the new rig, which changes the bone hierarchy. This hierarchy change however is not reflected in the existing IK Rig.

My base assumption would be a change in the skeleton is automatically IK Rig. Alternatively a button to refresh the IK Rigs bone hierarchy or to at least the option to copy paste the bone chains I’ve created in the outdated IK Rig to a new IK Rig.

None of these seem possible, so I’m left with having to recreate the IK Rig and all the bone chains by hand. This seems like unnecessary work.

Am I missing something? Is there an easier way to go about this?

2

Of course, just as I’m done writing this, I find a quirky fix. If I just drag&drop the skeletal mesh into the preview skeletal mesh slot in the IK Rig, the bone hierarchy updates just as I’d expect it to.

2 Likes
3

Hey this isn’t a bad idea though. As long as you have same naming convention for your joints through your skeletal meshes your idea should work fine. The IK Rig will keep the chain names regardless of the preview skel mesh you insert. At this point, I’d think on a way to keep consistency for all skeletal meshes joints procedurally…

This or just upgrade to 5.4, there seems to be an auto setup IK Rig now…