Rigging a paw

[Pancho]

Recently started to rig with GEAR. So far so good.

I just wonder, how would one rig an animal paw or similar hands/feet, when each digit is in contact with the ground. Especially during the lift and descend phase of a walk cycle.

While a human foot is easily rigged with the foot component of GEAR, a paw for sure would need a different approach. While the fingers on a hand are often pure FK, a paw digit would rather need an IK approach, as each digit lifts individually.

Did anybody do something like this before or knows of a way to do this? For hoofed animals like cattle, goats, etc. the rigging approach should be similar.

Thanks for sharing any insights in advance
Cheers!

[EricTRocks]

Lave the digits as FK. IK is just going to over complicate things. Animators are trained to deal with the digits anyway and FK is going to give them the most direct feedback and ease. It's honestly not that different from a biped leg for the general concepts. Joint placement and pivoting needs to be considered but it should be straight forward.

[Pancho]

I guess the big difference is, that in a paw the metacarpal bones and the phalanges + claw form in the relaxed/normal position something like a zig-zag shape. Animating each digit individiually for something like a walk cycle looks like overkill. I thought IK on each finger/toe with the goal attached to one control object could help to make things easier.

Probably I manage to create something with GEAR to make things easier to describe.

[missingkey]

I agree with Eric. If you were to ask any of your animators, I bet 9.5/10 of them prefer a rig with no automation.

It takes away from their ability to show/sell weight & force.

maybe games are different...