~IK Manager Python Script for Poser 12~​

**Requires Poser 12.0.396 or newer

Ever wanted to use more IK (Inverse Kinematics), but found it cumbersome, and hard to reach in Poser? The IK Manager P12 brings all your Inverse Kinematic needs to one single, easy to reach panel. Now you can quickly enable/disable IK on the hands and feet, and also have visual cues to what IK chains are enabled on any figure. Just select the figure and IK Manager will show you the IK status, and allow you to change it.

With the IK Manager P12 you get:

• Clear, easy to understand interface with dedicated IK buttons.
• Quick access to standard IK chains from a single panel.
• Instant visual cues to the figure's IK chain states.
• Toggle IK on each hand or foot in any combination with toggle buttons.
• 1-click automations to toggle IK on both hands, both feet, everything, or nothing.
• PDF Manual with instructions and best practices.
• Help button to quickly access the PDF manual straight from the tool's interface.
• Native Poser WX interface that can be moved, resized, and docked into Poser.
• Smart interface - remembers it's last position, size and docking state from the previous session.
• Easy on the eyes Dark Theme interface that matches Poser.
• Supports Poser hands and feet IK chains that follow Poser standard naming conventions.

The script has been submitted to Renderosity, and is currently going through QAV. Should hit the store anytime in the next days. I will update here when it gets released.

I've never felt I had a need to use IK for any of my human characters in Poser, but there's an exercise in a lesson in a Blender class I'm taking that uses IK, but on a portion of an "object" rather than a character's hands or feet, so will definitely be interesting to see.

Miss B posted at 6:19PM Mon, 08 March 2021 - #4414574

I've never felt I had a need to use IK for any of my human characters in Poser, but there's an exercise in a lesson in a Blender class I'm taking that uses IK, but on a portion of an "object" rather than a character's hands or feet, so will definitely be interesting to see.

IK can make some parts of figure posing easier, like sitting poses, putting a foot over an object, or making a hand reach for something. In another case, female poses often require a hip tilt, and for that we will need IK to keep the feet on the ground. We may also want a hand to stay at a specific place while we move the torso, and that's a call for IK. It has its uses, but I guess the bottom line is that Poser makes it hard to manage IK states by having to hunt for it in menus, we can only do 1 change at a time, and there is no way to see the IK states on the limbs by just looking at the viewport. This tools aims to ease all that. ^__^

I use Poser IK all the time with my birds... setting the IK once I have it perched then moving the hip around to get more life-like poses. Once I get the look I like, I'll turn-off IK, adjust the body parts so they adhere to limits and voila, I have a great looking pose.

Your tool looks helpful.

Ken _Gilliland posted at 12:35PM Fri, 02 April 2021 - #4416078

I use Poser IK all the time with my birds... setting the IK once I have it perched then moving the hip around to get more life-like poses. Once I get the look I like, I'll turn-off IK, adjust the body parts so they adhere to limits and voila, I have a great looking pose.

Your tool looks helpful.

Thank you for the feedback. The tool has already passed QAV and is just waiting for some adjustments on the Rendo store backend to be released. I find it useful to be able to visualize all the IK states from one place, and be able to change them without hunting for menus.

I use IK in the same way you do. I keep it off until I need it, in a need-to-use basis. I find it better this way because if we leave IK on all the time and use translations mixed with rotations on the joints, IK may explode them if we later turn it off. That's because IK does not use or keep track of joint rotations when it is enabled, so it has to calculate the new angles when disabled, and it doesn't always succeed - especially when translations were mixed with rotations. You know it has failed when the limb, or even the entire figure, turns into a mangled ball when IK is disabled.

Like mentioned above, the IK Manager has already passed QAV, but it's still waiting for some necessary changes in Poser 12 to be released, along with the new Scatter Tool 2 for Poser 12. Rendo will release them as soon as Poser 12 is ready for them, and I hope it will be soon! Please bear with me while we wait for the P12 updates. ^___^

Good news! The "IK Manager P12" Python script for Poser 12 has been released today at Renderosity, and you can GRAB IT HERE. It's a great complement for "LockMaster P12" when either posing your characters, or creating pose packs.

Here's a demo video where I show how it can be used to pose a figure, making sit on a chair, cross her legs, and then put her hands on her knee in just a few minutes by using a combination of IK and FK. Check it out and see for yourself! ==> youtu.be/dxg58JR3ONo

There were some kinks in the way for this script. Different figures use different names for their IK chains, where people who have created these figures don't follow the same naming conventions (or ANY conventions LOL). In update 1.2.1, now available on the store, I have patched the code to try lots of different random names people have used to name the IK chains in different figures. This includes support for IK names in all languages supported by Poser - English, German and Japanese, so v1.2.1 should now support many more figures. :)

Please remove the previous version before updating to avoid version conflicts. You should have received a notification from Renderosity about the update, where I provide instructions of how to proceed with the update. If you have just purchase IK Manager P12, you should already be up-to-date, so it's good to go as it is! ^___^

The IK Manager got an update where it now allows suppressing the warnings about figures that use non-standard (incompatible) IK chain names. Just enable the "No warnings" checkbox at the bottom left, and the tool will stop displaying the warning.

Please remove the current version before installing the update. If you have my "Scripts Manager P12", just CTRL+click IK Manager from the list to uninstall it with 1-click. :)