This node allows you to blend three chains A, B and C respectively. While you can use this node to create IK/FK blending for your rigs you can also use the third chain as MOCAP chain as well. So you can work with keyframe data in IK or FK mode and if you need to use MOCAP data on top of it you can do so. This makes your rig extremely flexible and gives you unprecedented control over your animation work.
Feature of the node as follows;
One of the “AB”, “AC” and “BA” options can used to blend between selected chains. Since this option (attribute) is animatable you can easily blend desired chains without changing another settings or connections.
Node blends rotation as well as stretch of the chains. Three available stretch types “Translate”, “Squash Stretch”, “Scale” can be used for stretch effect.
There is no limit how many joint you can have in your chains. Rotation and stretch attributes are array attributes so you can connect unlimited joints.
Two type of operation is available in the node; “Blend” and “Switch”. These options are used to blend the desired chains or switch between desired chains respectively.
You can blend whole chains at once or you can blend joints (transforms) individually. This gives you unprecedented control over your animation work. For instance; you can dynamically simulate half of the tail of a character while you animating the other half by using keyframe.
This option allows you to disable or enable stretch effect when needed. It’s another option to make your animation work a lot easier.
This feature comes built in and allows you to create highly customizable setup for animators. This feature allows you to show or hide desired control objects (namely IK and FK controls or any control you may have for the three chains) based on the blending state of the node. You can use “Range” and “Show All Controls” attributes to have absolute control over your setup. While you are animating particular chain, controls of that chain will be shown while other chain’s controls will be hidden to make your workspace much cleaner and you can always show all controls at the same time for all chains anytime you like. Animators love it!
IK to FK and FK to IK match is available. Animators can match one chain onto the other without breaking the animation. This is one of the favorite features of the animators.