Any solutions to 3 joint legs?

[jayfaker]

I've been experimenting for a while on how to make a 3 joint leg. You know, so knees bend properly. But 3 bones in an IK setup bend really weirdly, the arc solver doesn't help either. I've tried moving the calf bone in an action, which almost works, but then the leg doesn't point to the foot correctly.

Has anyone found a solution to this? The video below is what I'm looking for.



And below is why. Chunky knees like this are so cool!

[synthsin75]

If you're talking about having small knee bones, you might do better with a joint bone (parented to the thigh and pointing straight out from the knee joint), constrained to rotate half as much as the shin. This way you still have the predictable thigh/shin animation, but the joint bone splits the difference for the knee.

[jayfaker]

Yeah, I did this test a little while back with that method. I was just wondering if there was a better way. Maybe this is the best way to do it then. Thanks Synthasin.