How to make elbows bend opposite way.

[jordanbhai]

I've created a character and added two sticks for the arm bones with a space in the middle for the elbow. However, when I go to animate the arms, the elbow always bend in the opposite direction that I want. Is there a way to inverse the direction/angle at which the elbow bends?

[oksamurai]

Currently there isn't a great way. I've heard some users mention that bending the sticks a certain way, like inwards or outwards in a triangle shape towards the direction you want them to bend, can help, but I still have an issue (and open bug report) with this for certain kinds of arms. This will be fixed in the future.

Worst case scenario, if this is for recording and not live, you could add a second draggable handle to the elbow to help reposition it correctly.

[Phoensoul]

I had the same issue. I've fiddled around for hours to tweak the mesh, stick locations, and joins, but my character's arms insisted on raising with the elbows higher than the hands, rather than hanging down.  Finally I figured out that I can add a dangle handle at the elbow, and set the gravity amount and direction so that it behaves properly. WOO HOO!

[oksamurai]

Oh wow, nice trick.

[Phoensoul]

Thanks! It's not completely foolproof. You have to really crank it up (depending on how much the mesh is fighting you) and since it can't be set on a per-handle basis, it limits other simultaneous usage of Dangle. It still beats multiple draggable handles for live usage, though, and cuts down on retakes for recordings. Perhaps you could borrow a trick from photoshop filters that have a checkbox to use or ignore universal light, to allow for individual points to have different forces applied as necessary. Then they'd basically be like invisible weights and bungees that you could attach at any point to get the desired motion.

[oksamurai]

Yep - lots of better rigging stuff is on the way. What we have right now is a good start, but we'll be giving a lot more control and adding some pretty cool stuff soon.