8

Terminating Chains (HD Solver) 453
The figures show precedence values that were assigned
manually: the chain for the structure uses the body as the
root object and the duck as the end effector.
Terminating Chains (HD Solver)
The kinematic chain is automatically defined
using the object you select as the end effector
and working up the hierarchical tree to use the
rootobjectasthebaseofthekinematicchain.
Sometimes you might not want the kinematic
chaintogoallthewaytotherootofthehierarchy.
This is especially t rue when you are animating
multi-limbed or branching structures, such as an
octopus or a tree.
Terminator option in the Object Parameters rollout
YouusetheTerminatoroptionintheObject
Parameters rollout to stop calculation of the
kinematic chain before it reaches the root object
of the hierarchy. A terminator object stops
calculation at the terminator’s child object; the
terminator itself is not affected by the IK solution.
This gives you very precise control over the
behavior of the kinematic chain.
For example, lo ok at the bird in the figure. The bird
islinkedwithitsbodyastherootofthehierarchy.
If you use inverse kinematics to move the duck, all
objectsfromtheducktothebodywillbeaffected
bytheIKsolution.However,ifyoudefineaneck
bone as a terminator object, then only the objects
fromtheducktotheneckvertebraeareaffected.