Set up #3: Reverse Lock for feet and Foot Controls

I created a few joints from the ankle to the toes, these would be parented to the already existing joints already in place for the foot - the idea for this is when I go to create the Set Driven Key for the foot (coming up in the next post). These joints are known as Reverse Lock Joints.

At the foot, I created the following joints underneath both feet: RLfootBase > RLtoeLock > RLfootLock > RLankleLock (Fig 1) 

Fig 1: The Reverse Foot Joints underneath the Ankle to Toe Joints on the rig.

Allow me to explain why the joints are placed in this order: RLfootBase is what will be selelected to move the foot, the joint next in the chain is RLtoeLock which would be used for the Toe joint, the RLfootLock for the foot and the RLankleLock for the ankle - reversed order to how they are set up .

Once this is set up - it's time to parent these to their respective joints, in which all I had to do was select the reverse lock joint and then the joint it will be affecting and then pressing p to Parent (note: depending on the case will determine the action, p will parent and P will unparent).

Once everything was parented up correctly, the reverse foot lock was complete (See Figs 2 - 4).

Fig 2: RLBase moves the whole foot

Fig 3: RLToeLock affects the Toe Joint

Fig 4: RLFoot affect the Foot Joint

After I created the Control that would be for the foot, this was then parented to the Reverse Lock Joints that allowed me to affect the joints by selecting this curve (Fig 5).

Fig 5: The Control Curve that will be connected to the bottom of the foot.

Then selecting RLBase and then the Control, press p to parent, and now I can move the entire foot by selecting the curve.

Fig 6: Moving the foot by selecting the Foot Control

The next post will talk about the Set Driven Key I put in place to get the Foot Roll motion for the rig.