Here's a rendered example of my custom character animation tool blending an IK solve on top of some motion capture data. There are some issues with it, which I'll detail further underneath the video.
The result has come out pretty good, for the things I'm testing here. But it's not without it's issues. Here's a couple I've identified:
Issue 1: for the keen eye, there are some issues with feet contacts going through the floor for a frame. I believe this issue has to do with how I'm blending the IK solve. So this is something for me to address here in code.
Issue 2: the foot lifts off the ground when the leg is at full stretch (can be seen towards the end with the right foot coming off the ground). This happens because the hips pull the leg up beyond the length of the leg chain and the foot is not able to reach the target goal on the ground. This would be fixed by an animator adjusting the hips height (or by other means that pull the body back down) to keep the foot planted to the surface. I've left this unedited in this demonstration, to show what happens when the chain target is beyond the reach of the chain itself.
Some may also think something is not right with the toes. What's happening here is the mocap data is bending the toes up and down a little as he jumps around. Whereas the IK engine is aiming to keep the foot flat in this demonstration. So the toes look like they're lifting. But alas, the toes motion capture is still applied to what comes after the leg IK chain. So, this is correct. And, if nothing else, it gives a little randomness to the feet, which is probably a good thing. As people do wriggle their toes about!
And of course, there's no finger or facial animation. I haven't had a chance to work on fingers yet, I'm waiting on the rest of my new motion capture system to arrive before tackling that.
As for the lack of facial animation... well, Demo Man hasn't got a face, so, I guess that points mute!