Foreground Background Arranging?

[uncle808us]

Got it Thanks

[Greenlaw]

You want to move the guitar layer between the right arm and the torso layers/groups. You might want to layer bind the guitar layer to the lower spine or root to keep it in place. Also, set the guitar's origin to the middle of its body so you can pivot it from that point.

The left hand is a bit trickier. You'll need to split the arm at the elbow so you can layer the arm from elbow to hand over the fretboard. There are many ways to do this, but I'll try to describe a simple mod to what you already have.

1. Duplicate the left arm, and move the duplicate above the fret board.
2. Use Group With Selection by right-clicking on your arm layer.
3. Draw a mask shape that 'covers' the lower part of the arm and hand. Make sure there is enough coverage for the whole hand when it rotates. Make sure this layer is below the arm drawing in the group you just created.
4. Layer bind this mask shape to the left forearm bone.
5. Select the Group and set the Mask setting to Hide All. This should mask everything except the forearm and hand for that layer. You can check this by hiding the 'whole' arm layer behind the guitar.

Now when you position the hand over the frets, the arm will appear to wrap around the guitar. There are actually many better ways to deal with this but that's probably the simplest method and a good way to start off if you're just learning.

Bonus points: instead of pinning the guitar to the spine, parent a 'guitar' bone at the pivot and bind the guitar to that. You might want to align the bone to follow the angle of the guitar art. Now parent a 'fret' target bone and target the left arm to the target. You might also want to set the hand bone to have Independent Angle. Now when you animate the 'fret' target, the hand will stay 'pinned' to the fretboard even when you rotate or move the guitar.

Hope this helps.

[Greenlaw]

D'oh! It just occurred to me that you probably don't even need to mask the arm. You can probably use the Crop tool to 'mask out' the upper arm in the duplicate layer. Give it a try.

Edit: Whoops! Crop Tool only works with image layers. It's a good method for bitmap art but it won't work with vector layers. Just something to be aware of.

[uncle808us]

Well that should keep me busy. Thanks. Got it.