Moho Forum

Hello, I do my best to search throughout the forums before requesting help but I have struggled with this for many hours.

I read multiple other posts about re-parenting bones:

https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewto ... nt#p178032
https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewto ... nt#p177412

I am essentially attempting to do the same thing. I have a character standing behind a microphone stand which is in a bone layer. I have been trying to duplicate that layer so that when it's time, I can have the character grab the microphone and remove it from the stand. When I place the duplicate layer inside of the character's bone layer, the scaling change causes the microphone to be relocated and resized. I understand this is happening because the character has a scaling and positioning adjustment, but I can't figure a solution. I can't imagine that animators keep characters at 100% scaling all the time?

"The simple solution: duplicate the object, place one on the table, include the other one into the character rig (bind it to the hand) and make it invisible. Switch visibility when needed"

I also read that you can place everything into a scale and position group in efforts to keep the character scaling issues at a minimum but that caused the scene to have too much expansion or shrinkage. How can I stop the layer changes after placing it within the character rig?

Short answer: you can't.
If you're already in a situation where a multiple nested and scaled structure gets included in another of those structures, there's no way to prevent misplacement. That's why you need to plan each project and each scene so you can restrict layer scaling to the absolute minimum.

In your case the solution could be simpler: duplicate just the microphone and include it in the character rig, and make it invisible. Animate a fast movement of the arm grabbing the mike, so you can have one frame with the hand just beside the mike on the stand, and the next frame the hand already holding the mike which is in the character rig. This way the visibility switch is hidden in the movement, and the mike in the hand can organically be moved without too much fuddling about placing it at the exact position as the one on the stand.

Sometimes you need to reposition a layer in a movement in relation to the bone it's bound to.

That's so simple. I feel silly, thank you.