Translating the root bone, and keying bones individually.

[mason]

I just started using Moho and I come from a background in 3D animation. My main problem is that I noticed that the entire skeleton is keyed if any single bone is keyed. What I do in 3D packages is to, say, animate the hip bounce first, then legs, arms, bounce in the spine. If the entire skeleton is keyed when I key my legs, then I can't go back and get a smooth movement in the spine: I have to key it for every frame I keyed the legs plus any keys I may want to add. It's not just time consuming; it's ugly. Is there a way to have keyframes for each individual bone?

Also, unless I'm zeroed on the timeline, I can't translate the root bone. How can I do something other than rotate it while animating?

Here's a link to my test animation:
http://www.staugler.net/char.avi

[Lost Marble]

From your description, tt sounds like you're using the Manipulate Bones tool. This tool moves a group of bones in an inverse kinematics chain, so that the whole group moves with your mouse. By necessity it adds a keyframe to every bone in the chain, but it does not add a key to every bone in the skeleton.

For example, if you move a leg with this tool, every bone in that leg will get a key, but not any of the bones in the other leg, or in an arm.

If you want to key just a single bone, use the Rotate Bone tool.

In order to translate the root bone (or any bone), use the Translate Bone tool.

The Manipulate Bones tool should not be used for all bone movements, just those where you want to move an entire chain of bones.

[mason]

I _was_ using the manipulate bone tool... I can't check now, but I'm sure that you've solved my problem..:) Thanks a lot.