Moho Forum

I have anime studio 9 debut at the moment, upgrading to pro once I've at least made one decent cartoon. I'm trying to make a little funny zombie skit cartoon, but I'm having issues getting the bones to work with a gun in his hands. To try and teach myself I've used a character wizard design and put a vector layer of a simple oval in his hands to see how to rig everything...when i try to manipulate the arm rather than the object moving with it, it just bends with the movement of the arm/hand...does anyone know any good video tutorials, or just advice for me? thanks

Wouldnt you make the gun part of the hand, bind the gun points to the hand bone?
Unless you want to show him pick up the gun that should work fine.

That actually sounds good thanks. I do eventually want to be able to make it so an object can be seen picked up but your advice helps. I guess I thought to hard into it to to see the best answer was pretty basic. Thanks again.

That's ok glad I could help.
If you want to pick up the gun, first work out how that is going to be shot. You could have an empty hand then a hand with the gun as a switch layer and make the gun object disappear when you pick it up (and switch to hand holding gun.) Or a cutaway of hand approaching gun, then cut back wider to character rig now holding gun.

Economy is really important. Focus on story and how you want to convey the action. If the style is whacky and zany you can cut a lot of corners as long as things read clearly. Don't make the mistake I tend to make and focus on something like picking up the gun and turn it into a mini-project all of its own. Have the hand set up with a layer with the gun seperate to but part of the hand rig, points bound to hand bone but turned invisible. Empty hand comes into frame approaching gun on bench. Turn gun on bench invisible, gun in hand visible, done.
(I would waste weeks rigging smart bone fingers to curl around the gun handle. I think it's a subconcious cop-out strategy - if I'm busy on this "important sub-project" I've decided to embark on, I don't have to face the music and actually get things DONE.)

The correct alternative strategy would be to board it out, use index cards to get you out of software BS and away from facebook alerts, and try to work out how you want it to play out on screen. Then make THAT.

Once again thanks! You've given me a lot of good advice that I can actually aply

example...
card not gun but gives you the idea

HandExample.anme