target bone on/off

[Hoptoad]

I'd like to activate and deactivate target bones while animating, as needed.

Is it possible to toggle a target bone on and off via a switch-like smart bone?

If so, how?

[hayasidist]

you can animate which target bone (including no target bone) affects an "ordinary" bone.

With the "parent bone" tool active alt-click to select the bone to be controlled, then ctrl-click on a bone to make it the target or ctrl-click clear of any bone to disable targets

[Hoptoad]

With the "parent bone" tool active alt-click to select the bone to be controlled, then ctrl-click on a bone to make it the target or ctrl-click clear of any bone to disable targets

Thanks! That works great, and it's fast. I like seeing the new key frame in the timeline.

For anybody else turning their smart bones off, be aware that your character's leg (or whatever) will suddenly move like a rubber band had been cut. To fix this, I made keyframes on the current frame of the timeline, then I advanced the animation to the NEXT frame, broke the target bone connection on THAT frame, then used onion skin to reposition the leg into the correct position.

Badda bing, badda boom.