Is it possible to have Mike and Vicky hold hands, and remain in each other's grip while changing the body positions in order to generate a dance AVI? I figured out that parenting does not work.

What program are you using?

I'm using Poser Pro Pack. I don't think I can accomplish what I want to do with it, though.

Attached Link: Soto's Digital

I've been experimenting with animation techniques in Poser. I'm just not eager to learn a whole new 3D program and deal with the bugs and anomolies that come with importing/exporting Poser figures (and this hobby is expensive enough as-is). Unfortunately, 'lock actor' on arms, hands, torso, and a whole host of other body parts usually does nothing. So forget it. If you need a limb to remain stationary while the rest of the figure moves (usually, hands/arms), then what you want to do is this. It automates the process somewhat, which is the goal, because, you could simply pose the figure exactly how you want every single frame... but that's not ideal. Pose your figure's arms (or whatever you want) using sphere props from the library and the "Point At" option for the corresponding body part. Normally, a sphere at the elbow (enable 'point at' for shoulder body part), and another at the hand (enable 'point at' for hand body part) will keep an arm in place. It actually creates a nice effect, because the arm doesn't really LOCK, it still moves, only not so extremely. See, you'll be moving the rest of the figure, but those props will always be in the same place, and therefore, the body parts you set to them will always be pointing in that direction. I'm still perfecting the technique. Sometimes it still doesn't produce the desired effect, but usually it does. Some trial and error should get an animation working the way you want it to. Once you finally hit on the 'sweet spots' for your animation, IF they exist, you can start ignoring the hands or whatever and focus on other areas of the animation. This can be applied to any body part on any figure, but you can't always predict what part of the part will do the pointing (huh?). Like, for the head, the top of the head (the scalp) usually does the pointing, not the face. Just an example. Hope this helps. Also, unchecking "bend" on certain body parts may eliminate unwanted motion, but it introduces a whole new type of problem. ;)

Well that sure makes sense, but I've got some motion in the dance sequence where I'd have to move the spheres also to get the desired effect ... hmmm, which doesn't sound bad at all. Why, you may have hit upon the hardest part of animating the dancing partners. I could use the spheres as reference points for the movements, kind of a reverse method of the capture dots used in motion files.

Thanks bunches. Sounds like a winner to me.