Hi. I'm still learning Poser 6 and am in the middle of production for a dvd I'm making for the 7&8 play Jolly Roger and the Pirate Queen. Yeah I know that school only offically started today, but the drama teacher was in and it takes a very long time to get the animated opening sequence and closing sequence completed. What I have envisioned is having several pirates sword fighting over a chest of treasure. I understand how to get the characters to grip the sword, and I even understand how to pose their arms for sword fighting poses, but, while they are sword fighting how do I make their feet advance realistically (without motion capture). Think of some of the sword fighting scenes in all those swashbuckling films, or for people who fence, how to get the legs to move like they would in fencing. I plan to output and render the animation in Carrara 5.1 Pro. I need pehaps 15-20 seconds worth of the attacking forward and moving back that can be looped. Thank you very much for all your help. Sincerely, David

I think what you need is to use is IK on the legs.  Say you have a figure facing to the left.  With IK on, select the left foot and use the Xtrans dial to move it to the left.  Next, select the hip and move it to the left to balance the figure.  The next frame could be pulling the rear leg up, followed by again moving the hip to balance the pose.

With IK on, the body has to adapt to foot movements, and the feet remain motionless if other body parts are moved, including the usual main part, the hip.  I said to use the dials because I think you're talking about sliding type movements.  Of course, you can use the tools if you are careful.

Figure--Use Inverse Kinematics--check body part.  I hope this is what you were talking about.

John