first thank you all for this forum. it is so helpful with the feedback and knowledge everyone provides. I am a noobie and still learning. which leads me to my problem.

lets say you have a pepsi can on a table. you walk up to it, stop and then pick it up. take a drink then set it back down. least thats what I am going for. heres what I get.... my figure approaches the can and it begins to float to her hand as she walks to it. how do I lock the can down not to move until the figure picks it up? I've done animations before with poser but I am missing something. I;ve watched a bunch of tutorials on animation but none really explain this with a prop. anyone have any thoughts?

thanks for helping =)

Sounds like the can has been moved at some point during the animation, perhaps you moved once or similar. To repair the cans animation now, I would use the dope sheet and delete all the keyframes for the can of coke, make sure the first keyframe has the can on the table, then delete all the others and then copy the first key frame to the last keyframe position.

Then your can should stay in place throughout the sequence. To animate it scrub the animation to the point you want to have the actor move it, once the actors hands are holding it you can parent it to the actors hand and then the can should just follow the hand...

This is guesswork from a another noob, but its what I would do, perhaps some of the more experienced animators could comment too?

First - You did not set animation attributes to linear section. For example if you translated cane on frames 50 - 90 according to y axis, go to frame 50, click black arrow next to Ytrans, choose "graph", click frame 50 on pic and click "linear section" (left bottom of window - orange zig-zag). Repeat it with 1st frame. The same way fix all attributes which were changed during animation. More details on PhilC page:
http://forums.diii.net/showthread.php?t=706422

Second - did you parented cane to hand? If yes cane is parented all the time even if you set parent on 100 frame. If hand is moving, can moves either.
If you did it, making can stable will be difficult, but you can add new cane and do not animate it.
Cane1 is parented to hand, make it invisible on frames at start of animation. Cane2 is not parented and not animated. Make it invisible when cane should start moving.
 

The easiest way? Do it in separate sequences. The first is your character walking to the table, which has the can unparented. Take it to the point where your character has grabbed the can and stop. Then start a new sequence with the last frame of your first animation, but this time parent the can to the hand. Stitch them together and voila.

Attached Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1xcz1iRIlA&fmt=18

1.) Parented to the hand
2.) On the table
3.) On the table a little bit away from can 2

a.) Under the parameters>properties tab of can 1, 2 and 3, click the key icon beside the visible box to activate its animation. The key icon should turn green to indicate this.

Uncheck can 1 and 3's visibility.

b.) animate character to reach and grab can 2.

c.) on that frame, turn on visibility of can 1 and turn off visibility of can 2

d.) animate drinking

e.) animate character returning the can to the place where can 3 stands.

f.) turn off visibility of can 1 and turn on visibility of can 3.

Tweak to make it real.

Enjoy.

Always remember that by default the movement between keyframes is a smooth curve. That means that an object will begin moving at once and may go farther than you expect. The method I use (because of the software I learned on) is to place extra keyframes in place to shape the spline, so I add a keyframe maybe 2 frames earlier than the hand pick up , and the curve stays flat for that section , and the can stays in place. You can also change the interpolation mode .

You may also want Break spline , for use where movements change direction , to avoid overshoot.

This is all in the Poser manual pdf in the animation section, have a read  .

simple answer is :

set scene to frame one. Open the animation palette, go to the row for the can prop, highlight all cells in the row after frame 1, but before the frame where you really want the can to start to move, and hit "delete" on your keybord.
close animation palette.

Quote - simple answer is :

set scene to frame one. Open the animation palette, go to the row for the can prop, highlight all cells in the row after frame 1, but before the frame where you really want the can to start to move, and hit "delete" on your keybord.
close animation palette.

Actually, no -- assuming he's parented the can to the hand (which he should, unless he wants to spend untold hours trying to match them up): even with the frames deleted, the can will still move all over the place as the hand moves. The visible/invisible idea is a good one, but the simplest approach really is to just do it as three separate clips and stitch them together. Certainly the cleanest, as it doesnt require any tweaking.

Sean, with all due respect, you are making assumptions that the thread poster speaks nothing about.

he wanted to know how to keep the can still until it is time for the figure to interact with it:

*.... my figure approaches the can and it begins to float to her hand as she walks to it. how do I lock the can down not to move until the figure picks it up?

*And so I gave a simple accurate sollution that I thought a newbie would appreciate, and it will accomplish the requested goal. The parenting discussion is all well and good, but we are not at the point where we are worried about the figure picking up the can -yet. I wanted to directly adress the problem as stated: how do you put something back in place that has moved when it should not. At the same time, Blaack widow  will be introduced to the animation palette , which I find is a very good tool .

Whatever. The OP says the figure picks it up. I worked from there.

yes I did parent the can and yes I had too. tried the last solution and still am trying more =(

Another option is the 'scaling trick'. Parent the can prop to the hand, adjusting it to fit the intended grip. Save that grip to the library in 'hands'. Now delete all the animation keyframes you just made for the hand closing onto the can (after keeping your backups safe, of course. you do back up, right....? ;P ). And make sure you write down how many frames it took to 'grasp' the parented can; that's an important number.

Next, set the 'hand can' global scale to 0.

Place a second can on the table, and parent it to the table.

Do your walk up animation, and whatever reaching motion you need.

Next, at the correct time, load the animated grasp pose you created before.

At the end of this, the figure's hand should be around the table can. Between two frames, expand the hand can to 100 and the table can to 0. That should be faster than the eye can register, and leaves you with an 'apparent' pickup of the object on the table. You have to be sure that the texture alignment is identical, of course.

And placing the can back on the table is the same process, in the other direction. It takes some tweaking to get it right, but it works.

going to try that next! let you know what happens... and thx!

HI,

I have planned to have a website for my company with specialized graphical effects. Can anyone suggest me how to find design firms in the internet?