Well here's my number 2 noobish question of the day. I'm not expecting a tutorial, just a simple explanation or perhaps link to a tutorial if the answer is more difficult to answer.

I downloaded a sword prop. How in the world do I get it to become gripped by a figure's hand? Do I have to just move and tug it about until it's in the hand and then move each of the fingers around the hilt or is there an easier way?

Also, once I have it in the hand in the position I want to keep, how do I ensure it will stay there if I change the pose of the figure? And how do I make sure the hand doesn't uncurl if I change the pose to a preset pose?

Noob questions I know...

getting the sword in the hand: You are right, I usually use the trans dials to move things around myself. Posing the hand: You will have to move the fingers to where they will need to be. A good starting point is to open your Hands library and look for the Grasp hand. Use that to start. To keep the sword in the hand: Select the sword and go to the object menu and parent it to the proper hand. To kepp the hand pose: You can't be sure it won't change in a pose. The best thing to do here is once you get your hand posed right then you can add it to your hands library. This way if it is changed by a pose all you will have to do is reload that hand and you instantly have it back.

for gripping something you have to bend every single part of the finger till it looks right. But in the library " Hands" you may find some pose thats ok. Or you can save the grip once it is ok to that library to use it again later. If you placed the obj right go to the Object menue choose parent obj and choose the hand from the list where your obj should stay and move with.

Kattman : you hit my!Typing english is slow for me :-))

Thanks mates! Nothin' worse then wondering if there is an easier way to do things then what you have been doing. I appreciate the tips and will definitely use them. Again, thanks!!

anytime friar. thg, mine was longer. Good thing I do type fast or yours would have still gotten in before mine. Good to know that we gave the same answer though.

There is a "Lock Hands" option under either the figures or Objects menu. Personally I select each component (finger parts, hand, thumb parts) and use the "Lock Actor" command found in the same place. Then I can animate my other hand without worrying about accidently changing the grip on the prop.

Once you've put a sword in the hand, and parented, you can save it to your Props library. You'll get a message asking if you want to make it a smart prop. You can say yes, and that sword will always come out into the proper hand when you load it. Of course, you may want to save the sword under a different name than the original, to be safe. Many good props are already smart props which means they will automatically go where they should!

Attached Link: http://209.15.136.215/index-goo.htm

Does that "lock actor" thing ever actually work for anyone? Lock Figure works like it's supposed to, but I've locked bodyparts, forgotten it, gone back and reposed them with no trouble, and then noticed that it says "locked" in the label.

"Lock Actor" has worked for me.

If you pose characters with swords alot I recommend editing the default pose with the hand edited to grip a sword such that the sword does not need to be rotated, just moved in the x,y,z, axis. And save this pose to your library. Then in the future you can just recall this pose and quickly move the sword over to the hand using trans x,y,z smerc

Schlabber has made some excellent sword poses for Vicky and Mike too (I believe). In fact, I used them for some renders in my gallery.