Hi I have just spent about 20 mins positioning a branch from Daz's alter set (freebee about the time the Dragon was released) in V3 right hand. Great got her to hold the branch (I want to make it a fire brand) changed the camera angle to check the overall effect and thorght 'too close to the body' so 'hang on if I move the hand/arm I'll have to reposition the branch, so I know I'll change the parent of the branch, bad move branch is now on the floor but it does move when I reposition the arm! any ideas? thanks Dave

Did you parent the prop to the hand?

Make sure that the branch is selected. Parent it to the universe or none. This will free it from moving with the arm. Now you can grab the branch and move it back up to her hand. Go in with the hand camera and wrap those fingers around it. Parent the branch to the hand itself (it ought to move where the palm moves). Save it as a smart prop. I prefer to parent my props with the body parts in their neutral/default position. Carolly

Hi Carolly thats what I did (parent to the hand using the branch body) the only thing I can thin of is that it may have something to do with the fact that when I rotate the branch x or z it tends not to rotate from the centre of the branch but from a point (for the sake of argument) an arms length from the end, like the hands of aclock where you can see only the bit that touches the numbers. Oh well if at first you don't succeed try etc thanks Dave

Yeah, that gets annoying. You can sort of fix it though. Select the branch, go to properties and check 'display origin' then you can see the problem with rotation. I can't find a way to move the origin with the mouse, but open the Joint Editor window and you'll see three boxes under "center point'. Fiddle those numbers while watching the screen.

That is why it is best to do the setup and parenting in neutral position. Later on, you can rotate the hand slightly to get the branch to move with the fingers still attached.