Maya - Constraints

        My storyboard requires that Moom holds a bow at the beginning of the animation, and drops it later on. The best way to make a character pick up a prop is through the use of constraints. One of my classmates kindly explained the process of constraining the bow to Moom's hand.

        Firstly, I made sure that Moom appeared to be grasping the bow, before applying any changes.

        Then, in the Animation menu set, select Locator from the Create menu. The locator then needed moving to where the prop would be gripped, in his case the character's palm. A blue square represents the centre of the locator.

        Shift and select both the locator and the prop and select Parent from the Constrain menu. Repeat with the locator and the character's wrist. The prop should then move along with the character.

The prop now follows the movements I had already set for Moom

        Once it no longer needs to be constrained to the character, the prop can be freed fairly easily. There will need to be two keyframes side by side for the prop/locator, and in the Channel box there will be a 'Blend Parent' option. For the prop to be constrained, the value should be 1, and to be freed the value should be 0; the prop can then be moved away from the character.

        I repeated this process at a later stage in the animation, when Moom needs to pick up the arrow, the only difference being that with the bow the prop begins the animation constrained, and the constraint needs turning off. The arrow on the other hand needed the constraint turning off, and will end the animation constrained to Moom's hand.