As vepop suggested, you need to make the character prop invisible at the drop and at the same frame make a stage prop visible.

Jeff


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Yes, I understand that suggestion, but it would look crap because it's not possible to place the prop BETWEEN the characters hands, so it either has to go in front of the whole character or behind it.  Either way looks it looks like a very poor piece of animation...

Here is a quick test of a character prop dropped, turned invisible and then a stage prop turned visible to replace it.
The prop is not replaced until the characters hands are clear of the dropped prop so as to avoid the layering issue.

It's a pain to do because you have to reposition the prop every frame after the prop is "dropped" since as the character moves the prop moves with the character (attached to hand in this case).
You will see a slight wobble to the prop before the stage prop replaces it. I'm sure this can be reduce some with more adjustments to the props rotation.

Jeff



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Hi Jeff - many thanks for that.  I see what you mean about having to re-position each frame, and my example is worse because the prop size means it takes longer for the hands to be clear of it.  I'll have to think about using it smaller.

Hi,
How about having a different camera viewpoint?
Once prop is placed, camera moves to something else (not showing the prop).

Or
Duplicate the character. Then delete the rest of the body parts except the arm and hand.

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Thanks for those suggestions - the change of camera wont work for what I'm doing, but it's a very good idea I could use in future.  Adding an extra arm/hand could be an alternative though.

Thanks!

The double character, as vepop suggested, is probably your best bet. Duplicate the character and move its z axis back a couple clicks. Place the stage prop in between the two characters, change sprites to null except hand and arm on the back most character. Should be easier than what I showed.

Jeff




Get my Plugin Manager and TaskNotes plugins for iClone.
Check out EZColors and Other products for CTA/CA. EZColors: the easy way to change Render Styled (RS) colors!
See my CTA Tutorials on the YouTube channel CTAStepByStep