BoneMerging

[76561198253511502]

I'm trying to attach a baseball bat to a model's hand using bonemerging. The only problem is that I don't know how to do that.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Yeah, it get's kinda tricky when they don't have a weapon bone.., I'm curious tho, why a bone merge?
Why not just lock the bat root to the model's hand bone?
I've done this with decent results in the past...

[76561198253511502]

Well, It would be easier to animate, because the bat would move with the hand.

But: locking the bat root to the model's hand bone? How do I do that?

[Marco Skoll]

If you need to lock bones with dissimilar names, take your desired "parent" bone in the animation set editor and drag it onto the desired "child" bone.

Unlocking it is done either via the right click menu or clicking on the little lock icon, same as normal.

[76561198253511502]

Uh, well, it doesn't stick the bat to the hand, it locks the hand and the bat in place, leading to some weird deforms.

[EmperorFaiz.wav]

Like Marco said, the child bone's name don't have to be as same as the parent bone. The position of the child bone is not even matter too.

For example, I did lock a sledgehammer's root bone onto the hand but the said bone is located at the middle of the handle rather than at the end. After locking, correctly position the sledgehammer model and you're set.

[R234]

How to bonemerge: Drag the character model's whole animation set onto the item (in this case the bat)'s animation set, select all of the item's locked bones, select all time in motion editor mode, fully apply the zero preset.

[Marco Skoll]

Originally posted by sfm animator:

Uh, well, it doesn't stick the bat to the hand, it locks the hand and the bat in place, leading to some weird deforms.

Check that the parent bone isn't locked to anything it's not supposed to be. The "lock" symbol should only appear next to child bones

[76561198253511502]

It's still not making the bat move with the hand or arm.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by sfm animator:

It's still not making the bat move with the hand or arm.

Which are you trying to move for the animation? The hand or the bat?
Depending on which one you dragged to the other, you will either have to move the hand or the bat to animate movement of both...

Example:
I drag the root of the bat to the hand, the lock symbol should show up on the hand, meaning the bat is locked to the hand. If I move the bat, the hand will stay put, but if I move the hand, both the bat AND the hand will move together.

[Marco Skoll]

Originally posted by Capt Fuzzy:

I drag the root of the bat to the hand, the lock symbol should show up on the hand, meaning the bat is locked to the hand.

That would lock the hand to the bat. Lock symbols indicate the locked object, not the parent.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by Marco Skoll:

Originally posted by Capt Fuzzy:

I drag the root of the bat to the hand, the lock symbol should show up on the hand, meaning the bat is locked to the hand.

That would lock the hand to the bat. Lock symbols indicate the locked object, not the parent.

I always get that backwards...
I DO know that if you do it one way, you can move the bat and the hand will move with it, but if you do it the other way, then you can move the hand and the bat will move with it.

Guess it just depends on which is easier for you to move.., the bat or the hand.

[76561198253511502]

@Capt Fuzzy Moving the hand (or any part of the arm) would be easiest.

[R234]

Did you try what I said?

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by sfm animator:

@Capt Fuzzy Moving the hand (or any part of the arm) would be easiest.

Ok, this is simple, if you want to move the hand and have the bat move with the hand, drag the root of the bat onto the hand and then try moving the hand.
If the bat moves with the hand, you got it right.
If it doesn't, undo the locks (Ctrl+Z) and redo it dragging the hand bone to the root of the bat.
Now you should be able to move the hand and the bat will move with it...