Holding an Item (Space Switching)

In this guide, you'll learn how to do Space Switching using the Child Of constraint to hold an item (for more, check the Holding an Item Demo file on the Samples & Demo Files page).

Holding an Item Demo file on the Samples & Demo Files page

In this example, let's imagine that you want to animate a character picking up a mug, drinking it, and then putting it back to where it used to be. And we want the character to pick up the mug in frame 20 and drop it in frame 68.

Picking up the Mug

• Add a Child Of constraint to the Mug_Control bone and set the Target to your preset rig and the Bone to the arm wrist deform bone. To fix the location, click on the Set Inverse button.

Add the Child Of constraint to the mug

• Go to frame 20 and keyframe the constraint influence, go back one frame, set the value to 0, and then keyframe it. If you play the animation, the arm will pick up the mug in frame 20.

Keyframe the constraint influence

When playing the animation, arm should pick the mug

Dropping the Mug

• Go to frame 67 and keyframe the constraint influence, go forward one frame, set the influence value to 0, and then keyframe it. If you play the animation, the arm will drop the mug in frame 68.

When playing the animation, arm should drop the mug