changing hand expression during an animation

[victorialatham]

i have three hand positions for my character, i have them on seperate vector layers, i was wondering if anyone new how i could switch from one hand to another during an animation.(for example- a fist would change to a pointing hand). first i tried puting them into a switch layer, clicking off the visibility of the hand i didnt want, but when i played it back it remained on the same hand i ended with. can anyone help or refer me to a tutorial of previous topic in this forum that covers my question sinse im guessing im now the only one who has had this problem?

thanks vicky

[victorialatham]

i mean NOT the only one who has had this problem...

[MarkBorok]

From what you wrote it sounds like you're going into the layer properties panel and switching off the visibility of the layers. You need to right-click on the switch layer and choose the hand you want to appear at that frame. Then move to a different frame, right-click on the switch layer and choose another hand from the menu. Is that what you're doing?

[Rai López]

I've not this problem cause I renunced to use Switch Layers in favour of Actions in my animations , but well, I think that if I'll have to do it, I'll put the three hands into the Switch Layer (with "Interpolate sub-layers" activated in Layer Settings window --> Switch tab) and I'll ensure that the three hands have the same number of points (for more security make duplicates to the first hand and modify the position of the points in the duplicated layers), then only must do Left click over Switch Layer in Layers window and choose the position of the hand that you want be showed in the current frame (i.e = HandDown, HandLeft, HandRight, etc...) that's all! Hope help you...

[Rai López]

...Ouh! well... as always, TOO LATE...

[victorialatham]

From what you wrote it sounds like you're going into the layer properties panel and switching off the visibility of the layers. You need to right-click on the switch layer and choose the hand you want to appear at that frame. Then move to a different frame, right-click on the switch layer and choose another hand from the menu. Is that what you're doing?

what i was doing was going into the switch layer and turning the eyes off the vector layers i didnt want, and keeping them on in the layer i did want. but i have just done what you said "right-click on the switch layer and choose another hand from the menu" and it has solved the problem, thanx!

[mr. blaaa]

sorry you must be missing something.
i work with hand expressions and switchlayers as well and never ever had the problem you discribed...

[victorialatham]

i was not doing the right thing to get the hands to 'switch', i am a bit of a newbie, iv got it now though...

[mr. blaaa]

ok. no problem, we all make mistakes sometimes.