Difficulties with a whole series of bones

[ArgleBargle]

I've got an animated computer whose "hand" is her mouse. The mouse and the cord are directed around with a series of 5 bones (and a null at the end for small objects to constrain to). For the most part, the arrangement works ok for me. However, sometimes I'd like her to make a motion like moving the mouse in a straight line or trace a circle in the air. This has proved to be very difficult.

 

I've tried having the end bone follow a path, but unlike when I'm modeling, the rest of the don't follow along. The results can be called bizarre.

 

Alternately, I've positioned the bones at the start and end points of motion then tried to make keyframes in-between so the mouse follows the motion I want. This works, but it's very tedious and the overall effect is that the mouse doesn't seem to be moving smoothly.

 

Is there an easier approach?

[luckbat]

Yes there is. It's called "Inverse Kinematics." You can add a Kinematic Constraint to your hand bone, as described here: http://www.hash.com/HTMLHelp/v12.0/Generat...ConstraintA.htm

[ArgleBargle]

Yes there is. It's called "Inverse Kinematics." You can add a Kinematic Constraint to your hand bone, as described here: http://www.hash.com/HTMLHelp/v12.0/Generat...ConstraintA.htm

 

Ah, that did the trick. I added a null to the chor, had the end bone have a kinematic constraint to it, then constrained the null to a path. It did the trick. That's going to save me a ton of hard work in future animations.