This is a great parenting tool for animators who don't want to get technical. Just keep in mind that the child object needs to have a minimum of two parents and it adds a key able parent control in the Channel Box.


" Description: JTDdynParent allows the user to animate a child switching between multiple parents. This is useful for setting up rig controls that can switch inheritance between body parts or give characters the ability to easily pick up and put down objects. This version is a complete rewrite of the old tool built into JTDRiggingTools Beta 0.17 and is released here as a standalone tool until it comes packaged in the up-and-coming new JTDriggingTools 1.0.


Features: Can be used with referencing and now has the ability to change the alias names of parent objects


Note: v1.0 released 11/23/07 Tested with Maya 8.5 - not compatible with the dynamic parenting built into JTDRiggingTools Beta 0.17

You can find a video tutorials here http://www.johndoublestein.com/   under JTD Rigging Tools Demo Videos > 4. Working with dynamic parenting   http://studentpages.scad.edu/~jdoubl20/files/JTDdynamicParenting.wmv "