Every rig I have seen so far has had a master bone that is parent to everything (at least indirectly). What is the advantage of a master bone over using the object position of the rig when animating?
If you use the both I would also like to know for which cases you use which.
Thanks in advance,
You technically don’t have to have a master bone. But…people use
it because it makes like a whole lot easier. It allows you to movie
the entire rig without messing up any of the other bones’ local positions
as they are animated. So you could have a walk-cycle animation (but do not
have the master bone keyed with the rest of them), let that loop in the NLA
editor and then you could also key the master bone manually to move
where ever you want and the walk cycle with follow. It’s just a master control.
You do not have to key it at all if you don’t want, but having it gives you the
option to do things you could not do without it.
I hope this description wasn’t too all over the place.
aah, thank you that was very helpful. But is there any advantage to a master bone over using the position of the rig (not in pose mode) besides convenience? Is it general good practice to never move the Armature object?
Sorry if this is repetitive, I feel the question has definitely been answered but am trying to get every last drop 
thanks,