sword animation

i made a character with a sword and i parented the sword to the character so that it will move with it. now i want to make an animation where when u press a button the guy will use his hand and put the sword on his back, the problem is if i did that animation how would i make the sword stay on his back when he walks around until i press a next button for him to hold it again

I did this in the game that im working on by having two copies of the sword, one in his hand and one in his sheath. The one in his hand is scaled down all the way in frame 1 and the one in his sheath is normal size. On frame 2 the roles are reversed. On the press of a key, make your character play the animation and activate a timer property that adds up to the time when you wish the sword to transfer from the sheath to the characters hand. Then have it send out a message that tells the swords to play thier ipo. With a swordequiped bool property you can set the character to return the sword to his back.

This is very complicated; I hope I explained it well enough for you.

If anyone has a better way to do this please share because a less complicated way would be easier for me to keep track of :slight_smile: