Trouble Rigging a One-Piece Rubber-Hose Arm (Shoulder Won’t Stay Attached)

Trouble Rigging a One-Piece Rubber-Hose Arm (Shoulder Won’t Stay Attached)

Body:

Hello everyone,

I’m new to Character Animator and having a lot of trouble rigging a one-piece “rubber-hose” style arm. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Artwork setup (Photoshop):

My arm art is a single layer/group called “Left Arm” (no separate upper/lower segments).

I imported the PSD into CH and switched to Rig view.

Initial rig attempt:

Added two Arm IK handles: one at the shoulder and one at the wrist.

Tagged the shoulder handle as Fixed Handle so it should stay attached to the body.

Tagged the wrist handle as Draggable.

Problem:

When I switch to Scene and drag the wrist, the entire arm comes off the shoulder instead of bending in between. I’ve tried adding mesh-warp pins at the mid-arm, adjusting mesh shape (Rectangle vs. Contour vs. Legacy), expanding the mesh, and toggling behaviors on/off, but nothing keeps the shoulder anchored reliably.

What I’ve tried from other threads/videos:

Using Stick + Dragger instead of Arm IK

Deleting all tags and re-applying only shoulder fixed + wrist draggable

Exporting/importing a working arm rig as a Puppet Part and swapping my art in

Environment:

Character Animator 2025 on Windows 11

Photoshop 2025 for source PSD

I’m out of ideas—any guidance on exactly which steps or settings will produce a stable, bendable hose-arm with a locked shoulder and draggable wrist would be hugely appreciated. Ive watched videos, read tutorials, even tried to follow chatgpt and I dunno. I’ve already done lip-sync down to phoneme-to-frame mapping, yet I can’t seem to complete what should be a basic rigging task. Attached is a photo. As you can see its a basic rubber hose arm with the hand connected on same layer. Its literally one piece, I dont even want an elbow joint. I have zero excuse even for being a noob. Its embarrassing and I need help. If not for anything, my own sanity at this point.