Shape layers attached by a null but then a path moves and the shapes separate.

[Doodledum1]

 

Ok, after of hours or trying, I am going to let someone else 'hopefully' solve my problem.  I have this little face.  It has an arm and an hand. The hand tap, tap, taps, and then the arm appears with a trim path.  then some other lines to make a face.  NEXT is where I have a problem.  I want to bring the arm up above the face where there is a shape of 'hair'(not shown).  But I cannot get the hand and arm to stay together and move up to the hair.  I cannot get the hand to attach to the path of the hand and move.  I have tried making the hand and arm one path, but then I can not tap the fingers, I would not bend at the wrist.  Does anyone know what I need to do.  There must be a way!!!!  :-((((( I have attached a short mp4.  It's at about 24 seconds.

[Doodledum1]

So I did this...I did frame by fram to attach the hand to the wrist as the arm rises.  Is that the only way to get the two to work together?

[Mylenium]

No surprises here. You're making a mess by animating shape layer transforms, paths and layer transforms all at once. You need to isolate your steps and ensure a consistent coordinate behavior by pre-composing items or linking things with expressions. This can never realyl work in the way you set it up, be it alone for the fact that shape layers and conventional layers use different coordinate origins and things like path animation refers to intra-layer coordinates, not global ones. You may want to find a good character animation tutorial to gain a deeper understanding of these things and bolster your workflow with some of the scripts found on AEscripts.com for quick dynamic parenting or setting up entire rigs.

Mylenium