Trouble with arm bending and overlapping sections.

[KevinJ23]

Hello everyone!! I am working on an animation project and have encountered a few minor issues with the final stages. First, how can I adjust the shoulders and arms to make them look more realistic and natural. It seems that the shoulders "round" out when the hands and bend down to the side. Second, when moving the arms the elbow bend is quite strange. It seems to be a rounded bend rather than at an angle. Also, when the hands move over the shoulder area, they come behind the should but in front of the torso. Im sure this is as easy as adjusting limb IK, but I have tried everything! Please offer suggestions/advice. I will attach some reference pictures below. 

[David Arbor]

I like to set my arms to Hinge joint to avoid the issue you're talking about. It can sometimes look strange depending on your sleeves, but there's also a point on each puppet (depending on the design) that you just can't move the limbs past.

As for your elbow bend, can you post a screenshot showing your bones? I'm guessing you have bones too close to the elbow joint. Try removing and recreating them so there's more flexible mesh around the elbow.

Finally, true overlaps in 2D simply aren't possible, so you eitherhave to pick and choose your battles or update the design of your character. If your arm is multiple pieces then this is an easy fix—go back into Illustrator or Photoshop and place the hand and forearm above the upper arm and shoulder in your L Arm group.