Maya: putting down a spoon

#1

Hello, can you guys give me some advices? I am not really an animator and I have some trouble with a scene: So the character has to do some stirring in a jar, then take out the spoon and place it on the table.
I parent constrained the ik wrist control to the spoon, so I can animate the spoon and the wrist follows.
Turned out later this is a very bad idea, because when I rotate the spoon to extremes, like when it’s placed on the table, the wrist is locked and turns and I cannot just unlock it midway.

How can I set this thing up? What would be the proper way to do these kinds of things?

#2

Create a locator, place it at the pivot point of the spoon where the character will be holding it, and then parent the spoon to the locator. Then move the locator to the position you want at the character’s hand and then parent constrain the locator to the wrist control.

Just pose the arm and the locator, along with the spoon, will follow the wrist. You’ll be able to animate the spoon independently from the wrist. You’ll also be able to set keys on the parent constraint for whenever the character needs to set the spoon down or pick it up.