Well I had a quick go at your suggestion Razor, and it certainly worked, although roughly for a first attempt - with a bit more practice I think I could get it spot on - thanks for the suggestion.

As for a little update - the animation I was working on was for a rough demo reel to show a prospective MSc tutor for a 3d and multimedia post-grad course. Showed the guy my work and he seemed happy and offered me a place :bandit: . Now as long as I can dig some up from somewhere I'm good to go.

Cheers as always to everyone who answers questions here, and to sspikedudley for getting my animation past that sticky point and onto a CD