Bone position in animation layers

Hello y'all !

I'm creating a God of War clone, and I'm currently working on the axe mechanics. My Kratos has a custom rig so I'm not using the Humanoid Avatar which prevents me from using built-in IK.

Here's my problem: I have the base layer filled with some animations. However, there are certain state that I want to be accessible while doing other movements. Eg: reach for the axe while running.

Basically, the axe has two possible parents:

• A bone in the back
  
• Another in the hand.

And, long story short, I can't get the axe to follow the bone position determined by the second layer. It stays on the position determined by the first layer even though the second layer is overriding the first one.

Does anyone know how to solve this ? It would be awesome !

Here's a video to recap:

Thanks !

 

I figured a way to do so, but it is really limitating. I inversed the layers order and I set the mask to cover the legs. Now, the upper body animation is on the first layer, which makes it always visible and hence the axe can follow the hand movement easily. And when needed, I apply the mask to conserve the lower body animation (eg: running, moving while aiming...)

But if someone has any idea about how to get the bone position, I'm all ears ! Thanks !