I've started messing about with how these things actually work in the scene, but still haven't decided the best way to get the cow into and out of the ship. I suspect the "proper" solution is to add some multi-object animation (so a single animation defines the joint animation of the ship and the cow that puts him into and out of the driver's seat) - but this is something I don't support right now, and is potentially quite a bit of work to do well. Which leaves me wondering whether I should just "hack" some cheap and nasty way of getting him in and out (that is presumably not so well animated). I do have a little ship-only animation working: at the start of the level, the rocket ship descends into the level, lands, and opens it's doors (if you look closely at the ship in the background, you can see the doors are left open) - but until I can move the character into and out of the ship, it's really just a stand-in.
My eldest son has decided he wants the cow to fly around in the saucer at the front, so in lieu of a better way to pick which spaceship to go with, that'll be the winner.
Cheers!
So if the player moves the cow roughly in front of the ship (in a particular radius of the animation spot), you slerp the cow's position and orientation to the desired one over a fraction of a second (so it looks smooth and doesn't "jump" into position) and then just run the animations as you modelled them.
I don't have any experience with this sorta thing, but I guess you'd model the cow's animation with the ship and then just save the cow and ship animations separately. Or, alternatively, just have one combined animation on the ship and remove the cow model once it is in place and the animation is starting.
Just a couple of uneducated thoughts there [smile]