How to pick up object? So imagine a scene. A character of mine is bending down grabbing a ball from the floor then standing up and throwing the ball. 

I have the character rigged and ready with the action but how do i make the ball move with the character? Im hoping keyframing it in position isnt the way to do it as thats a nightmare? 

In general im asking the best way for an character to pick up/throw/interact with an object... whats the best way to do this? (Once the character is created and rigged)
You add a "Child of" constraint to the ball, and select the armature and bone of the character you want to pick it up with.  You can then animate the influence of the constraint to change when the ball is influenced by the character.

hope this helps.