Robot Rigging

[tolae]

My question is how to go about rigging a robot. I sadly don't have a model to sure for this, but what I mean is getting the pistons and other such clockworks to animate correctly. Sorry for being so vague about this, but any help would be appreciated.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

well, the way I went about it was to link each part of the robot to a bone, instead of skinning. Then when the bones move, the linked parts follow.

[poopipe]

that'll cover the limbs etc .

if you're using Max read up on parameter wiring and the reaction manager - these will help you tie animation on pistons, cogs etc. to the motion of other objects (eg. bones)

i dont know what you do in other packages but there'll be an equivalent set of features

[tolae]

Yes, I do use 3ds Max, thanks. I'll look up some more stuff, and just start playing around with some stuff. Thanks again for you guys' input.