CGTalk - Animating: Rigging and animating a robot

View Full Version : Animating: Rigging and animating a robot

marcusx

11-19-2003, 06:47 AM

Hi all.

I´m really new to animating.
Now I have made a simple model of a robot thing with 4 legs, all the movable limbs are as separate objects.

But.. I really dont have a clue on how to set it up for animation, should I use bones here? .. I was under the impression that I should use IK to do stuff like that, and that bones was used to animate "living" things where the object is deformed.
In this case the objects themselfs are not supposed to deform, I just want to set it up so I can rotate (and move) parts, with restrictions.

It would be nice if someone could point me in the right direction here. some simple steps or tutorials to get me going.

Thanks.
Marcus.

opus13

11-19-2003, 07:23 AM

the easiest way i have found to do robots is to attach the parts to bones via linking, NOT with skin. all of your parts will stay rigid, and follow that paths you put them on without a problem.

hmm, as for a tutorial.. just link your objects to the bones. :)

marcusx

11-19-2003, 05:39 PM

Tnx mate.

I did a quick rigging with bones and dummy objects at the tip of the leg,, then I used IK restraints on the bones, and then used IK limb solver to "connect" them .. ,, . a real quickie .. but turned out neat anyway. I have to work a bit on beeing a little more hardcore on the bones and linking I think to get good results.. but now I know at least how to do a basic setup.

Any more tips and tricks to do this is appreciated.

Thanks
Marcus

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