Robotron- How to rig??

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heya G3n1x ,

A rig is basically the structure of bones, curves, or indeed any objects used to create the system that drives the character.

From what i can see from your robot, this should not be to difficult to rig or set up as it is almost completely mechanical, so enveloping (setting the wieght of the mesh on the bones) will certainly not be an issue.
It is probably quite a nice character to learn to rig with for the first time.
I cant say i have rigged in 3dsmax before, but the conecpt is generally the same throughout the major software packages. For your charactor i would suggest a setup similar to this and adapt for any special movements you may require :

One bone for the body, as this looks rigid, so there is no real need to have any more bones there, then make two "leg" bones which would be children of of the body/spine bone. if you create a curve circle, then path constrain two nulls to it, so they are 180 degress apart, then constrain each leg effector to one of the nulls, so when you rotate the circle, you will automatically get the appearance of the legs cycling the wheel around.
For the arms, again you will only need a two bone chain,which would be children of the spine root, then create two bone chains for his fingers, which would children of the arm effector.
Depending on the amount of movement you want around the neck to head area will decide how many bones you would require there.

Like i said, i do not work in max personally so i cant set a demo file up for you, or go much deeper into it. But that sort of concept should work out ok.

Kind Regards

Mike Malinowski
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www.starlitestudios.net

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