Mechanical Platform Rigging

#1

I’m trying to make these automatic platforms that can adjust and orient dynamically, and I can get them to basically work, but the problem is I need several of them in my scene, and orienting them normally takes forever.

I want to make an IK-based system that would keep the platform itself stable and facing a single direction while the rest of the mechanical works connected to it re-orient to reflect the necessary positioning.

I’m not used to IK and rigging in Maya, but in Max I would set up IK along the first series of bones and apply orientation constraints to the joints that allow the platform to adjust its angle.

Problem is, when I try using IK in this situation, it seems to work, but when I move the handle, it’s incredibly sluggish and barely follows it at all. I can’t work with this; it’s almost worse than adjusting it by hand.

That, and the orientation constraint rejects my attempts to make the bone follow the circle-curve I made as a controller.

Am I missing something? I think I must be, but I couldn’t tell you what.

#2

If I’m reading your post right… you want the platform to be oriented to world space and have the mechanical geo beneath it move correctly as the platform is rotated?

#3

Yes, exactly.

I just tried manually orienting them. Took nearly two hours to figure it all out. The problem is in the precision. I did alter the base to rotate as well, which made things considerably easier.

Still, I wouldn’t mind even if I DID have to manually orient the lower works, but the fact is I’m trying to precisely place the platform, and the platform rotates with the mechanics beneath it, so I have to move the machinery where I guess it’ll work, and then FIX the platform to be upright again, and almost guaranteed, I’ll be too far off in position. If the platform stayed upright, or however else I left it, it’d make everything take half the time.

The obvious answer would be IK, but I must have forgotten how IK works in Maya, and I can’t imagine how useless an orientation constraint would be if it can’t bind a bone’s rotation to a control object, which is exactly what’s happening.

#4

Without seeing the file, I’m going to assume those pistons can both extend and pivot, in which case I would look into this tutorial here.

What I’d take from the above is using the two aim constraints setup on each piston, having the base aim at the top and the top aim at the bottom. Then the rest shouldn’t be too hard! Connecting up ends of the pistons to follow their parents and letting them aim at each other and stretch as the platform moves up and down. You could use skinning to stretch the piston, or clusters, or a variety of other deformers. Just pick what ever you are most comfortable with.

Hopefully that makes sense…? I’ll have a go at making a test file sometime later this week if you’re still having trouble.

#5

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