How to Rig a Scifi Landing Gear in Blender

[@Markom3D]

Was this video beneficial for you? What did you think about all the relationships between the bones?

[@Markom3D]

@Inventify 3D I was thinking about this at 2am, on controlling animations with slider... that tutorial will come soon

[@kinuspacemouse1631]

This was awesome video, well made.

[@colinyan9136]

can i use ik to control the leg up and down？

[@IrreversibleExtents]

This is the exact tutorial that KZbin didn't have. This is the perfect video for Hard Surface rigging.

[@blobmetropolis7707]

Very useful. I made a little 2d cut out version, with the same rig.

[@RC-1290]

6:39 This is where it's important to open the description and watch a different video about rigging. I was so confused before I realized the video was actually missing a bit.

[@aliceus3315]

The the main part, he is not explaining it. I knew how to model but this part sucks really.

[@LonnonFoster]

Fantastic piston setup, and that subdivide trick makes it super quick to build without losing the precise pivot locations. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@Markom3D]

No problem!

[@Solcommand]

The only thing I'm gonna dream of tonight is shift s cursor to selected

[@Markom3D]

ohhh yeah lol

[@seshadarling933]

Some buttons required to shortcut cursor to selected and selection to cursor

[@v-alfred]

Just wanted to remind u to dream "shift s cursor to selected" tonight. Your welcome 😂

[@KonnBonn23]

I just sat here in awe going "That is so cool" every time something moved. I haven't ever experimented with mechanical rigging so this was really informative

[@Markom3D]

yeah, I was pretty chuffed what it was all coming together.

[@kenzietownsend6644]

A damped track seems simpler than a group of empties. I still think you'd need the empties for location data for the pistons. I'll try it both ways. That's the cool thing there's a dozen ways to rig something and each has an advantage over the other.

[@citrusblast4372]

Yea i was wondering why cant they set the track to to track to (thats a weird sentence LMAO) to the head of the other bone

[@citrusblast4372]

Set the track to to track to xD

[@citrusblast4372]

i rewatched the vid at 6:56 and it seems tracking the positions of the bones themselves isnt a good idea, it might cause the program to work harder than it should?

[@kenzietownsend6644]

@@citrusblast4372 That's a good point. Adding math on top of math then plotting distances all take more steps. Then, adding in betweens and telling the computer to narrow it further. Attaching bones does save time over moving each piece in space. I've been there. Just, to see. 😁

[@Don-3dFlunky]

thanks for doing this landing gear series

[@blenderRu]

2:47 Alt+F in rig edit mode to swap bone direction (head to tail, tail to head)

[@MichaelJosephGFX]

This is awesome, thank you!

[@kerynadcock2226]

Whoa, a maze of interconnections! Really useful to show us just how to do it (my mech-rhino can get its mis-aligned joint motions sorted out now). Thank you!

[@Markom3D]

Glad you liked it!

[@sparrowsurya96]

Thanks it really helped me to leaen to rig the robotic type parts , literally i was in confusion that how we rig the bots type meshes

[@Markom3D]

brilliant, I am glad I Was able to help

[@RobertWildling]

A real jaw-dropper! Amazing! Will watch it again. And again. Aaaaaaaan again...

[@Markom3D]

sick, lol, thank you for the support mate

[@brandoncollins4812]

This is really really great. As a beginner though... I fell 100% off track right around the 7 minute mark. I have a simple arm just like this I need to learn how to rig, so this is pretty close. I will come back when I learn a little more.. can't quite keep up yet.

[@werwolf5485]

Great example! BTW you don't necessarily need the empties for tracking. A bone can track another bone. So you can skip this step and save some time.

[@DCGloto]

It generally works, but it creates a dependency loop, so it might break occasionally. It won't reset the rotation of piston when canceling a movement with a right click for example.

[@chlbrn]

@@DCGloto Normally you want things contained inside the rig, so using bones is the way to go, to fix the dependency issue, you just duplicate the bones and set them as target of constraints and give them copy location or use proper parenting to make them follow the bones you want, they basically act as placeholders so you don't need to worry about rotation, scale, roll. If you use things like empty outside the rig, and you give the file to animation team, you have to make the empties not selectable to prevent being changed or deleted.

[@방모르]

Why is the video missing in the middle? I found out from another lecture.

[@Markom3D]

cause I am a moron lol. link is in the description for the missing part

[@kinuspacemouse1631]

This really inspired me to start modeling a robot!

[@Markom3D]

yeah mate, go for it

[@stevenlitvintchouk3131]

Excellent tutorial! A remaining problem I've always had with a complex mechanical model like this, is figuring out which end should be the head of the bone and which end should be the tail. I keep playing with "Reverse direction" until it looks right, but I figure they must be some general rules for deciding where the head should go. This is the biggest problem I've had, especially when a part has a complex movement (like the treads of an army tank).

[@rinaldiaja2496]

I need to learn this rigging

[@afrikaniz3d]

Brilliant rigging tut 👏👏

[@Markom3D]

cheers mate

[@FollowPhotiniByDesign]

A very helpful tutorial, I have been doing it all wrong for a long time ha, this technique has simplified the process and will save me hours of tedious work. Thank you and big up...

[@Markom3D]

You're very welcome!

[@Unknown-hq4cp]

I may not understand something, but I didn't notice when you attached bones to the mesh.

[@Markom3D]

yeah I stuffed up there. There is a video link in the description on how to do that

[@Unknown-hq4cp]

@@Markom3D oh, ok, thank you.

[@Fork_N_Potatoes]

I just tried this with Blender 3.0 and for some reason the 'track to' constraint isn't working (It could also be that I'm a goober). Instead I used an IK constraint targeting the empty with a bone chain of 1. Not very orthodox but it worked.

[@jeremymccloud2778]

Hey Wade, I think I had the same problem. There are two different constraints you can set. Object Constraints and Bone Constraints. I was, by accident, setting up object constraints, which applied to the entire armature and not the bone. Make sure you're selecting Bone Constraints and see if that will fix your problem.

[@pjpdesigns]

Thank you for this Markom! I am rigging wings for a model I'm working on and have been able to use what you taught so far, however I have been struggling for 2 days to get the armature right and am now banging my head against the wall. Wondering if you are open to a consultation? I'll pay you to be able to figure this out at this point, as I am at peak frustration.

[@pan1n1g.98]

Bro hi from Russian community ! You are freaking pro! Thank you so much 4 this video, it was totally helpful!

[@Markom3D]

Hey, thanks!

[@robotsandpolygons]

fast and easy! I like it a lot! thanks for doing this!

[@Markom3D]

Glad you like it!

[@lacamendry1731]

Can you make on how to make a Sci-Fi Thrusters?

[@VoyagerVentures]

Thanks mate! Was trying to rig my Recreation of SpaceX's Quick Disconnect arm at Starbase and this helped a lot!

[@MrVellj001]

How did you parent the object with the armature? I did not see it in the video.

[@Markom3D]

I have no idea where that part is. These videos have been out for who know how long long and you are the first person to say that. Select the Mesh and then the armature, and ctrl+p with empty groups

[@MrVellj001]

@@Markom3D Just finished rigging my new version of the landing gear I posted on your Discord.

[@anfxf6513]

how do you parent amerature to mesh when i did my mesh going to be werid shape plz help with it

[@Markom3D]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/oanGgK2Koad8qas

[@AnatoliyLitinskiy]

I was ready to ask this question already, but found your comment :)

[@craigrmeyer]

Please comment on the pro's and con's of rigging solid objects with bones, like here, versus the "bone-less" way, which seems to involve a bunch of constraints and empties.

[@AREKO_ESTUDIO]

thanks a loooot for saying teh comand you are using, i know there is the text also, but it is soo much easier just to listen, thanks just subscribed to your channel

[@Markom3D]

I am glad I was able to help out. Thank you for the support

[@ajubhaus8200]

Please help. Im going nuts with trying to rig this hydraulic system. Everytime I track my constraint to the opposite empty, the track axis option has to be Set to „Y“ and the UP Option has to be set to „Z“ for it to be able to work right? Well when I set my Up Option to „Z“ my objects twist in a weird way and it dislocates everything. Only when I have the UP option set to „Y“ everything stays in place but the bone doesn‘t track properly. I triple checked if all my bones were precisely placed within the objects and everything alligns perfectly but the tracking won‘t work. What am I doing wrong?

[@lylewyant3356]

I was thinking about stepper motors at the pivot points then would just need to cable each motor. If you didn't want to mess with hydraulics. But hey, what do I know.....

[@TorQueMoD]

Thank you so much! I'm trying to rig a mech and I'm used to 3dsMax for 22 years so learning Blender is a little different. Loving it though, it's a lot better than Max for rigging.

[@uhh12131]

how do you connect a bone to a part of the mechanism?

[@Markom3D]

some how I missed that from the editing - I made a filler video on that one - kzbin.info/www/bejne/oanGgK2Koad8qas

[@TimBrennan]

Thanks. I am I’m trying to follow that filler video but can’t as I have nothing listed under vertex groups. Would it be possible to make another short video using the landing gear to clarify? That would complete this awesome tutorial! :-)

[@TimBrennan]

Here is the issue I am having... kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3TNnmOcp5qeZs0

[@TimBrennan]

I've had a breakthrough regarding the missing part of the video where the objects are assigned to the bones - here's what i did...kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4HLmJZjmLefgMU

[@uhh12131]

@@Markom3D yep, somehow you did skip the most important part :p

[@aasciutti]

I don't understand how you parented the mesh to the bones. You don't show this. First time you go into Pose Mode the mesh is not parented, but the second time is already parented. What you do to parent the bones to the armature?

[@Markom3D]

bit of an old video, but yeah, I dont know what happened in this one and how it was missed - there is a link in the description on how do to that kzbin.info/www/bejne/oanGgK2Koad8qas&ab_channel=Markom3D

[@郭东-y3z]

could you make more videos about mechanism design？thanks

[@Markom3D]

sure, anything specific?

[@郭东-y3z]

@@Markom3D can you copy and modelling this one,IT has linkage and mechanical components,it's fun,m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/aWO3fH2ZfLephac

[@Mr.McWatson]

Kinda got lost with the empties. They're there for the bone to parent to, and the empties are parented to the mesh?

[@dumpsky]

i never rigged yet in blender, but i think most 'empties' here used for IK can be done with additional bones. needs only 1 'empty' to control up/down pose. no?

[@wendigo2442]

thanks king, learning about rigging and seeing you do all this shit taught me alot

[@Markom3D]

awesome, glad to hear it mate

[@Drew_Vernon]

This stuff is great, but given I'm a n00b, I was wondering if you had or would consider doing a video on rigging, what the principles are, why you do X,Y,Z action, etc. Would be really useful for people like me just getting started. Cheers!

[@Markom3D]

yeah, I could do something like that. I will add it to my list

[@Drew_Vernon]

@@Markom3D Awesome man!

[@codeBlock786]

You have done your best, but my small brain perhaps needs to watch it at least 99 more times. Thanks anyways.

[@krosshj]

very helpful video

[@Markom3D]

Glad it was helpful!

[@cbhmediake]

Awesome video.

[@Markom3D]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@郭东-y3z]

hi,can this software design linkage or mechanism?by your video of course .

[@Markom3D]

From what I understand you are saying, yes

[@郭东-y3z]

@@Markom3D this function is much better than solidworks,i am not mean solidworks is not good,i think they can complement each other.

[@CGRunLough]

So informative nice 👍

[@ВселенскийМетроном]

Very cool! Thanks! It's what i need!

[@p.w.5813]

Is there a way, to make that all one object?

[@Markom3D]

Ctrl+J

[@BoggleLogic]

Ive watched this a few times. and it has been very helpful.Thank you. I am cracking up right now though because I had the closed captions on and it botched your intro pretty bad. lol

[@anonub]

Awesome, looks like it easy but its hard 😢

[@deeplyseated7427]

How many times did you say cursor to selected. I've watched it 3 times to try and understand it. I am trying to rig a automatic door closer and weirdly there are no youtube vids on that. I am trying to translate what is going on here bit I am far to thick to do that. I dont suppose you would do a tut on that, lol. Its such a common machanism I would imagine loads of archivs and that would use it but no luck

[@indrakomara6966]

Thank you..very helpful...

[@Markom3D]

Glad it was helpful!

[@guillaumec3d662]

Thanks so much !!!

[@Markom3D]

Glad it helped!

[@rendered_useless2093]

What I'm confused about is at what point did you actually parent the geometry to the bones? All I saw you do was parent the bones to the empty but never to the actual geometry of the robot, so how do you do that?

[@bestOskarEverxD]

you can flip a bone by pressing alt + f

[@IrreversibleExtents]

I get it. It's such an easy process, but the repetitiveness of it is where the faults come from.

[@hamishotani4479]

Aww thank you! I can't wait to make my own robot! I really learn a lot from your channel：）

[@Markom3D]

Happy to hear that!

[@jeremymccloud2778]

Hello, don't know if I'm doing something wrong, but following the tutorial with Blender 3.2, when I add the Track To Constraint to a bone in Pose Mode, it adds the same constraint to all bones. So in other words, I cannot set different constraints per each bone. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

[@jeremymccloud2778]

So sorry, I just figured it out! I was using Object Constraints instead of Bone Constraints!

[@dynamicreality4243]

Thanks for tutorial :) Is this rig exportable to other programs?

[@satyammishra4753]

i am not able to parent bones as in relation>parent only one name of that bones itself showing , can anybody explain me why this happening

[@hoangthehung2248]

Thank you! 🙏

[@Markom3D]

You're so welcome!

[@Jbink524]

3DS Max launched in 1996, gamers got GMAX around 2000. It's been over 25 years since I rigged my 1st animation. The crazy part, this process has not changed AT ALL since then.

[@Markom3D]

yeah, I dont know how it would change lol

[@Jbink524]

@@Markom3D kzbin.info/www/bejne/o6a1ZJ2cq5WAac0

[@machbauer132]

Hello, I was able to keep track for the most part of the tutorial, but I'm am stuck with two piston halves (MainP1 and FootP1) both geometries do get distorted or just vanish, when I try to move the whole gear. But the bones keep track of each other. But the bones themselves are either rotated or do not point exactly to the other empty. I tried to redo the bones but with no success. Has anyone else encounter that phenomena?

[@ajubhaus8200]

Yeah. When I set my UP option to Z that happens that the two objects that are connected to the two piston parts just rotate weirdly and dislocate. If I set the UP option to Y everything is fine, but they dont track eachother anymore. Really annoying. Have u found a fix? The disappearance of objects also happened to me when i parented the bones to the mesh but as soon as u parent u click on „keep transform in the little pop up options window in the bottom left and then its visible again.

[@chukirango6013]

Hi Markom3D, how to make multiple reflections in different places?

[@basejumperdx4573]

a tutorial series on how to rig an excavator

[@kosdum4749]

Why didn't you just track the bones to each other? Same result, but without the empties.

[@Markom3D]

I was having major issue with that method

[@badabibulatov4179]

Hi Markom3D, I want to make a reflection on the wall and on the floor, on the wall so that the object is reflected and on the floor so that it is slightly visible

[@jamshidayupov1457]

Thanks you for vedio

[@Markom3D]

Most welcome

[@ColinTCS]

I'm confused, you don't parent the objects to the armature, yet your armature affects the various objects, even though the only parent child setups are for the empties. I'm getting nothing

[@ColinTCS]

Actually, I re-watched the video, you were setting up the bones, at that point, nothing was parented, the bones moved, but not the geometry, but when you re-started the video at 06:38. On return, clearly the main setting up of the armature and rigging had been done, but cut from the video, as from then on the geo moved with the armature.

[@Markom3D]

yep

[@ColinTCS]

@@Markom3D So was cutting the actual rigging deliberate? Kinda defeats the title of the video series in that case. 😉 Unless you decided to pull that back for another video to keep the length down of course. 🤓 Just felt like this was the last video. Or is that section only available on patreon?

[@dannybouchard4140]

Have attempted the parenting and my movement isn't the same as this video. Am using parent > bone, clicking on one mesh then shift selecting the appropriate bone and parenting. What am I missing? This is my first attempt at rigging.

[@TimBrennan]

Here's how to assign the objects to the bones (the missing part of the video) --- kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4HLmJZjmLefgMU

[@Markom3D]

some how I screwed up the editing process and missed that bit out which is really annoying - I did a follow up on this aswell here kzbin.info/www/bejne/oanGgK2Koad8qas

[@smilgu]

Thanks a lot! That’s exactly what I needed!

[@smilgu]

@@Markom3D Thank you!

[@rusticagenerica]

Also you don't give any explanation on what you do things (subdivide, rotations...) or about what type of mechanical linkages you are building up.

[@Nikola16789]

Doesn't work. My object doesn't move with armature.

[@Markom3D]

yeah, I missed a step in it some how. You need to parent and assign the mesh to the rig - kzbin.info/www/bejne/oanGgK2Koad8qas

[@Nikola16789]

@@Markom3D Thank you for quick answer. It's a great tutorial.

[@Markom3D]

cheers mate

[@ponemyintmyat6362]

Nice :''D

[@Markom3D]

cheers mate

[@Joschua_Bo]

Funny you forgot the most important thing.... how to set bones and mesh into relation... there's just a cut...or did I just not see it? I mean could be a problem if someone who is new to rigging isn't able to see how its done..... So to all who wanna know....just click your mesh and then Shift click your Armature and press ctrl+p

[@Markom3D]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/oanGgK2Koad8qas - Yep, I am a donkey.... I made a follow up part for that.

[@MuntyScruntFundle]

Great tut, but holy crap this whole workflow needs to be simplified!

[@EVER566]

Well i have no idea why my bone head disconnect from the empty, the arm moves away , but the empty remains hin his site.😁

[@alendelon3637]

That can do anyone

[@chrishodgkins4300]

This does doesn't work for me at all. I have failed miserably

[@anxhelo7383]

now im more confused

[@Markom3D]

what about?

[@anxhelo7383]

@@Markom3D rigging hard surfaces :/

[@scarcify4420]

Hello there :/

[@rusticagenerica]

This video is too complicated fro beginners. Also, please don't say "SHIFT + S" etc . . . We already see it :-). Would have been more processive to build the bones one by one, and make them work, rather than the whole bone structure, and then the action at the end :-) Awesome example otherwise!

[@badsongcovers.mp4738]

Is it though?! Is it really that complicated?