how do i go about rigging this object?

i just want a bunch of grouped empties and empties to simulate this piston rig that is connected by hard(?) bones and move like this


this is basically the movements i want by moving the orange piston, pulling the dark blue conector and making the purple part rotate around the end point, pushing the light blue piece to rotate the green piece together with the orange piston.


ive tried using constraints but they dont seem to be able to affect objects two constraints down the line, and all the tutorials i found are about unrelated rigging stuff.

any input as to what to try and use would be great

Do it with one or more IK chain(s), it is basically a parallelogram setup, and quite easy to do. post the blend file and I will show you how! unless of course there is a reason why you don’t want to use an armature…

Cheers, Clock.

I fact I can do it from your image… :yes:


Blend file: IK-chains.blend (696 KB)

Just press Play to see the animation, then you can look at the setup. Just move the “operate” bone to operate it, I have limited its location so it only slides.

Cheers, Clock. :eyebrowlift:

awesome! this really helped a lot!