I am trying to animate the drawback/shooting animation of a bow I modeled in the style of minecraft. My only problem is I have no idea how to do this.
(The below image was taken in edit mode)
I want the bow to bend and the string to go back. I considered using a lattice or an armature, but I’m not really sure how I would use either of these to accomplish my goal. Any suggestions you have would be appreciated.
I suggest rigging it with an armature, probably getting the track to or stretch to constraint involved with a bone that would be the target at the center of the string. Read up on basic rigging first, but feel free to ask questions. I don’t think you need a lattice exactly, but maybe it could help. I think this would respond well to a simple rig though.
This should work:
Use a spline IK for the bow.
Use a stretch to constraint with 2 bones for the string.
Use a hook to control the stretch to constraint at the position where the arrow sits on the string.
Use a translate contraint on the hook to narrow the control points for the bow IK. horizontal hook movement to vertical bowtip movement, ideally with a driver as the movement isn´t 1:1
Use a copy location constraint on hook and arrow.
Set the copy location constraint to influence 1.
If you pull back the hook now, the string points to the arrowshaft, the arrow moves back with the hook, the bow bends.
Set keyframe for influence and position of hook.
Move hook forward to the point where the arrow flies.
Insert keyframe for copy location still at 1. and loc keyframe for hook.
One frame later, set influence to 0, insert keyframe and move arrow. Insert location key.
Now move the arrow and key its location. Additionally you could let the bowstring afterswing a bit.
Thanks for your help! I’ll give it a try! 
