Hello, I’m trying to rig rotating parts for my 3D character. However, I have no idea how to rig the 2 separate parts on top so they can only rotate on horizontal axis in their original positions and not detach.
Help is very much appreciated, thanks!
Hello, I’m trying to rig rotating parts for my 3D character. However, I have no idea how to rig the 2 separate parts on top so they can only rotate on horizontal axis in their original positions and not detach.
Hi. I am not an expert but I faced this similar issue just yesterday and heres the solution:
Number 1, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X80M0q0gxIE
Here is my example:
I needed an infinite rotation on 1 axis. What to do? I cannot use quaternion for that, but if you need to rotate only 1 axis, you can use an euler rotation which is perfect for that. Quaternion instead can be useful for controllers.
Result. I can now have infinite rotation that follows #frame driver.
To lock rotation on some axes, you can check the tickboxes here.
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If you don’t want bones to ever detach their heads from their parents’ tails, give them the “connected” property, in properties/bone/relations.
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Thanks a lot! Those tickboxes actually helped with the rotation problem and the spinning works just fine now!
However the solution did not help to keep the parts in their original places. There seems to still be some slight movement when rotating, might have something to do with the bones
Yes, the bones are connected from the properties!
Ok I understand your issue.
Basically when you have mechanical parts, you have to identify where is the pivot point. Here example with a simple sphere.
Once you find the pivot point, you spawn the cursor on it. Here in this example is simple because I can just select a vertex.
About your situation: You have sort of a rotating gatling gun, you can enter edit mode on the mesh, select all the vertices on top that form those circles and spawn the cursor there.
In the bone edit mode, you will select the head of the bone and do “selection to cursor”. So you will have the head of the bone in he right spot.
As for the tail, you will do the same process, but you will select the base of the gatling gun…
It is a matter of aligning the bones. Once the bones are aligned correctly you will have a rotation that works
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Yup, that solved the problem! Thanks a lot!!
Everything works so smooth now, thank you so much for your help and time! 
Hope you a good day
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