I know it’s lame to post a “do my work for me” thread, but I’m really in need of some experienced rigger to help me out with this. I’m posting the .blend file and a screen cap, would love some input on the best way to rig this.
I feel it’s fairly evident where the joints are at. All input is appreciated.
file location…
http://www.hupcapstudios.com/projects/3d/arm.blend
-J
seperate into parts, make sure the pivots line up correctly control with an IK chain and make a action strip for the muzzle also a part, (Select verts press P to seperate.)
ever the opportunist, eh, kkrawal? fyi, hupcap, kkrawal is hoping that you will pay him money. all you really need, though, to rig it, is a browse through the online manual.
@everyone, thank you for the input. I suppose I can elaborate a little bit.
I’ve done what Sudai recommended and separated the parts into pieces and added armature. The problem I’m having is I’m getting weird distortions on my meshes, rather than the pieces just swinging around the pivot points…
My process is.
when all is connected I start getting these deformations…
(my rig)
(weird deform at joint)
(deform at base)
Am I going in the right direction with the bones? Should I be more careful with their set up?
Again, all input is appreciated.
-J
don’t use heat, just make groups but don’t do any assigning when parenting. Then, after you parent, go to edit mode & select the verticities/edges/faces & assign them manually to the groups. IF you have one vertex connected to another then you will get stretching if the move seperetly. I’d highly suggest keeping it one mesh but disconnecting the pieces.
I’ll happily rig it up for you later tonight. I’d even love to use this, I may have a use for something like this (but I’d rig even if you said no)
Ehh… I did it while eating dinner. 
I did a simple setup. The bone @ the end (far end, Bone.006) is used for the IK. The next one in (Bone.005) is used to move the “piston” thing in/out (looks like it should).
Only change I made to the model was I joined those two pieces & the bottom that were acting funny.
This what you wanted?
arm.blend (404 KB)
@The Happy Friar: TOTALLY AWESOME. I thank you greatly. Please, feel free to use it however you wish.
You’re welcome. 
@kkrawl,
I consider it very rude to take my request for help with open source as an opportunity to ask me for money. I hope your karma reflects your selfish act.
@hupcapstudios: Thanks for the screen grabs of your process. I have not done a lot of rigging, I may have to try this one out.
Formulating a question is way different to “DO THIS FOR ME”…that’s why probably KWRAL ask you for money…IF you don’t like the offer just said not interested… RIGHT? The DURIAN DVD’s is for sale right? Blender is FREE…but still developers eat food that is not free right? Do you DONATE to them? If you do…then where did you get the money from? Obviously someone has paid you for something RIGHT? May be Blender projects??? IT is the fact of this life…
There are many people that really want to learn…others no much interested…only they want someone to do the Job for them so they can sell it…RIGHT? Keep your eyes open !
I am proud of KWARAL…he knows how to spot opportunistic and Lazies on the Spot ! GOOD JOB !
Next Time if you want someone doing “DO THIS JOB FOR ME”…at least said: I would make a $XXX donation to the Blender Foundation…RIGHT? MONEY is not something to be ashamed of…everyone needs it or you died…even Blender Developers…even yourself…and everyone here.
According to what I have read Blender Community and Developers work hard to make Blender be adopted by big studios…one of the reason of Blender 2.5 Changes in interface…so …do you think those studios will do movies for free because Blender is FREE? Don’t lie to yourself…
