Molecule rig setup

Support Animation and Rigging
1

Hey there just wondering what the best way would be to set this setup?

setup.jpg800×250 61 KB

where it needs to behave like this animation…

where Arrow # 1 needs to stay straight, all other arrowed balls also remain straight but pivot and rotate at the end of their arrows. And all individual balls should be jiggling slightly (never thought I’d say that in a sentence lol).

Should I have a bone for each arrow and each relative ball assigned to that bone, but each individual ball has a random jiggling motion?

Thanks in advance.

2

I see a bone for each fixed section, and children bones for each atom in each section. Then it depends how you want to control them - you could create a splineIK, or leave them FK, both would work fine I guess. The jiggling can be achieved with a noise f-curve modifier.