Need Help with Rotating Along a Fixed Angle

Hello everyone :slight_smile:

I’m following a blender course and have an assignment to find (or design my own) and model a wind sculpture. I’ve already found one that I want to make: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHh5w8nvD3M
With all the projects I’ve gotten I have new things to learn and new hurdles to overcome.

Now I haven’t actually started modeling it yet, but I’ve identified a potential problem. I’m still quite new to animation (and blender overall) so go easy on me. :wink: Essentially I’m thinking it’d simplify the animation process greatly if I were able to rotate the individual pieces around a fixed angle, namely the angle of where they’re connected to the previous section. This way, if I’ve rotated the first piece, the others will still rotate as I want them to, even if they’ve been moved.

Is there a constraint or something that can help me accomplish this? I’m guessing there are two steps to this, the first being setting the pivot point to the connection, but then fixing the angle for rotation. Can you guys help me figure out how to do this? :slight_smile:

Heres a test file: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/26713
Its a mesh with some of the parts, and an armature with the same kind of bones.

In Pose Mode, if you select Bone.001…
Then: 3D View > Properties (N) > Transform > Rotation Y
or: Properties Editor > Bone > Rotation Y
Set the Y property to a different value.

You will see how when you rotate Bone.001, it rotates the child bones, I think this is correct.

Ive made a keyframe animation this way, by adding keyframes to the RotY property for Bone.001 and Bone.005, Alt+A to play the animation.

The mesh was parented to the armature with empty groups.
Select mesh in object mode RMB, then select armature in object mode shift+RMB, then press Ctrl+P.

Then the mesh vertices were weighted to the bones, by selecting the vertices in edit mode, then pressing Assign in the Vertex Group panel.
Properties Editor > Object Data > Vertex Groups.