Lately i’ve gotten into using armatures for props, and using as many constraints etc to make the props 100% animator friendly, as the rigs can only be translated or rotated as they would in real world scenarios. I’ve been rigging everthing from a smoking cigerette, that scales down and glows as its 'smoked ’ by the character, plant machinery including forktrucks, cranes, cars, scooters and finally a star wars prop fully rigged with inverse kinematic legs, and rigged weapons on either side, underneath plus rigged hatches. heres a couple of screenshots. I’ve been using blender approx 8 months…
I forgot to say that it would be cool if people had any cool ideas for props that could be rigged, or if you have a model you would like some suggestions on rigging it, i would be glad to share the (very limited!!!) knowledge and expierience i have using bones., or your thoughts on submitted pics.