How to bend wings?
 

Sup everybody,

I have created a set of wings and tried to animate them somewhat flapping. I tried to do this using Bind Skin smooth and rigid but they did not animate the way i wanted it to. What would you suggest to make the wings bend and flap? Ive only been on maya for a week now and bought books but i find that the books suck! Thanks for any help.

Hey man
Check this out, it shows you how to rig a wing. Might me more complicating than you want it to be though.

http://www.jackals-forge.com/tutor/tut1.html

I am presently working on a project that will do this, but alas, it will be several months at least, most likely, before I complete it.
I have at present completed a basic framework, definately not yet complete, of the skeleton layout I plan on using.

It will work in the same style and principals as the Walkerman project that I created . . . this picture is the prototype skeleton . . .

that tutorial seems like it over complicates things, but still, good things to learn, though.

I'd suggest looking at the anatomy of a birds wing. People often don't realise how many joints there are. Basically a birds wing is like your arm, except all the fingers are fused together.

http://www.worldbook.com/features/bi...s/skeleton.gif

Couldent you create the bones, joints etc then use an IK spline to control the flapping of the wings?

Looks like I could stand to modify my prototype based on that diagram!