tutorial suggestion (rigging/animating)
 

I have suggested this in the past.

How about a tutorial to rig the mech from Kurts mech and mech texturing tutorials?

I modeled and textured this guy some time ago but the modeling pose kind sucks as it looks as though it is going to topple over. Manually posing the thing is a pain and besides it would be nice to animate it.

I have tried on numerous occasions to rig this thing so I can pose it but it is just too complex for me to figure out. This interaction of the pistons on the legs gets me all wrpaped around the axle and I never get to the point of thinking about to tubes and cables.

I have been directed to other rigging tutorials but they generally show how to parent basic components together and have simple rotation / position relationships and do not come close to covering the tricky elements of rigging this mech - primarily the pistons in the legs, and the flexible tubes and cables.

could you use set driven keys for the pistons?

cables maybe you'd have to use soft skinning and IK

but yeah, it would be nice if someone would show us how they would approach a complex rig with such details...