Originally posted by ctbram
Okay I need some hand holding to solve this one.
I cannot for the life of me figure how to set of an SDK soloution for this problem.
If I try using aim constraints the cylinders and piston fly apart as soon as I try to parent them to a bone or joint.
If I try to use an SDK then there is a problem when I try to move the pistons relative to the cyclinder while they are bound to bones.
I don't know how to rig this.
I'm not sure I quite get where you were noticing the problems. At the point that the cylinder and piston fly apart, have you attached the model to the bones?
If so, have you painted weights onto the mesh? I can't say I've done much with mayas rigging system yet, nor anything like what you are doing but I do know from experience that such issues can be caused by either a faulty rigg, or improper weights/influences.
When you set up the rig with the model skinned to the bones, you almost definately have pieces on the leg, most specifically the piston which are influenced by the movement of the "knee" and the joint which would be protruding from infront of the piston. When you try to move those, any influence they have on the piston could cause some nasty issues.
I'm probably butchering this explanation, if you want to chat on msn or want to pick apart what i've tried to explain, please let me know!