I’m completely new to animation, with the exception of spinning wheels, and things of the sort.
How does one use ‘bones’, ‘armatures’, etc… to only allow an object to rotate on an axis, not move? Also, how do you animate a connecting rod ‘pushing’ one of these levers upon its pivot, rotating it?
I’ve attached an image of the brake rigging, please suggest where to place these bones.
Ron
That’s a complex setup for a first rigging project!
However, I can help - the first thing you can do whilst I get a basic schematic ready for you is to play around with IK constraints. Just do a simple “lever-pulling-on-another-link” type arrangement to start with and get your head around how to set the constraint and the IK properties of the bone - look in the bone’s object panel under Inverse Kinematics (make sure you are not changing the Armature’s IK properties).
A bone will rotate about any or all of it’s X Y and Z axes and will remain stationary, either in the global system or relative to it’s parent unless you change that by moving the bone or it’s parent or the armatures parent, instead of rotating the bone. So there is a bit of homework for you whilst I set up a schematic for you, which may take a couple of days with my current available time this weekend.
Cheers, Clock.
PS. Can I assume you know how to use an picture as a reference image in Blender?
Thanks for helping me out. Unfortunately, I’d attached an incorrect drawing. Here’s a better one.
Ron
Thanks for the new drawing, I’ll get on it Monday.
Cheers, Clock.
Right Sir!
Here is my first stab at it - you will need to check “Auto-run Python Scripts” in “User Preferences” > “File Tab” or the scripted driver expressions will not work and it will not run.
First, a picture, I like pictures:
After that, just press Play or ALT-A and then you can see it working. Then you can work out how it’s done and do the other side yourself. 
To run it by hand - just move the “Empty-control” object along the X axis (it is constrained anyway!).
Here’s the blend file:
brakes.blend (636 KB)
Have fun!
Cheers, Clock.
PS. I will of course answer any questions you might have… :yes:
PPS. Couldn’t you find anything difficult for your first rig? TeeHee
Thank you so very much! It’s very well-done, and I have absolutely no complaints whatsoever!
Thanks, Ronan
You’re welcome - you may have to tweak some of the driver values once you get the other side built to balance the mechanism, just ley me know if you need more help.
Cheers, Clock.
