MODO & LightWave Crank Toy Rigs

A few years ago my friend showed me a neat useless wooden crank toy with an interesting rig. I couldn’t shake the thought of working out how to rig this time-wasting contraption and set out to do so. This toy serves no real purpose but is kinda fun to play with… Setting up the rigs served no real purpose but it was a fun challenge and I learned alot along the way. What appeared to be a simple parenting setup at first glance involved a little more thinking to get the rig to all be driven by one item being rotated. You can see the actual toy being used below:

The goal of the rig was to drive the entire setup by simply rotating the handle. I rigged up the wooden toy in both LightWave and Modo and although the results are the same, the setups are a little different. Before you explore the source files, I’d suggest trying to tackle the challenge of setting this up on your own, as this process has been a learning experience that has given me all sorts of ideas for rigging other mechanical contraptions. Big thanks goes out to my friends, Saham Ali and Chris O’Riley, for helping think through some of the issues that came up when working out the solution.

LightWave 3D

Click on the image below to download the source files for the wooden crank toy rigged in LightWave 3D.

Modo

Click on the image below to download the source for the wooden crank toy rigged in Modo.

iLight on the MODO forums suggested an alternate rig that is quite impressive. I learned alot from recreating it and wanted to add it to the collection here. This is a perfect example of using the Matrix Vector Channel Modifier. Click on the image below to download the source for the wooden crank toy alternate rig.

My buddy Chris O’Riley took the challenge and developed an amazingly simple setup that works brilliantly. Click on the image below to download the source for the wooden crank toy alternate rig.

Chris also created another solution I’d like to share. I was able to set it up in a couple minutes and I think you’ll enjoy the simplicity of this rig. Click on the image below to download the source for the what I think is the easiest wooden crank toy rig.

….and…. One last example (I Promise). This one is just like the previous one but uses Position Constraints instead of Vertex Position Constraints. Click on the image below to download the source for the rig.

I hope this gives some insight into mechanical rigging and can help aid you in your next rigging project. Good Luck and Enjoy!