How would you go about rigging the needle of a gauge (Like those you'd find in a car or larger machinery)? I've been kind of confused as to how to handle something like that.
That's more modeling the thing. I meant actually rigging it. Because I have no idea how do do the thing being mentioned in the topic. Plus the topic of the needle itself isn't brought up
Mr. williamson has a link at the top to the tutorial on using transformation constraints.
"Or you might be able to do it with the transformation constraint: http://cgcookie.com/blender/lessons/3-final-rigging-transformation-constraint/9"
In this lesson he builds a rotating needle that rotates based on the translation of a control object.
Object Constraints: Transformation. This lesson builds one.
You just have to change the shape. Create a needle- move the origin to the end you want the needle to rotate on. Create the object you want to use to control the rotation. Link the needle to the control object with a "transformation object constraint" as he does in the video. Translate-source-location into destination-rotation. Set the axis rotation min and max in degrees.
Looks like the link above has changed. It would just bring you back here anyway.
If you share the gauge on sketchfab and describe just what you want the rig to do I will rig it for you and then you can dissect it.
Will this do? https://sketchfab.com/models/419231bc7fbe4f5e8c7e1146386fbf36
It's impossible to tell with the render, but it's something akin to a car's speedometer with three white bars signifying the two ends and the middle point. I want the need to move freely between the two ends without clipping through either the gauge face mesh or the plate just below the needle.
