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How would you make a make a marionette on strings?

Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2025 2:30 pm
by drumlug13
Hey Strangers...

I'm working on a project that is going to have a bunch of marionette style rigs. Any ideas on how to make it work like an actual puppet on strings. I usually use a main bone sticking out of the back of my characters to move them around but since this guy is just a head his main bone is sticking out of the back of his head.

I've tried a few different parenting schemes with the bones but nothing is capturing that kind of movement yet. So the wooden things that puppets are tied to is called a crossbar. Is there a way to rig this guy where we can tilt the crossbar back and forth, have the puppet still hanging straight below, but still make it tilt back and forth with the crossbar? Of course it doesn't have to be 100% scientifically accurate, it just needs some dangly movements

I've already lost track of all the parenting orders and bone constraints I've tried so far. Any ideas? Feel free to tinker around with the file

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8xx0wsks ... 9d5a9&dl=0

ImageMoho Shot by Adam Thacker, on Flickr

Re: How would you make a make a marionette on strings?

Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2025 9:27 pm
by SimplSam
So, I experimented with creating a marionette/string puppet.

All the movement in the demo is provided by the yellow 'control' bone.
The main 'root' bone is parented to the 'control' bone, via a 'base' pin bone, which has [Independent angle] set to stop it rotating.
The 'root' bone also has its angle set to follow that of the 'control' bone - via a [Control Bone] constraint.
There are a few other bones dotted around for the 'strings', which are attached/bound via Point Binding.

Image

Project File: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1L3C9g ... p=drive_fs

Re: How would you make a make a marionette on strings?

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2025 6:39 am
by drumlug13
Well that's only about 10 times better than the rig I've got going now :lol: Thanks Sam, very cool