anatomy home

Mechanical home

Quadrupedal home

wing extension

So to get things kicked off, lets examine the wing in full extension - ie

avian home

I am 99.9% certain when God created the bird wing, he never intended for it to be recreated using 3d software.

I have been through literally reams of pictures, books, footage, X-ray's, textbooks in the hope of shedding some light on this illusive subject. At the moment I really believe I could write a book on modelling and rigging a bird wing. More to the point how not to and if you read my book you too would be enlightened on the errors of my ways. 

Don't for an instant believe at this point I have cracked it - I just feel now is a good time to divulge the fruits of my labour. So I will approach it's documentation in the same way I have approached the problem; by splitting it into chunks. 

Mr Arnie

Mr.Arnold, Lab Cat 

On the odd occasions, during my journey home I have previously chanced upon a bit of avian road kill lying in state. While the bird’s fate is unfortunate I find it important to ensure it did not die in vain. I have often toyed with the idea of picking it up and taking it home, but always bottled it at the last minute as it is a bit gross.


Following a protracted Rat incident involving Mr. Arnie the other Sunday my faithful Lab Cat returned home after one of his evening expeditions with a poignant piece of anatomy hanging out of his gob. By retrieving the wing of a pigeon he had inadvertently answered my prayers. I quickly rescued the remaining carcass from his jaws, thanked him profusely (I must point out it wasn't Arnie who made the kill, the carcass was a good couple of days into decomposition), donned my latex gloves (very important) and set about the bird biopsy.

At this point my research had left me a little short of understanding. I had ample photo's and video's but they can only tell you so much; you can observe these creatures in the wild but they move so quick and travel so much distance you have to be David Attenborough with a high speed camera to capture any meaningful footage - that I am not!

So I still had a few blanks to fill and after 15mins playing with the wings mechanisms, I had learnt far more about the folding process than all my previous endeavours.

For ease of reference, I think it would be best to break my findings down into separate posts. I will try and relate my images to illustrate the incorrect assumptions I have previousley made.

Parent add shape

Really useful technique for adding ctrl curves to a null Group.

1. Create your null Grp position, freeze trnsfrms etc, etc.
2. Create your Ctrl Curve and move it into position.
3. Select the curve shape (important to select the shape node by pressing down arrow key)
4. Select Null Grp
5. Type following code:
         parent -s -r

Done! Selet the curve, move it about, it now controls the null group. Select the curve in the hypergraph, delete it - the curve in the viewport is still there, it's connected to the group.