#puppetchamber

Train

ball and socket joint

Long bone+segments

A. Bone, B+C 2 segments, D short bone [These are connected by a pulley system so B+C curve]

4. geared hinge joint

5. Long bone+segments

E. short bone attached to umbilical, F+G 2 segments, H bone. [These are connected by a pulley system so F+G curve]

6. geared hinge joint

7. bone

8. hinge joint

9. Bone

10. hinge joint

11. bone

12. Attachment to puppet

13. Puppet

Notes:

As far as I can tell, the arm can only rotate at the base. This is excellent and will make rigging it WAY easier.

The rest of the rig(minus puppet) can easily be several sets of IK rig.

The segmented bones need to have have their rotations locked to each other and I can make a fake chain between the segments to mimic the look.

The segmented bone with the umbilical cord needs to have some kind of loop that the cable just threads into. I am NOT making them the same object, the modifier stacking would drive me bonkers.

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I will have to make the arm as straight as possible when modeling so that will be uh fun will probably model everything first then assemble the arm from pieces.

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So each individual cable needs to be a separate object.

there need to be parented empties(blender term for single point non-existent objects) to each cord end/plug

so aligning the cable heads is easier if say I want to animate them being plugged in or unplugged(off the string people unite)

so in terms of objects:

4 red,

2 blue

1 umbilical head.

1 umbilical middle segment chain array.

1 umbilical base

1 arm

1 puppet

(however many objects the clothes end up being. at least 2)

puppet chamber (1 outside greebles, 1 removable wall, 1 regular walls, 1 track)