[NoStr0m0]

Like Johhny said, Hi and welcome!

The best way to animate a rigid model is still under discussion. The bottom line is it's a matter of preference.

One way is to cut your model up and paste different parts in different layers, then adjust the Pivot point of each layer so it coincides with the pivot point (or joint ) of that part of the robot. After all the cutting is done, all you have to do is create a hierarchy in Modeler by opening the Layer stats and double clicking each layer to asign a parent. It's a good idea to also asign an easily recognizable name at this point.

If your model has a lot of parts and you don't want to waste your time with lots and lots of layers you can create a skeleton for your robot. Yeah, I know... sound fleshy but it works very nicely for complex robots.


All you have to do is create a skelegon skeleton for your robot, placing the skelegons so that one skelegon can control one moving part of the robot. It's the same as bone-ing fleshy-s. The part that separates the process comes next.
Now select all the polygons or points (the process is the same ) that form a rigid part of your robot (like forearm, jaw, femur, finger falangs ) that are going to be controlled by a skelegon and hit Create weight map and under value give it 100% and a suggestive name.

Now asign a weight map to each (or almost each) skelegon and you're ready to anymate, no deformations, no hundreads of layers, just pure and simple bones.

Cheers!