Dragon Rig

Here is a bit of a break down of the rig I've created for the dragon.

 Here are the controllers for the tail. The circular ones run the whole length of the tail and allow each section to be posed individually. Or if you want one big even curve the square controller rotates them all at once using set driven keys.

The wee squares allow for a bit of control over the curve of the spine. Not for anything too major but good for little subtleties.

The body controller. That big box allows you to move the body up and down and tilt it without moving the feet or the head if it’s in IK mode. Good for up and down movement in flight cycles and stuff. 

I put in an IK FX switch for the head. This means that in FK mode the head can be positioned using controllers along the neck, or in IK mode the head will stay more or less where you put it even if the body control is moving, which is good for that sort of bird like movement.

 The feet have an IK rig in them in the lower half, allowing you to place them where you like without too much fuss.

 The hip swivels separately which adds more control there.

There are also two set driven key type extra attributes, one to make a grabbing motion and one that will allow a bit of squash for when the dragon lands from flight.

The wing has rotation controllers at the shoulder, elbow and wrist.

The one at the wrist also allows the wing sections to stretch out or fold over each other, and can give a nice curve along the spines, all of which I set up in the connection editor. 

 The spine bit for the inside section has an aim controller in case things get a bit messy when you’re posing the rest of the wing, and I used a bunch of constraints to set up an extra bone that causes the the inner section to fold neatly and automatically as you pose it. Pretty pleased with that bit, although it doesn’t always work perfectly.

This is the first rigging I’ve ever done. It took me a while and it’s not perfect by any definition of the word, but I actually kind of enjoyed the process...