I have a set of wings I downloaded that were only a static prop, and I want to rig them for a Hawk Girl character. I need them to flap and fold.

Any help on how to get started? I need advice on grouping and the rig, ghost bones, you name it.

Thank you!!!!

These are the wings. It's not my model, so I won't be distributing them. I just want to use them for my own purposes. And no, I can't just buy an already rigged model...

Wow... no one???

I think Anton once suggested that the most realistic way to rig wings would be to assign a separate bone to each feather, then use complex ERC to define how the feathers move, relative to one another. This was a long time ago, well before Poser had weight-mapped joints, but it seems like his point still holds. If feathers aren't rigged independently like that, then they will scrunch and stretch to varying degrees as the wing is posed.

Which is a blatherous way of saying, how much realism of bending do you want from these wings? If you can accept a lot of Scrunch 'n' Stretch, your rig could be very simple, and you could treat it like robe arm, say, with a long, flowing sleeve.

You probably don't want a robe-sleeve of a wing, nor do you want to dedicate hours and hours to ERC experiments intended to generate realistic motion of individual feathers. If so, you'll want to consider the best way to group your feathers into clusters that can be moved relative to one another in clumps. Now that we have weight-mapping, you might be able to use artful weighting to approximate realistic feather motion without much (or any?) ERC at all.

I hope all of that wasn't completely unhelpful. It sort of feels like I've just stated the obvious all over the place. "Draw like a pro! A face! First... an oval! Then a few lines, here, here, and... here! Then, add the details! Easy!" But the instructions have omitted any useful breakdown of how to approach that detail work.

Quite possibly none of the rigging experts left in Poserdom are regulars at 'Rosity these days. Have you tried asking the question at the Smith Micro Poser forum?

I don't know if these will help, but here are the bones of 3 pairs of rigged wings I have. None are weight mapped. They are all too old.

This is winter queen wings

This is Angel wings

And this is wings of Angels

Looks like the angel wings are in the freestuff https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/angel-wings-by-erlik-and-virus/54426 if you want to look at them

Thanks for the replies. I did ask this question at the SM forum. I got a few responses, but I guess all the rigging guys are busy.

I'll plug away at it when I finish the project I am working on. The wings I have need to be working before I can finish the main project all of this got started for.