oh, how cute.

This kind of creature usually moves by contracting and expanding along the length of their body. Perhaps you could approximate it by giving it a half-dozen bones like links on a chain, and then contracting them like "V"'s turned upside down, and expanding again. Sort of like the way you pull yourself across the floor with your feet when sitting in an office chair with wheels : you straighten out your legs, dig in your heels and "V" your legs to pull the chair towards your feet. Then you stretch your legs forward and repeat.

joints will be a nightmare...

I think it depends on how you want him to walk... I would suggest a waist and pair of 'legs' in every segment and connect the 'knees' of each to the knee in front of it and connect the waists by a back bone... that way each part would waddle along after the other, like a centipede... I'm at work, or I would create an example skeleton... I hope this helps! RockhurstPike

I had already tried it out kinda like Thip said. I had a Root Bone in the middle and parented bones going down the torso to the tail and a second bone chain from the root up to the Head. A single file set of Vs with the bottom pointing down in the middle of each bulge and the tops connected at the tops. I set constraints so that the bones at the top of the Vs could only pivot in the horizontal plane and the bottom of the Vs only move like an elbow. RockhurstPike If I do as you suggest what can be done to keep all the legs in step? Could I make all the legs point at some other object. Kinda like you make the eyes or head follow an object or point at the camera. I'm glad the body only has 6 segments.

He'll need more segments if he is going to sit up and smoke a hookah (smoking in bed is very bad, even for caterpillars). The last couple of segments could just follow along like the tail of a dog. Just because humans walk from their midsection doesn't mean that multi-leggers do. I wouldn't put the root bone in the middle, but near the head. Spiders and such are synchronized, but not like oarsmen. If it is more than 8 legs, the leg motion flows much like a wave. Carolly

You could also drop the boning idea - these critters HAVE no bones - and use morphing instead. Creating a contract-and-expand morph should be feasible.

Ah, but this is a caterpillar, not a worm. Different movement. An exoskeleton over the legs isn't quite like bones, but the stiffness is similar. Carolly

thanks for the suggestions. I did have a lot of problems with the root in the middle. I believe I'm going to have to make a couple of versions and try them out. I'll post what I find.