Download Project Files

This Blender tutorial will take you through rigging and animating a bow. This is an older tutorial but the rig is still compatible with Blender 3+. The project file download contains the start file and completed file for Blender 3+ as well.

We’ll rig the bow so that it bends back automatically when you pull back just one bone. We’ll do this by using IK constraints and a super awesome Limit Distance constraint. Thanks to Lee Salvemini for helping me get past some obstacles finding the most accurate and efficient way to rig this. Here’s what you’ll learn:

  1. Adding bones to deform a mesh
  2. Using Inverse Kinematics (IK) to control bone movement
  3. Limit Distance Constraint
  4. Limit Location Constraint
  5. Track To Constraint
  6. Animating the Bow drawing back and firing

And as always, if you have any questions about the tutorial you can email me.