The bows were pretty straightforward, it simply needed to move freely where it was designed to move and he restrained in movements where it would collide with itself.

The only special touch that has been added was to have the bow conform to the strings and it's pressure on it. When the bow was animated, it was then possible to put some resistance in the wooden parts of it.

The piano hammers were most likely the easiest part to rig and animate, for there is only one way to make them work.

I was tempted to automate them, but in the end simply animating them by hand came to be more cost effective in this timed production.

This was the tricky one!

I came in the project later when some of the modeling had been made. Unfortunately for me, the modeler had not kept an earlier version of it to make the rig conform to the shape of the bed, so I had to improvise!

I've made a universal "key rig", where you would basically duplicate it , then align (snap) 3 control points on the square ends of the keys or pedals. That would automatically be position the bone and controler in the right angle, ready to skin and sych to the melody!

This music box was driven entirely by expressions to get the final speed to sync with our soundtrack. Once I had a good timing on the metal carrillon, I simply duplicated that bone and timed it to the song with minor adjustments.

The xylophone needed to be automated and the proper notes played in the right order. It also required a visual feedback of the notes being pressed and the balls being squished. Added a visual feedback on the tie in front of the camera where it would react to the keys being pressed.