Now with the same one method we'll parent the model geometries to the skeleton.
To parent geometries to the bones we simply drag geometries under the respective nodes of bones, as shown in figure above...
As an example, we select the foot (the geometry of the foot) therefore we select the corresponding foot's ik joint and we press the key P, or, in the Hypergraph, we select the node containing all the foot geometry,... therefore, with MMB we drag it over the foot's ik joint's node...
Now, the procedure to parent geometries and ik joints is quite simple. Every piece of geometry, in fact, has to be parented to the corresponding ik joint. You can select the geometries and the joints manually or using the procedure in the hypergraph we showed before.
It's very easy to check if the operation's been done correctly: just move the ik chain. If the geometry follows the chain correctly, the work is fine. Sometimes may happen that a piece of model moves according to the wrong joint. This is just because that piece is attached to the wrong ik joint. Just go back to the Hypergraph view and move the piece by MMB dragging it from one ik node to the other.
the scheme below represents how the parenting job should be done in our case.
In fact, instead of binding the geometry to the ik chain, we'll simply parent the geometries to the chain so the model won't deform when moving. This simple task will speed up animation and playback a lot because Maya won't have to calculate deformations but just translations. As we believe our model is made of metal, smooth deformations wouldn't look great.








If everything has been done correctly so far your model and you hypergraph should look like the pictures below and above.




Now we create a bone that we'll need to control the control cabin...
It very important the new bone has to be drawn from back to front of the cockpit, like is shown in the picture below.




Now we select the two legs groups, the central bone... And we press P button. Automatically parent the legs to the new ik joint creating 2 new bones that connect the 2 leg ik roots to the new ik bone root..



It is time now to create a control for the guns...
We select the two guns, then the sphere, and parent them all by pressing P once again.
We can rename the group we've just create with the name Gun
We will create a locator that it will serve like target: the light will always point to the locator: We create therefore a locator and move it in the space to case... where you want... possibly not in front of the gun.






We select the locator first, then the gun group and choose from the menu Constraints > Aim, paying attention in the option box to select the correct aiming axis. In our case:
AIM vector (axis that must always follow the target ) = Axis Y
UP vector (axis that defines the direction towards the top of the object ) = the opposite of the Axis Z (therefore - Z)



We try to move the target and see if the gun follows it correctly.
If not, just try different settings in the aim constraint's option box.