Seeking Rigging Approach Advice

[programmer]

Hi everyone,

I'm really new to modeling but have been enjoying learning how to use Max. I've tried several approaches to setting up an animated rig for a rigid turret, but it's got some more interesting features such as two arms that can completely control the firing angle of the weapon on a raised platform. The attached image only models one half of it. I want to prove the animation system out on it first.

But I don't know how to create pivot points that only rotate on a single axis while the entire rig is driven by IK. I'm able to setup an IK set of bones, but they seem too organic for something like this.

Basically the gray base is rigid and won't animate. The red arm will pivot on the y axis where it's connected to the gray base. And the blue arm will pivot on the y axis where connected to the red arm. The red and blue arms would always remain perfectly rigid.

When I move the eventual weapon attached on the blue arm, I want both arms to move in an IK fashion -- like using the HI solver on organic legs.

Alright, well thanks in advance!

[programmer]

Well I figured out a different solution. I just created custom pivot points at the appropriate places, but when I animate it, I have to set the proper rotation for each piece. Animations are a lot easier to do, but I was trying to do a cool IK way of rigging it, I guess.