Not in trouble yet, just a bit uncertain.

I have this moth model for which I have made and placed joints for the major/upper wings, but moths have 4 wings, two top or major wings, and two lower or minor wings - dunno what the real names for these wings are, but you get the idea.

As you can see from the image above, I have placed joints where they seem to me, to logically need to be. (I could be quite wrong, but there we are)

I'd like to know three things:

1. am I totally wrong about the joint placement?
2. do I need to link the first joint in the lower wing to the first joint in the upper wing on that same side, and
3. if I do, how do I so link it?

Unlike birds, bats, and other non-insect flying animals, insects (including moths) don't have jointed wings.  The only joint is at the body.  So, you only need one bone for each wing.

Not sure what you mean by 'link'.  Bones are always hierachical.  Think of the human figures bones you've seen (the hand bone is connected to the forearm bone which is connected to the upper arm bone to the shoulder).  These are layed out:

UpperArm
-- ForeArm
---- Hand

Now, legs are connected like this:

Hip
-- Left Thigh
---- Left Shin
------ Left Foot
-- Right Thigh
---- Right Shin
------- Right Foot

This creates a bifurcation (split) in the hierarchy so you get that upside down Y.  This is how your left and right wings should look:

Head
-- (Antennae)
Thorax
-- Left Front Wing
-- Left Rear Wing
-- Right Front Wing
-- Right Rear Wing
-- (Legs)
Abdomen

Noggins' Poser Butterfly only has RWing and LWing bones.

Forgot to add: DAMN YOU! ;)  Moths - ack!  Right now we're in the middle of Miller Moth Migration Mania.  These things are big moths that get sidetracked into houses and are a big annoyance, stink, and leave an oily residue on things.  It is worse now since it is a new moon (so there is no moon for them to follow).  Had about 40 or 50 in the living room last night.  Tonight, I engage in bloody battle (a light with a soapy water bowl under it so they can go for a swim and 'soak' up the light). :D

ROFL!

Oops, sorry about that.

'Miller' Moth Migration Mania???

Got a camera?

You could see if you could get good shots of the upper wing surfaces, both major and minor wings, the body, the head, and feelers/legs/antennae... 

Okay I'm not wildy fond of fluttering things in the air, but I am quite jealous of your opportunity.

This Miller Moth, does it have interesting or beautiful wings? Body colour?  Knowing the luck of such things I'll bet that they are an uninteresting brown.  Probably with faint and or blotchy markings...

Thanks for the hierarchical list on Moth rigging.

Just had a thought.
What about the antennae?  If you wanted to move the antennae, you'd need to rig those two, so they'd need to be linked to the head just like the thorax is, so how would you link the antennae?

I took an iPhone pic of the gathering in one of the bedrooms but it is not very clear.  Problem is that they only come out at night.  Turning on the light tends to start a flurry.  During the day they hide (probably from birds to an extent) in crevices which is how they usually get accidentally directed into houses (hiding in window cracks, door jams, and any other place that may lead indoors).

No, they're ugly brown all over.  They rarely sit about with their wings unfolded - mainly when dead. :)  They have a bifold so the wings drape back over the body (camouflage mechanism so they're not seen on trees I suspect).

Antennae are just like wings, arms, legs.

Head
-- LAntenna
---- LASeg1
------ LASeg2
...
-- RAntenna

And any segmentations hierarchically below as exemplified.

a) is this okay?
b) now this isn't a leg as in 3dKiwi's tutorial, so do I still need IK?
c) if I do, which joints should be selected to add IK Chain to?
(after that I can copy the arrangement to produce the Right Wing's Joints.)

Oh and I only had 2 joints in the antenna - is that enough do you think?

How come it's the brown dull moths that congregate around humanity - while the pretty ones party elsewhere?

IK is only good on chains of two or more bones, for instance:

Thigh (anchor - end of chain that isn't affected by it)
-- Shin (link - one or more links between anchor and goal)
---- Foot (goal - this is the bone that the links follow)

Well I put one joint at the wing's terminus - i.e. where it joins the body, and one at the tip of the wing, so it goes:
Head --- Wing Base ---- Wing Tip.
 and ditto for the antennae because of the angle of the antennae.

I haven't done any for the feet yet as I hoped to copy the left side, wings and antennae - over to the right.... I guess I should do the left feet anyway? and then copy?

I also need controllers don't I?

Midnight, a man knocks on the door of an eminent psychiatrist.

"Hello" he says "I have a problem, I think I'm a moth"

"I'm open during the day you know" snaps the psychiatrist.

"Yes I know, but I was just passing and I saw that your light was on...................."

Got some leg distortion...

P. S. Like the joke, I may be able to use that....

How are you weighting the mesh to the bones?  Unfortunately, there are half a  dozen ways to accomplish this:

• Function
• PointSelection tags
• PolygonSelection tags
• VertexMap tags
• Claude Bonet
• Weight tag (Skin and Joints)

VertexMap or Claude Bonet are the best options for weighting bone rigs.  But it is an art to smooth the weights between bones to get good rotation deformations.

Another thing to watch out for is Scaling in bones.  Unlike Poser which uses a rotation system that avoids transformation skewing, Cinema 4D bone rotations will skew the mesh if scales are non-uniform.

Er... I have no idea what you just said.

I know from the tutorial that weighting is reduceable by painting it away - and it's sort of blue, but apart from that - I ain't got a clue.

I could just be that I need to move other joints in that leg as well as the knee... or foot - it's pretty confusing.

It looks like it's the knee that's being moved but you move it by moving the foot... baffling stuff.

When it comes to rigging, weighting the mesh is more important than the bones themselves.  The bones/joints simply set up common points of rotation (bends) for the sections of the mesh to be 'bent' (where does the bending occur in space).  Bending an organic mesh isn't all or nothing.  It is about gradience between the bending parts to to avoid breakage or harshness (what is bent and how much).

Now, for insect wings, this isn't much of an issue.  This is more like eyes - a distinct section of the mesh is completely bent by the bone without influencing any other part of the mesh.  Each wing should be 100% weighted for the wing bone involved with 0% weighting elsewhere.  Insect legs are also segmented joints so they should be just about the same - 100% weighting on each segment with respect to its controlling bone.

My suggestion for the wings and legs is to set up aptly-named PolygonSelection tags for each 'segment', add a Restriction tag to each of the bones involved, and add the PolygonSelection tag name to the Restriction tag of the bone which influences that section of the mesh.

• To create PolygonSelection tags, go into Polygon mode, Select the polygons, and then Set Selection to create a new tag with the selection.  Be sure to deselect the new tag otherwise further selections will be ADDED to that tag and not create a new tag.