A strandbeest I made in Blender, animated entirely with Inverse Kinematics. All motion is derived from a single rotating empty, which, through relationships, turns the IK engine which turns the pulleys which turn the cranks for the leg linkages. The flashes for engine ignition are a volume shader on an object that takes up the volume between the top of each engine piston and the top of it's respective engine cylinder. This object grows logaritmically brighter the shorter it is, to visualise engine ignition.
Final
Playblast
Test of IK engine, with procedural ignition flashes that trigger based on the cylinder stroke positions