Ok, so this is going to be close to impossible for me to explain considering I have no background in rigging but, I'm going to go ahead and give it a try.

I originally created a spline that controls the shape of a geometry. What I want to do now is to set up a rig that will control the spline.

So here's what I have so far… and to simplify things I'm going to use a simple vertical spline with 12 segments. I used the “Bones From Curvature” button on the “Character” tab created 7 bones leading down the spline. That's all I have so far.

What I want now is 4 control points to where I can control the curvature of the set of bones bones. I want the bones to create something like a tail or snake effect to where it's flexible. IN the end I want this to be the backbone of my tornado. Savy?

So where can I go from here? If nobody knows, can someone point me out to a simple tutorial or rigging video? Thanks in advance.

I'm not THE expert in rigging, but I know a thing or two… Right now, all this doesn't sound too bad actually, do you have a scene file so people can have a look?

Well, just to keep it simple:

!. Create a curve
2. Resample with 12 segments
3. On the character tab click on “ Bones from curve” and create 12 bones

That's all I have so far. I know that in Maya you can create clusters and in 3ds max, if I'm not mistaken, they're called knots. So what I want to do is to have it were I can make it snake like. That way when I move the bone segments the spline moves along with it to.

I'm sorry if I'm not explaining well but I'm hoping that one can atleast help me out a bit so that I can further my explanation.

p.s. attached is a screenshot of something similar to what I need. I got this screenshot from the internet. I want the bones to do exactly that.

There are probably other (better) solutions, but here's a simple one…

You could create a transform sop for every point on your curve,.Then create a null obj(in obj context, not sop)on top of each point. On each null, clean their transform(so their positions reset to 0,0,0) and than copy their translate parameters in relative reference to it's corresponding transform sop. voilà! You can now control each point with a null object.

you could have different variance on the same theme, your tranform sop could control multiple point on your curve or they could be soft transform.

Other solution could be to use bones to deform your curve. It would work well I guess.

Did you set the Kinematics to “Follow Curve” when you created the bones from the curve? Normally, if you move the points on the curve, the bones would automatically follow the direction of the curve. If not, here's what you can do:

1) From the Character shelf, click on the Bones tool.

2) Above the viewport, you will see an option for your Kinematics setting, with a pull-down menu beside it. Choose “Follow Curve” from the pull-down menu.

3) Right-click anywhere in the viewport and from the pop-up menu, choose “Add Kinematics…”

4) Click on the first bone in your chain and hit Enter.

5) Click on the last bone in your chain and hit Enter.

6) Click on the curve you created to make the bones, and hit Enter.

By this point, if you move the points on the curve, the bones should deform to the curve. I hope this helps.

The one thing you are missing that would sort this out is the Path tool at Object level.
Rather than creating a curve, create a Path, which will generate a curve and the control points for you.
Then create the bones with “follow curve”.

If you use the path tool the follow curve IK will use the twist to good use. You can rotate the handles past 360 and you just get more twisting with no flipping.

after looking more info on this matter i decided to up load a small example.