Creating snazzy Transformer-style animations

Hi gang

Sorry if this is the wrong forum.

I'm trying to build a snazzy Transformer style assembly animation like this: https://imgur.com/OWVt1fC

To be honest, I don't even know where to start. I've searched the Asset Store but haven't found anything. I can think of a manual way to do it, but don't think I'll get the effect this "smooth".

Any thoughts?!

 

You can use vert shaders. You could animate the models in a 3D app using a few different techniques, shape blends, etc. you could script methods to deform/reveal/mask the mesh. If you look closely at the animations you will see they are using several techniques. Likely it isn’t real time, which gives them even more options in compositing.

Basically, there isn’t a single tool or technique to that. It’s not automated. It a clever animator / tech artist using a whole bag of tricks.

I would start by storyboarding / planning what you want to happen. Then start breaking it down. Start with simple stuff like moving / scaling. Then the trickier stuff use shaders or 3D tools in maya/blender/max/whatever. Like anything that is or appears complex, start with the simple stuff and stuff you know and build from there. The

 

Hmm. I was afraid there wasn't a single easy tool to do this. Thanks for breaking it down and the suggestion!