How to "animate" springs

Hi,
we are in the process of commision a 3D artist to create a Harris Bipod for our sniper rifles in our game. The Harris Bipod has a spring on each leg. The length of the spring changes when in folded or unfolded.

Can the 3D artist create bones inside the spring that we can move to animate the spring?

 

I'm really no 3d artist but yes, that can be done I guess bones as you said together with some clever use of weights.

 

Hi @AndersMalmgren, you want animation on this model or you don't have anything for this moment?

 

Hey, no I will need to commission this work soon. Well soon is maybe a overstatement but pretty soon
But I need to know how to solve this part before I commission

 

I cannot spend much time on this so I may do only rig and animation, model must be already finished.

 

So you can take any model and rig it?

 

In theory - yes, but it takes time, ATM I cannot take any complex stuff because I working bit different now (without pc) so I have 1-3 hours per day.
Example with hands:

Rig made in blender, animations also.

 

Good to know, I will contact you when we have a model

 

Oki, I prefer .blend files, but that's belongs which program used to make model.