I think he means have a single attribute that scales from 0 (clock mode) to 1 (fully unwrapped) for example...
I would think it would be possible, if you boiled it all down to a series of expressions. There might be a simpler way.

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-stwert

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if that's the case then yes, yes you can stuff the entire transformation into one attribute

what i did for a proof of concept was i made a custom attribute on a control curve that would do the transform for the left arm.
i used set driven keys to key the parent constraints.
i made two parent constraints on each piece, one on a bone and one on a piece of geometry.

since the bones for the arms and legs would be tied to IK this seemed like the best way to do it.. although i think the IK handle has weighting on it so i guess setting that to 0 would be another way, but i prefered to keep the distance between joints as they were so i wouldn't accidentally make limbs longer than they should be

i did make seperate attributes on the control curve for the limbs and eventually the body, but theoretically you could just use one attribute for the enitre thing.
i think it might be better to keep them seperated out to little blocks like that though. that way you can have more flexibility on how you transform your machine.

dunno if that makes sense....

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that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

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was just thinking that if you put the transformation on one custom attribute(difficult as it may be i have never done it before) eventually if you decide to animate him further it would be easier in the longrun

been a while since i've updated since i was doing some stuff in premiere and after effects...

so heres 9 pictures...

it's not rigged yet, i've just been temporarily parenting stuff to other geometry to see if it still fits...

so far i've screwed up somewhere along the lines and i'm fairly certain it will no longer fit the old shell...
lucky for me an alarm clock isn't exactly very complex, so growing the shell shouldn't be too big of an issue... although i do wonder where all the extra size came from...


if it weren't for the lack of ankles and deciding whether the wires are better than those panels i think it's almost ready to attach the bits that will attach the armour


close up of the feet.
needs ankles... saying the feet are magnetic wont exactly work this time since the body above the feet is so much bigger than the feet.... unlike my eye character...


how the feet will fold up before sliding up into the shin


shin will slide into the thigh which will slide up onto the joint. so far everything will fit nicely.
the aim was to make the leg fold up whilst making it possible for whatever holds the 'shin guard' still at the level of the knee so the 'shin guard' can fold up into the shell of the clock


the hand took a while to figure out... it's better than my first robot hand...
no idea how it would move if it were real though... the root of each finger is like a ball joint... dont know how such things move in 'real life'..


palm of the hand


left arm's little guns retract into the forarm and a barrel will pop out revealing a more 'powerful' fire arm


deciding whether or not to use the wires or the panels that will pop out from the 'spine' and fold out.
the wires will need to be placed in a different position to cover up the 'spine'


the chest is lacking the required holes but the arm can still slide in when retracted enough which is what it should be doing...

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that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
Objective C, C#, Java, MEL. Python, C++, XML, JavaScript, XSLT, HTML, SQL, CSS, FXScript, Clips, SOAR, ActionScript, OpenGL, DirectX
Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D