Robotech / Macross

New to SL, Building, and Scripting, so pardon if I ask about common knowledge.

The first thing I thought when I saw SL was to build transforming vehicles like those found in Robotech / Macross.

A plane that turns into a robot, a motorcycle that turns into body armor, etc.

Is this possible thru animations? or are they only for AVs, not vehicles.

Is this possible any other way?

Thanks!

L

I have seen Veritec's that are connected to your avitar. I have yet to see cyclones. But I think that might be better handeled as a Object insted of connecting directly to your avatar, not that there would be much animation. but it could posibly be done that way as well but I think Being able to step away from a cyclone would be better.

I am fairly new to everything as well, but would be intersted in working on a project.
Message me some time and we can talk in person.
Later

the veritechs you saw, could they actually transform?

THey do, all three modes. Armord makes them, and they be fab-u-lous!

See also Kage Seraph's works.

Marcos Fonzarelli (and a collaborator whose name I've unfortunately forgotten) have produced a series of Veritech fighters which transform. Before that, Chain Plisskin created a Veritech fighter av which did not transform. Both of these avs are human-scale, as making a larger version is considerably more difficult to pull off well. There either needs to be a lot of "slop" in the design of the mecha's joints or you need to reduce the articulation of the parts. Otherwise, the arms and legs will appear to be ripping apart when moved, as they rotate around the av's own joints which are considerably offset from the actual joints of the mecha itself. Making each of the limbs physical objects which move and rotate according to a controlling program is one way to overcome this problem, but the movement tends to be rather jumpy as the individual limbs move at slightly different rates depending on the lag their scripts are experiencing. Jeffrey Gomez produced a proof of concept script system in which a .bvh animation is translated into movement and rotation of objects in SL. It's an interesting system, and it's got some great potential for overcoming the size limitations inherent in attached humanoid mecha avs.

As far as non-Macross morphing mecha avs go, Kage has his Archaeopteryx (as Seagel mentioned) while CaptnPower Codesmith makes his own morphing mecha/armor av.

Ok, so for human sized stuff you just make it your avatar and run a certain animation to transform it.

What about if you dont want it to be your av but a vehicle instead, like the cyclone (motorcycle/body armor)? could you transform something like that (objects) by giving it an animation or some other way?

Sorry, I'm not very familiar yet with the capabilities of the scripting language, so I'm trying to find out exactly what to look for before looking.

Where do you get a mentor for this type stuff? I see where you sign up to BE a mentor but not the other way around.

Thanks for all the info n links,
L

Mentors are helpers for newbies. I would susjest finding what you like or something close and then iming the creator about the posiblity of helping yet. Be willing to pay for there time.
As for as animationg a vechile there is a way to do it, I haven't played with it but there was information in scripting about doing animations on objects. but the script dose not work for attachments so it is a bit harder, maybe someone will know how to deal with that .