I'm just starting to learn Blender, I'm working on an iOS app involving a digger and I want to create a low poly digger in Blender. Up til now I built the digger in Unity using cubes and empty GO's for the pivots. Now I want to have a proper skinned model. I have a few questions that will hopefully set me on the right path. Apologies if this is covered elsewhere, I did look and found nothing specific to my needs...
I want the meshes to be: (1) the Chassis & Tracks; (2) the rotating base, cab, engine etc; (3) the upper arm; (4) the lower arm; (5) the bucket. I'm animating them in code. Should I make 5 different Blender files and import them as different Transforms? Or should I have 5 different Objects in Blender, parented to each other? Will bones help me, since it's an inorganic object which shouldn't deform? Can I manipulate individual bones in code in Unity, as if it was a child Transform?
Thanks for any advice!