I originally wanted to model the Chainsaw to include a detailed cutting chain, so I made one built up of segments that looked like
this and it would have been awesome to have that
level of detail. But it's just not feasible. We can't always get what we want, eh? The triangle count just for that chain alone was 21,000 triangles. That's a no-no. So after some talking with Matt, Alex and Goosey, and some tests I opted to go for a much nicer solution that is cheap and effective.
Here's a video, and some gifs below.
Instead of a load of segments for the chain, it's one continuous mesh. The teeth are using an alpha on the same UV, which is being offset in one direction, which simulates the animation. This has saved a tonne of triangles which is always good and it also means that Alex doesn't have to create a super complex rig for it. Now that I've got this out of the way I can just focus on the UVing and texturing, which I've already made a start on.