Loop cut & Slide cutting through I work in cancer research and I want to illustrate a multi-leaf collimator for a conference.

I was using loop cut and slide to create the independent slabs from a block, and they look good. But unfortunately they are not independent, so I can't move them. Watch 5 seconds of this video to get the idea of what a multi-leaf collimator is: https://youtu.be/eZS6DVGBx0k?t=115

Anybody can give some advice? The real challenge is to create them simultaneously so they are all of the same width.
I would just create a few thin squares that you want to animate and copy/paste (shift + D) them side by side. 

Be careful with an array modifier because you wont be able to animate the middle part. I would just use an array modifier for the end parts to fill the screen.


The non moving parts are an array modifier. The animated parts are seperate squares (leafs).