I created a kind of test model and rigged and animated it and now that I’ve created my actual model, I’d like to be able to import the armature and animations from my test model to apply to my final model. Is this possible or do I have to reanimate everything again?
I’d do that the other way around. Import your new finished mesh to your test mesh and rig file, and then skin the new mesh to the armature. Make a copy of the original file after you import and save as a different version. If both meshes are similar, use your test mesh to transfer the weights to the finished mesh to save some weight painting time.
Good luck!
Hello.
I do not know much about it because I’m just learning some about animation, but if you mean to copy exactly the objects, rig, materials and keyframes from one project to another (not linking, no proxy), you could try with the following easy and intuitive way:
You open Blender with the “source” project (you do not close Blender). You open a new instance of Blender with the “target” project. In the “source” project in object mode you select the objects to import, including the bones. Once they selected, pose the mouse pointer over the 3D view and press the “Ctrl C” keys (I hope you do not have activated “Copy Attributes Menu” addon). You go to the Blender instance with the “target” project, pose the mouse pointer over the 3D view and press “Ctrl V”. The objects will be copied into the same layers where they were in the source project, so you enable those layers to view it.
If you only want to import the armature and it animation, you select and copy only the armature in object mode.
Surely all this can be done from the “Append” menu, but I do not know how exactly and what elements are to be selected.