Is there any way to offset the animation for hundreds of object instances?
I’m creating an animation of a manufacturing process and need to show a sand mold being filled and the molten metal cooling for many, identical objects. Right now I’m looking at having separate animations of the mold filling and using the dope sheet to offset the animations one at a time. On top of this, I’m going to need to create a separate material for each one so I can blend between my molten metal and cooled metal shaders at different times for each molded part.
Animation Nodes is the way to go - I have just written two new nodes to control materials during animations, combined with my sequencing nodes will provide all you need to change your materials, so the casts cool at the required times. Talk to me if you are interested.