How do I bring multiple rigged objects into one scene?

[michaelws]

Not sure this is the right section of the forum to post this thread but i could not find any other one that dealt with this topic.

I have rigged and textured a single dolphin object. Now I would like to have multiple dolphins in one scene. I intend to vary the texture maps on the dolphin, giving each a unique name and possible also changing the scale of the different dolphins.

I am not creating an animation. I am an oil painter and have created the model of the dolphin(s) so that I can arrange it/them into a single composition and adjust the poses and positions of the individual dolphins until I find a scene or shot that I would like to paint.

I could not find any tutorials on bringing multiple rigged object into a single scene tho I am assuming it is a very basic procedure. I tried appending a file but that seemed cumbersome to select all the parts of that file I wanted to bring in. Maybe I am supposed to group my dolphin with ti’s rigging or something so that it is s single object that includes the constraint shapes and rig.

Anyhow, is there a tutorial around somewhere that does this? I checked under compositing, but this seemed more of a technical term having to do more with rendering than with laying out a scene with multiple objects.

As you can see by what I have written that I am floundering here at this point.

Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks.

[michaelws]

Here is one shot. I just duplicated the main dolphin and scaled it down. but this is sort of what I am trying to do. Now to add different poses for each and slightly different texture maps. and lighting…so much to learn. But I can still paint from something like this. I just need to learn to organize my objects and poses and such.

Attachments

[michaelws]

I always end up with 2 pictures. I use the manage attachments but I still get two when I only put one in. That is also something I cannot figure out. Sorry to clutter the forum.