Hi everybody. I am getting ready to create a scene for someone. The scene will contain a lot of different elements, so I’m thinking about making each one in it’s own file, and then linking them all together into one scene. I had a few questions about this.
In the end, i will be sending these files to the person. I’m wondering if the links will show up broken? I will maintain the file and folder structure, sending them everything that I have in all the same folders. but when they open it on their computer, is there a chance the links won’t be there if, say my hard drive is labeled C: and theirs is labeled H: ?And if so, is there an easy way to re-establish the links?
Also, I was reading that if you link an object into a scene, in order to move it around you have to make it a proxy. From what I understand, this is an empty object that links to the link object. Will this present any problems as I transfer the files and folders?
Regarding the different file systems between the different computers. You should be fine so long as you’ve been linking the files using “relative paths” (which is default). This way, the linking file looks for the linked files relative to its current placement in the file hierarchy, and not according to an absolute filepath.
You can check to see which you used if you go into your outliner and look at “libraries” in the dropdown menu. If the files listed say "//filename.blend’’ and not ‘‘C:/Programs/…/Blahblah/filename.blend’’ you should be fine.
Regarding proxies:
Linking in objects takes a bit of care. If for example you want to link in a character here’s what you should do:
In the character’s source file, place all of the character’s relevant ‘objects’ into a ‘group’. In other words, group the armatures, and any mesh that makes up the character. In your linking file, when you link the character in, link to the group that you created. This will cause everything that was included in that group to appear. When you do, you will notice that you can’t pose (or even select) the character’s armature; all you can do to it is position the group as a whole. The reason is this: blender can only edit data that is local (information that is stored in the currently opened blend file). If you’re linking to another .blend file, you can’t edit that information through the linking file. Instead Blender would need to open the source file directly and edit the information there.
So how do you animate a linked character? Well, that’s why there’s proxies. If you select your group, hit ctrl-alt-p, and select the name of the armature, blender will create a local copy (proxy) of that armature. This proxy armature is local (stored in the linking file), and can be posed. Any constraints or animation you make on this armature will only exist within the linking file and will not appear in the source file.
So as long as your friend receives the linking file with all of the source files, and the file paths are all relative, everything should be fine.