Hey guys. I’ve been searching around and looking for documentation and tutorials but I can’t seem to find a way to do this. I’ve modeled a train that I need to animate. It’s complex and has many different objects. As I’m not sure the modeling is good enough for the client, I wanted to link this blender file to another one where I would animate it and, possibly, make changes later.
The train uses a lot of constraints and a few modifiers that I don’t want to lose when I link to another file. So when I use the link/append window and import the group it imports the train. So far so good. But then I can’t edit it in any way. The only way I found around this was to make a proxy. But when I do this, I lose all the constraints of the wheels and mechanics. And as a final problem, I need to be able to add modifiers (mainly lattices) in the animation file to make some psychadelic effects.
I really hope I made myself clear because you guys are my last hope. The deadlines are coming close and I would really appreciate any help from you guys!
I do not know about constraints and other stuff, but have you tried BOTH appending and linking? What I can see here is that with appending you can edit objects but with linking you can’t.
Someone else maybe able to help better on this though.
Yes, I have already read that documentation but didn’t help me much…I tried both options. By appending it I just make a “copy” of the original file. Everything works fine but the copy is now independent and ignores what happens in the original file. When I link it, it is not editable nor movable. It only works if I make a proxy of every single object, but that way everything loses its constraints and modifiers.
I already made a mistake in the past when I simply appended everything and had real hard times with it because I needed to change the original file. I had to basically remake every animation… I was hoping I could now avoid that issue from the beginning…
Unfortunately, linking in the context of animation is with the assumption that you’re using an Armature to control your animation… so if you make a proxy of the armature, all of your constraints between bones are maintained.
So basically, it can be done, but you’ll need to rig your train.
oh, I see… I was kinda already fearing that… I would be cool with that as long as I could apply new modifiers to the meshes in the new file, and it seems impossible. Well the time is ticking and i’ll probably just link the files, make proxies and rework the constraints all over again. But, in the meantime, if anyone finds out for a good solution please post it here, I really appreciate for the help.
Thanks guys for the input!
