I figured out how to do it! All you have to do is:
Append the Armature object (NOT the Armature block, that will come automatically) and your character’s mesh.
Move them off to the side somewhere
Now link into the scene those same files you just appended. Right now you should have an appended copy and a linked copy of every object you want.
Select the identical objects with the blue Linked copy selected last (i.e. select your character’s Appended mesh and then your character’s Linked mesh) and press CTRL-L and select link to mesh (or armature, lamp, etc).
Delete the blue linked copies.
Pat yourself on the back.
You can now transform (pose, move, rotate, etc) your newly linked objects! Whenever you load back the file, the linked objects will be updated with your newest changes! This makes it much easier to share work across multiple blend files.
Also, since you have different data for the armatures and meshes, you can do things like link to different armature rigs based on what your scenes require, all while linking to the same mesh.
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I read here in the manual that linking objects between .blend files is possible, and indeed it is, but it seems that linked objects can’t be moved, let alone posed.
I would like to have my characters in one blend file and link them dynamically to other .blend files (so any changes I make to the character’s model/armature automatically show up in all the files). Is this possible somehow?
Also, how is file management for animation generally handled? Is it normal to have one blend file for the whole animation, or seperate ones for seperate scenes?
I am having the same problem… linked object are even draw in a different color !!!
Yes, the animation data is been imported becasue I can playback the animation defined on the original file, but as is happening to dao, I can’t modify the animation, nor pose the character.
On the other hand, if the character is imported (not linked) then everything else goes fine… but the “multile animator on a single project” idea is lost then because the others animators can’t see the changes I just made.
Let’s say the original file is Alpha.blend. Animators a, b and c are working from Alpha so they link to it. Each 1) duplicates the scene(to a new layer or maybe even a new scene) and adds their new work, or 2) appends object and object data (like IPO’s, texture etc ) then continues the work. When they are done the new work is appended back into Alpha.blend (eg, IPO’s) as the new IPO data (delete original) or added in the sequence editor.
Fligh %, I don’t think we’re on the same page on this.
Let’s say the original file is Alpha.blend. Animators a, b and c are working from Alpha so they link to it. Each 1) duplicates the scene(to a new layer or maybe even a new scene) and adds their new work, or 2) appends object and object data (like IPO’s, texture etc ) then continues the work. When they are done the new work is appended back into Alpha.blend (eg, IPO’s) as the new IPO data (delete original) or added in the sequence editor.
The example that you give works, but is using the Link feature just to add to a large file, as in the animators use the link feature only temporarily because they just append their changes back into the main file anyway. The animators are still just working on one big .blend file.
Let’s say a group of people is working on a full movie in blender. There would have to be different .blend files for the different parts of the movie, as one .blend couldn’t possibly hold the hundreds of shots.
What I’m suggesting is there would be a single .blend file containing the characters, and the animators would just link those characters into the scene/blend file they’re working on. That way, if the characters were to change any (updated mesh, armature tweaks, etc), all the .blend files and scenes the animators were working on would update automatically since characters are all linked to that one blend file.
Is this sort of thing possible in blender?
Linked objects as described in the 2.0 manual can’t be moved, posed, or even copied. Can linked objects become transformable (moved, rotated, posed, etc)? Maybe it’s another well hidden hotkey?
I understand what you mean and I can’t give you more than what I said. If the real gurus don’t chip in your best bet is to ask one of the NaN originals as I suspect that this function was only added to fascilitate their workflow while it was still in-house. B@rt or Wyvren or Ton himself.
