Blender: how to move an "animation"

[Lagaffe]

Hello,

The problem is quite simple: In a model HN433 I have created some parts, animated and textured them. I would like to copy theses "parts and animations" into another model HN700 which has exactly the same "parts and animations" but at an another location: the dimensions of the first model are different from the second.
The problem is then I move the "animation axis + animated parts" to the correct position in the HN700 after that, during the animation of the part, the axis and the part come back to their initial position (the position taken by theses parts in th HN433).

Do you know a tip/trick to solve this problem or should I copy only the parts and remake the animations from zero ?

 

[ronh]

I googles this once, a I believe you can create an empty (blender I assume) and parent these parts to the empty - then you can move the empty and the animations will stay correct.

How can I shift or move an entire animation to a different location?

There is likely a very simple solution to this, but searching through the forum yields nothing. I've create an animation with a very simple object (no rigging or bones). The location in 3D space w...

blender.stackexchange.com

 

[Lagaffe]

Hi,
It is a good Idea, I will try this solution and come back .

 

[Lagaffe]

Ok, I tried the manipulation given by Ron but it raises a concern in that I have several pieces that are parented and don't want to break the whole hierarchy ! It is all the component of a front gear.
Looking around a bit more, I found a solution that uses RON's trick but allows to keep the hierarchies.

It is a plug-in that should be basic with Blender 2.83.16 and is called "Add Mesh: Extra Objects".
By taking care to select ALL the tree structure (which also contains 2 animations) that I want to move, we type :
- Add (Main menu of the Viewport)
- Mesh - Parent to Empty (a new empty)

The whole tree is kept in its hierarchy as well as the 2 animations and all theses "things" are attached to a new Empty (plain axes) which is designated by a name (capitales) displayed in the Viewport.

The size of this empty can be reviewed and its name not displayed by selecting this empty then via windows Objects Properties - Visibility - Show in Viewport
In this way the tree structure can be moved as a separate entity and animations are conserved at the new location !!!

This is almost equivalent to the notion of "Group" in GMax and 3DS Max.

Thanks Ron, I put me on the right way !

 

[thetford569]

This is good to know. I actually had to use the "empty" trick today on an animated rotating airport beacon that I just finished making. I had to use an empty because my rotations had gotten messed up making the model and it would not rotate along the Z axis like I wanted. I created an empty in the right place and used it as a parent to get my beacon to rotate correctly. I was wondering about how to move the beacon to another tower or stand in the future and it looks like your technique may be useful. Thanks for posting your solution!