1

I got two different objects, I want them to move seperately between first 40 seconds(frames), then want to merge them into one. However, if I would use CTRL+P after selecting the two, they also started to move together in the previous frames. I want two objects to be joint only after some point and want them to be seperate before that particular moment.

Thank you for your help!

utkude
  • 11
  • 2

2 Answers2

3

There are a couple of techniques that could be used:

  1. make a new Empty object E that is a child of object A that represents the position of object B after B and A lock together. Give B a Copy Transforms constraint from Empty E, but keyframe its influence so it is 0 before they lock together and 1 after they lock together.

    Keyframe A and B independently for the beginning, and after they lock together, you only have to keyframe A because B will copy its transform from empty E which moves with A because E is a child of A

  2. Make 3 objects: A, B, and C. C is a combination of a copy of A and a copy of B. A and B are animated and renderable (the camera icon of the outliner) for the first part of the animation, but C is not renderable. Then at the point where they combine A and B are keyframed to stop being renderable, and C is keyframed to become renderable, and then C is keyframed to move through the second part of the animation.

    To create C you will need to make copies of A and B (shift-d duplicates, not linked duplicates) and then combine those copies without altering the original A and B.

Community
  • 1
Mutant Bob
  • 9,243
  • 2
  • 29
  • 55
2

Use a ChildOf constraint, you can animate the influence value so that it only follows the second object when you want it to.

On the frame the two objects come together keyframe the influence to 1.0 while the previous frame is keyframed at 0.0, then the next frame they will move together. You can also go the opposite way to stop the object following the other.

To keyframe the influence, place the mouse over the value and press I, or right click RMB the influence and choose Insert Keyframe.

childof with animated influence

The easy was to keyframe the location of the "child" when it is to be released is by using the Visual keying sets as described here.

sambler
  • 55,387
  • 3
  • 59
  • 192