Group objects and animation

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Is it possible to group objects in order to make an animation, and when the job is finished, ungroup all mesh and keep the transformation of each individual mesh before export?

Actually, I just apply a rotation on a group of meshes but when I ungroup them, all the transformations are lost!

I  use 3ds Max 2021.

[CAMedeck · Accepted solution]

Do not animate groups.  The animation keys do not get applied to the contents of that group, but to the group object itself.  When you ungroup those objects, those keys are gone.  If you want to animate a collection of objects all the same, you can bind them to a Helper object like a Dummy or Point (my preferred option).  Then animate that Helper object and everything will follow it, but still be independently animatable.

If you want to 'break' the link at some point in the animation, look up the Link Constraint animation controller.  It allows you to link a child object to a parent object over a specific range of frames.  

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your answer!

Well, I will find a way I can bind a collection of objects to a dummy with google!

Have a nice day!

[Anonymous]

Well, I don't know, when I select my group of objects and click bind, nothing happens when I select the dummy object. i tried with a single object and the dummy and nothing happens too...I'll try again but it seems more complicated than I thought.

[CAMedeck]

The proper way to use the Bind tool is to select your child objects, then click and drag to your parent object.  You should see dashed line appear from each object to your cursor as you drag.  

[Anonymous]

Thank you,

I tried and it doesn't work at all...

I tried so many things to bind, and nothing works.

But I solved this problem by adding a bone to the scene and linked it to my objects.

It seems to work, and as soon as the bone is not visible, it does the job...