If we are getting to this a bit more in depth later in the course just say the word and I'll wait until I get there, but you mention saving the action in case it is no longer connected to the object.
Can we make objects share the animation through an action?
Recently I have had a project in which I had one animation that was to be copied to a batch of objects and I parented them to an empty to get it done. I'm wondering if copying an action would have been the smarter way to do it? 🤔
Short answer is yes you can reuse animations by sharing actions. For armature animations the bones need to have the same name and orientation. AKA use a copy of the same rig. Actions can also be mixed and sequenced in the NLE(Non Linear Editor).
When animating objects directly it is common to use an empty or Delta Transforms as kind of a Root(Starting location). For example a chair falling over action can be applied to the chair. Then the chair parented to an empty so that the point of reference of the animation will be the empties local axis instead of the world/global axis. Also some people will animate an empty instead of the object so that they can use the empty as the pivot point. When you animate an object it's pivot point is the objects origin. Rather then fine tuning this they will just use an empty. For more advance things like multiple pivot points I'd recommend creating an armature rig vs a bunch of empties(AKA object based rig).
Hi Nathi,
Actions were covered in the fundamentals of animation. There's even an exercise to help deepen your understanding of how Blender stores its animation data, and how you can reuse that if needed.
https://cgcookie.mavenseed.com/exercises/master-your-animation-data
I do think, however, that your solution to parent to an empty is a good one.
If you want the same animation you can use the same action. If you want them to be offset in location, rot, scale. (empty is good option)
If you need it to be offset in time, either a new copy of that data or using the NLA will be your best bet.
Hope that helps.