I have a few objects that I have animated in a map. I want to duplicate all the objects and move and rotate them along with the animations to a different part of the map? Is this possible?
I know I can duplicate the objects and duplicate the animation sequence but the duplicated sequence will be referencing the original objects at the original position. Not sure if there is a way to actually move and rotate an entire animation sequence and then assign to new objects?
If this isn’t possible any suggestions on a workaround?
It is possible but it takes a bit of setting up the Sequencer. By default the Sequencer is storing the world transform of the objects, meaning it won’t take into account that you’ve moved things to a new location. The Sequencer needs to be configured to work additively instead, storing just the transforms relative to whatever location the actor has.
You can change the actors assigned to a Sequencer by right clicking the main track, and assigning your other actors to it instead.
If you add an Additive track (click the Section button on the track) to a Transform track (delete the existing non additive Transform track while you are at it), and then enter just the difference in value it will just add to the current location and rotation of where the object is located.
In my case I changed Z 0 to Z 600, meaning any mesh I run this Sequencer on goes from current position to 600 units above current position, wherever in the world it is located.
The first key I have has 0 0 0 for XYZ location.
I am experimenting a little myself - here is a second option for you:
If you take the original Sequencer you made, with the existing animations in it, you can also keep all of that as is but just add an offset on top to match the new location.
In this example I added an Additive track that lives alongside the original Transform track, and then in this additive track add the offset value and I gave it just one key at time 0.
Can you explain how you added the additive track in this example? I’m not sure what I’m selecting to add that track. Is it something from this list?
Thanks!
edit: oh wait did you add the +section Additive directly to the object? So I would just do that for each object? Is there a way to add a transform that would apply to more than one object? or a folder of objects? Testing now…
edit2: I guess my concern is that I have 5 objects that I want to move and rotate as a group to keep the relative positions between them the same. If I move and rotate them individually their relative positions between each other won’t be the same anymore. ie: I want to rotate the entire animation spline and not the individual objects in local space. Location movements won’t be much of an issue but the rotations would be. (I think)
Whenever there is a big + button on the track that is where I clicked to get the Additive track.
It makes most sense when having Transform tracks, and I think there is no way of making it apply to all Transform tracks that you got. I think you have to do it per Transform track.
In your picture I assume that the Actor To Sequencer track might have a Transform track under it. And it is the Shot Track and Subsequences Tracks that will be complicated here because they contain sub-sequences where you would then need to do the same thing again too…
For your 5 objects question what you could consider is making 4 of the objects attached to the 5th one, and then you only animate or offset that 5th one. The 5th one becomes the pivot point of them all basically.
I understand what you are saying. I really appreciate the testing on this. I will try out some of those options. My objects don’t have overly complicated animations but I did want them to be consistent around the map. I’ll continue to test these out but I’ll mark this as solved.
Be able to use a Sequence inside of another Sequence and be able to apply transforms to that child Sequence. This would open the door for some great animation possibilities as well as make duplicating and reusing Sequences throughout maps very easy.
