Why does my Follow Path Object Get Separated when Parent Moves?

Question

I have a simple setup where I want the cube to orbit around a circle curve using a Follow Path constraint. I have both of those objects parented to an empty, so I can move the setup around while keeping the dynamic Follow Path relationship intact.

But as soon as I move the empty both objects separate, and not in any way that makes sense to me.

PROJECT FILE

Some important facts:

• All origins set to geometry
• All locations set to 0,0,0
• Proportional Editing is turned off
• "Affect Only" Transform boxes are all unchecked

What am I missing here?

Answer 1

just unparent the box, then it works as you want.

The reason for this is: The parenting will be done before follow path (or: Blender calculates the parenting before the modifiers - maybe you can think of it like brackets in mathematics: the inside of brackets will be calculated first). So by moving the empty (which is the parent of the box) the box will be moved away from its origin point which should be the same as the follow path curve so that it moves exactly on the curve. And as you know, if the origins aren't the same, the follow path constraint acts weird (although if you look closely, it just follows the path by an offset). The solution is very easy: unparent the box because it will follow the movement of the empty anyway, because the path follows the empty by parenting and the box follows the path via follow path constraint.