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This one is hard to explain. I have worked hard to produce the animation you see below.

My plan was to have the missile launcher animated and packed in the box where finally I could just grab the box and add it to the moving ship.

All works fine when the object stays in its original place but if I move it, some objects (which I used child of constraint modifiers on) stay in their original position ruining the animation. This I know why since I applied the visual data.

Please check this 25 s video to have a clear picture. enter link description here

I used child of constraint on objects which had to detach from the main object so that I could keyframe the detachment.
I could not find any other way to do so with parenting.
However, I failed, when the object is moved or moving, since I intended for this to be a missile launcher on board a moving ship.

Is there any way I could produce this animation - Maybe with, parenting, baking, or another form of constraint? If anyone knows of a good tutorial I would be very grateful.

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  • $\begingroup$ it should work with a simple parent hierarchy, you could also create bones, maybe share your file so that we can test? $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Jun 11, 2022 at 7:40
  • $\begingroup$ Parent hierarchy did not work because I could not keyframe when I wanted the missiles to leave the launchers or the loaders to leave the missile launcher. $\endgroup$
    – ronin074
    Jun 11, 2022 at 8:52
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    $\begingroup$ maybe check for the Dynamic Parent addon $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Jun 11, 2022 at 8:58
  • $\begingroup$ I had already hear of it. I will give it a try even if it probably means that I will have to restart from scratch. $\endgroup$
    – ronin074
    Jun 11, 2022 at 10:29
  • $\begingroup$ Can't say why you're having problems without the file. As with moonboots, I'd use simple parenting. To "turn off" the parenting, I'd use copy transforms constraints on the missiles, targeting empties. $\endgroup$
    – Nathan
    Jun 11, 2022 at 16:01

2 Answers 2

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TL;DNR:

  • The child should have an armature with a root bone

  • Apply the constraint to that bone

  • The order of operations is important when you turn off the Child-Of constraint:

    1. One frame before the change set the influence to 1 and keyframe it. Keyframe the transformations of the bone.
    2. Move forward one frame.
    3. Apply the visual transform to the child armature in pose mode.
    4. Keyframe the location, rotation, and scale of the child armature root bone
    5. Change the influence to 0 and keyframe it.

Child of Constraints Shot Example is a very short tutorial on how to do this, and I recommend it as a starting point.

Example file

Here is a crude blend file applying that tutorial to your problem:

From looking at your video, I suspect that your problem is when you applied the visual transforms in comparison to when you changed the Child-Of constraint's influence.

In the example, a cube represents your box, a cylinder your launcher, and a cone your rocket. The example is a shot blocking:

  • The box moves to a new position
  • The launcher pops up
  • The rocket is unparented from the rocket
  • The rocket moves up and to the left
  • The launcher pops down.

The rocket has its own armature, but the box and launcher are sharing an armature. You can give the launcher its own armature and use the same technique to separate it from the box.

How it works

The rocket's armature is given a Child-Of constraint to the Launcher Bone of the main armature. At frame 10, the influence of that constraint is set to 1 and keyframed. The transformations are also keyframed.

At frame 11, the rocket is ready to launch. This is the frame where the constraint should change, so:

  • Use the Menu to apply visual transforms
  • Keyframe the changed location and rotation. (The rocket will suddenly jump to a new location.)
  • Change the influence to 0. (The rocket will return to its position)
  • Keyframe the influence.
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After a day of work where I cancelled all previous parenting and child of constraints of all the detaching objects I finally managed to do it by using Dynamic parents addon and without rigging. Now all the detaching objects are contained in the missile launcher container. The container can be moved where ever I want, even animated, and all stay in the missile contained. enter image description here The dynamic parents addon is at the tope right. Note small missiles in the loader. enter image description here Note I moved the main container of the missile launcher and the different big missile loader. I also tested it by animating the main container from point A to B and all the firing and reloading animation followed smoothly.

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