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Very basic question here, I am afraid.

I have hundreds of shattered pieces of a mesh and I am trying to animate their visibility over the scene.

How can I animate the visibility and render visibility parameter for one piece, then copy/transfer to all the others?

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Your objects are already in a group right? If yes, the answers of this: blender.stackexchange.com/questions/7335/… are maybe helpful. Also related: blender.stackexchange.com/questions/16132/… $\endgroup$
    – p2or
    Commented Sep 11, 2015 at 13:31
  • $\begingroup$ I was hoping for a very "handy" solution like a "copy animation" or something similar. Can't figure out why it's not possible to simply copy and paste one f-curve from one obj to others $\endgroup$
    – SottoZen
    Commented Sep 11, 2015 at 14:02
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    $\begingroup$ Ahh, ok. Try to create a sample object, animate it, select all desired objects (last one should be the sample object) and press Ctrl + L > Animation Data. I can not test it at the moment, but it could work :) $\endgroup$
    – p2or
    Commented Sep 11, 2015 at 17:29
  • $\begingroup$ Poor 23: Perfect! It works! thank you so much!! $\endgroup$
    – SottoZen
    Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 17:23

2 Answers 2

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Link the Animation Data of the active object to the other selected objects via Make Links menu:

enter image description here

  1. Create an Empty (or every other type of object) and animate it (according to the scene)
  2. Select all desired objects and finally the Empty to make it the active object
  3. Press Ctrl+L and select Animation Data

enter image description here Object visibility animation

Note: Since all those objects now share a single Action datablock you can update the animation on any one of the objects and the change will be shared by all the other objects. If in the future you need to be able to edit the animation of one without affecting all the others, you can use the N-panel pop-out of the NLA editor, or use the Dope Sheet's Action Editor mode and click the Make Single User button (this will make a copy of the action so it is not shared with the others).

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Great and simple way to solve it. Thanks so much again $\endgroup$
    – SottoZen
    Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 21:30
  • $\begingroup$ The reason this works is that after you perform the Make Links operation all those objects share a single Action datablock. I would not say that it is "driven by one Empty" because you can remove that Empty and the action still exists and is shared. Changes to that action will be shared by all the objects. The fact that they are shared is not entirely obvious because the [n] button to make a single-user copy is only illustrated in some less-used UI elements such as the N-panel pop-out of the NLA editor, and in the footer of the Dope Sheet's Action Editor mode. $\endgroup$
    – Mutant Bob
    Commented Nov 13, 2015 at 15:18
  • $\begingroup$ Is there a chance to limit the link to just visibilty animation data? I have multiple properties animated but just want to link the visibility. $\endgroup$
    – wassx
    Commented May 4, 2020 at 18:44
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Consider. A driver. In the image below a parent object visibility drives another.

enter image description here

The purple render icon indicates a driver is active

enter image description here

This menu show how one can copy and paste a driver. Earlier you would see create driver.

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for this also very usefull information. But i think that the solution from Poor23 is the simplest one. Use CTRL + L -> Animation data (sorry for my basic English) $\endgroup$
    – SottoZen
    Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 17:24

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