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In a scene I linked two groups (object and rig) and appended an action, now I'm experimenting what would be the best workflow to animate more characters in a scene.

I would like to have a set of reusable actions (preferably shared among the characters) which can be combined in the NLA-editor for different clips.

In this scene the two characters are supposed to stand opposite, the character on right was moved from the position of the yellow empty and changed the orientation because both use the same action.

Is there a way to mirror an action or add offsets for location and rotation, so that the characters will keep their orientation?

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Does your action contain some keys for the "root" bone ? If so, try to remove them, allowing you to animate the root separately (and if needed, create one action per character's root) $\endgroup$
    – Polosson
    Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 15:29
  • $\begingroup$ @Polosson Thanks, that is a good idea, I will check that later. $\endgroup$
    – stacker
    Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 15:31
  • $\begingroup$ I hope I didn't misunderstand you, but it seems no problem for armatures, since bones are parented to their root, so you only need to control the orientation of the root bone for each character. Such problem only happen on transform action for non-rigging objects. I just wonder what you mean by "keep their orientation"? or, should they keep the same or opposite? $\endgroup$
    – Leon Cheung
    Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 15:37
  • $\begingroup$ @Polosson You were right could you please post your comment as an answer? I keyframed the root bone to lower the pelvis. $\endgroup$
    – stacker
    Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 21:23
  • $\begingroup$ @LeonCheung Thanks, but Polossons hint answered the question. $\endgroup$
    – stacker
    Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 21:24

1 Answer 1

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If your action contain some keyframes on the "root" bone's channel, all items you assign this action will be mandatorily aligned.

You should remove the root bone's keyframes from the action, and then animate the roots separately. If needed, you can create separate actions, one per character, and mix them with the first action.

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