Move material actions separately in NLA for duplicated objects

Question

From the starting scene, I keyframed the material of the cube to change intensity 0 -> 1 between frames 1 and 40. I Shift+D-ed that cube to create a new one. I'd like to move the material animation for the second cube to start at a different frame, i.e. go 0 -> 1 between frames 21 and 60.

In NLA I see this:

Both tracks are selected and I cannot select just the one for Cube.001.

I see that I can create a new material (or use Make Single User), but then I would lose the ability to change the material properties (e.g. color) for all objects at once or the ability to tweak the action (e.g. duration) and have it applied to all objects at once.

Is there a way to have linked materials between objects, but manipulate their actions independently in NLA editor?

Blender v2.78 if that matters.

Answer 1

You can't create different animations for same material, because NLA-tracks belong to the material, not to the objects. But there is a walkaround, to make that you want:

You can use one material that will be displayed differently depending on the properties of the object. For example, object index:

Object index sets in object properties. Relations tab:

Then using node setup, like this, you can set different settings for different object using same material.