Dynamic Parent

As the name of the Dynamic Parent addon says we can dynamically parent objects to eachother during an animation. Because the addon has just tree buttons, it doesn’t take much time to find out how the addon works. Basically al you need is to play with two buttons and the timeline. Think about animating machines in a factory. This addon could be very suitable for such a scenario.

How the Dynamic Parent Addon works.

The addons works pretty simple. First animate some base objects which will be the parents. Then you have one object that needs to follow the movement of an object and jumps over to another animated object. That object is the child. It could be for example a ball, a bottle in a factory, etc.

There is one thing that is a big counter intuitive. And that is that you have to select the parent object first and then the child object. In the addon you press then create. Now play with the timeline and you see how the child is following the movement of the partent. Once it reaches another animated object you press Disable. Then you do the same thing, but with the new parent. In case you can watch the short video, I suggest you to watch it in case my explanation is not enough.

Where to download the Dynamic Parent Addon?

You can download the Dynamic Parent Addon on Blenderartists. In case you see in your browser the python code, right click and save as (Edge doesn’t work so you need Chrome or another browser). Then in Blender: preferences > Addons > Install > Browse to the .py file and install.

Tip

You might want to experiment with the Btrace addon where you can make curves that follows an object. Then convert it to mesh, remesh, smooth it a bit etc.