8

404 Chapter 12: Animation
Once objects are linked, any t ransformations
appliedtotheparentarealsoappliedtoits
children. For example, if you scale the parent to
150%, the size of its children and the distance
between the children and the parent are a lso scaled
by 150%.
Unlink ing Objects
ClickUnlinkSelectiontoremovethe
link from selected objects to their parents. Any
children of the selected object are unaffected.
You can quickly unlink an entire hierarchy by
double-clicking the root object to select the object
and all of its children. Then click Unlink Selection.
Linki ng Animated Objects
You should establish links b efore you begin
animating objects. T he linkage of objects with
Select and Link cannot be animated; the link
remains in force throughout the entire animation.
If you want your objects to be linked during one
part of the animation but not another , you can a
Link constraint (page 2–386) to change the linkage
at specific frames.
Displ ay ing Links
A complex mesh hierarch y can be displayed with
the link s visible, or even with the lin ks replacing
the mesh objects. To display links, first select
the linked objects. On the Display panel >
Link
Display rollout (page 1–58)
,turnonDisplayLinks
to see the links. You can also turn on Link Replaces
Object to see only the links and not the objects.
Select and Link
Main toolbar > Select and Link
UsetheSelectandLinkbuttontodefinethe
hierarchical relationship (page 3–1045) between
two objects by linking them as child and parent.
You link from the currently selected object (child)
to any other object (parent).
You can lin k an object to a closed group. When
you do, the object b ecomes a child of the group
parent r ather than any member of the group. The
entire g roup flashes to show that you’ve lin ked to
the group.
A child inherits the transformations (move,
rotate, scale) applied to the parent, but the child’s
transformations have no effect on the parent. If
you want the child not to inherit the transforms,
use the
Link Inheritance (Selected) Utility (page
2–416)
or use the controls found in Link Info
(page 2–481)
in the Hierarchy panel.
You can also create hierarchical linkages using
Schematic View (page 3–688) .UsetheConnect
button on the Schematic View toolbar to create
hierarchical linkages between nodes.
Procedure
To link two objects:
1.
Click Select and Link.
2. Dragalinefromanobject(thechild)toany
other object (the parent).
Note: You do not need to select the child object
first.