Dynamic Parent for Blender v1.20250528.25 (beta)

🎮 Revolutionize Parenting with Dynamic Parent for Blender! 🚀

Say goodbye to rigid parenting workflows! Dynamic Parent is a must-have Blender add-on for animators and 3D artists, designed to dynamically assign and unassign parent relationships with seamless animation support. Built for Blender 4.4+, this tool lets you create smooth, keyframed parenting transitions without breaking a sweat. Perfect for game cinematics, VFX, and complex animations! 😎

✨ Key Features

1. Dynamic Parenting 🔗
   • What it does: Assigns parent relationships to multiple child objects using a “Child Of” constraint, keyframing influence for smooth transitions.
   • Why it’s awesome: Switch parents mid-animation without position jumps, maintaining object transforms perfectly.
   • How it works: Select child objects and an active parent, then create a constraint that activates at the current frame, with keyframes set for location, rotation, and scale.
   • Use case: Make a character pick up and release objects in a game cutscene with flawless transitions.
2. Disable Parenting 🛠️
   • What it does: Deactivates active dynamic parent constraints while preserving object positions via keyframes.
   • Why it’s awesome: Easily unparent objects at specific frames without manual matrix calculations.
   • How it works: Sets the constraint influence to 0 at the current frame, keyframing the object’s transform to maintain its position.
   • Use case: Animate a spaceship detaching from a dock or a character dropping a prop mid-scene.
3. Matrix Precision 🎯
   • What it does: Ensures objects stay exactly where they should by verifying matrices before and after parenting.
   • Why it’s awesome: Prevents unwanted position or rotation shifts, saving you from tedious fixes.
   • How it works: Compares world matrices with a tight tolerance (0.001) to confirm no drift occurs during parenting.
   • Use case: Maintain pixel-perfect alignment in complex rigs or animated sequences.

🎨 Why You’ll Love It

• Seamless Workflow: Add or remove parenting with a single click, fully keyframed.
• Intuitive UI: Access tools in Blender’s Sidebar (View3D > YA Panel).
• Animation-Friendly: Perfect for dynamic scenes in games, films, or motion graphics.
• Blender 4.4+ Ready: Optimized for the latest Blender workflows (v1.21.1).

🔥 Use Cases

• Game Development: Animate weapons switching hands or vehicles attaching to carriers.
• VFX: Create smooth parent transitions for objects in dynamic simulations.
• Motion Graphics: Build complex animations with objects changing parents on the fly.

📦 Get It Now!

Ready to take control of your animations? Download Dynamic Parent and make parenting a breeze! Compatible with Blender 4.4+. Install, activate, and create jaw-dropping animations today! 💥

UPD v1.20250528.25 (beta)

Multi-Parents & Collections:

• Previously: You could dynamically parent an object to a single "parent."
• Now: You can define multiple potential parents for an object! This means you can easily switch between them during animation by simply selecting the desired parent from a list. This is ideal for situations where the same object needs to be picked up by different characters or moved by various mechanisms.
• There's also added support for collections as parents, offering even more freedom in your scenes.

Convenient Constraint Management in the UI:

• Previously: You had to work with constraints "blindly," without seeing them directly in the add-on panel.
• Now: There's an interactive list of all active Dynamic Parent constraints! You can see which objects are parented, to what, and even quickly select them in the scene. This is a huge relief for managing complex animations.
• You can also delete individual constraints directly from this list.

Enhanced Rig Support:

• The add-on now better understands and works with rigs. This means you can use it not only for simple objects but also for controlling parts of characters or complex mechanical setups.

Animation Baking and Cleanup Options:

• Bake Animation: If you need a "clean" animation without constraints, you can "bake" all movements into keyframes. This creates a self-contained animation that can be used without the add-on or exported to other software.
• Remove All DP Constraints: A function has been added to quickly clear all Dynamic Parent constraints from your scene, which is very convenient for preparing a file or starting from scratch.

General Improvements and Stability:

• Syntax errors and other minor issues have been fixed to ensure the add-on works even more stably and reliably.

UPD v1.20250528.8

This version is even better and more flexible for animators!

• Smooth transitions: You can now customize the transition duration (number of frames) for activating and deactivating the parent link. This allows you to create more natural and beautiful animations.
• Interpolation types: You can now select the interpolation type (Bezier, Linear, Constant) for keyframes of anchor effects. This gives you more control over how the transition occurs - smoothly (Bezier), evenly (Linear), or instantly (Constant).
• Smart snap management: The addon now works better with multiple "Child Of" bindings on the same object. When you activate a new Dynamic Parent binding, all other Dynamic Parent bindings on this object are deactivated smoothly to avoid conflicts.
• General improvements: Internal improvements have been made for more stable operation and correct preservation of object transformations during the transition.