In this quick Blender 2.5 video tip we demonstrate how appending/linking can be used to bring in elements from another .blend file. These elements can be mesh objects, lamps, materials, or even sculpting brushes.
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Thank you very much!
I was planning to look into this in more detail today but havent had time… uncannily well timed!
Hey Jonathan! One thing you forgot!
If you want to move and animate your linked object in your scene you have to create a proxy!
Just select the object, click on the object menu and select “Make Proxy” (ctrl+alt+p).
Now you are able to position and animate it.
If you modify you original file it still gets updatet.
Greetings from germany
Andreas
Andreas, you made my day!! I was looking for this for weeks!
Gruß aus Dresden
Exactly what I was hoping to learn from this tutorial. Thanks Andreas!
Please someone help me. I need to know how to append a Material in Blender 2.5. I go file>append>then to my folder which is saved as library>Materials>Tire rubber>Link/Append From Library. And I have the object selected but nothing happens!
Nice little tip, but I think you should mention making a proxy and it could be good to explain how to share more complex things. Maybe a tut on linking a scene file and character files with actions, composite nodes to get multiple sequences matching up…
Maybe that would be a good animation project file management tutorial?
One thing I noticed from the Durain blog was they have low poly proxy objects that are used to show object locations in the scene to speed up the animation process that are then replaced with high poly models in the final render – how do they do that?
I’d love to see animation tut about all that too. Is there a tutorials or someting about these things some where?
Normally I create a group for everything and link in the group to the other file.
That way I automatically have a proxy created for me.
And I can actually get in more that one object at a time, just in case my original design consists of more than one object.
Cheers,
CarsteN
hey johnathan.. you should have tried that before you made this tut
u seemed a bit shocked when you couldnt move the linked object.. as was said above.. make proxy 
oops sorry forgot to add this to my post.. i saw a video that was on the durian blog yesterday that was about how they did this.. and i am going to be using it for a short that I am working on.. very handy tool!
Hi Guys,
I wonder if it’s possible to link the modifier stack, which I have applied to an object. I’ve tried this, but it only links the mesh, without the modifier attached. I like to keep modifiers no applied to the object, in order to work on it, without having to apply the modifier.
Of course you can apply a modifier in the final scene, but this does not seem to be right to me, as you can not verify the actions of the modifier in the Model file.
If someone has a good idea how to do this…
Many thanks
Roman
It does seem that Blender is encyclopaediacly huge, this is just one less thing i will have to work out for myself(like re-inventing the wheel!)I love this site!
Thanks.
You forgot to explain the pain when appending an object that uses the same material name(s) as objects in your current file. No options appear to let you assign current file’s materials or keep the appended file’s materials – just a mess of duplicate material names. And if the appended object uses multiple materials, it gets even worse!
as a quick tip on linking and appending, this tut is true to it’s title and i’m happy to know i’ve been doing it right all these years!
in terms of doing things our friends are mentioning here, that’s for another quick tut and i, for one, parrot the others in hope that you have time to go into depth on those issues of both proxies and file management/mismanagement and linking, as it can be extremely useful info to have in blendercookie’s tut library.
cheers,
danny
Ideas for part two of this tut, use the proxy. Apply some materials, and textures, and animate the cube bouncing and spinning with in the walls. This has answered a few questions I have had for a while, and the replies and further answered them. If you have units setup does this carry that over.
oh my gosh thanks so much, I’ve been wondering how to do this for a long time! Is it new with 2.5?
Nah this has been around for quite some time
-Jonathan
Thanks for the tutorial! I really love these tips, they make me understand better the program, and making the transition from 3ds max quicker and better!
Jonathan! Great tut.
I like these Bugsbunny tuts.
is there anyway to take just the material texture?
Yes you can. If you choose the “Material” option then you can pick out any material you would like.
-Jonathan
i mean can i save the material as a seperate file and move it to another compture or something? but thank you anyway =D i love all of these tutorials, they are so helpful
Thanks Jonathan. I knew about appending but, wasn’t sure about linking. You have a way of demystifying things!
I am glad I could make Blender a little less mystifying for you
-Jonathan
thank you soo much!
Im having trouble I think I need to apend my oblject so I can animate it but the bones or textures do not come with the object file. is there a way to apend all data ( ring, textures, materials ex.) I can apend all seperatly but then I have to apply everything again and I already did this once I dont waht to do it again everytime I make a new progect.
Ok, I believe I have this figured out: To reference a setup and rigged character into a new Blender file you use the file>link command. This will open up a directory where you navigate to the file to be referenced, and then select the character and its armature in the Object folder and then hit the “link” button. Once they’re in the new Blender file, select the armature and hit command+alt+P to make it a proxy. This will allow you to select individual bones and switch to pose mode for keyframing. Any change made to the character in its original “master” Blender file will automatically be reflected in the Blender file that is referencing it. This seems to be the way it is working in my tests, but please correct me if I’ve gotten any of it wrong.
Is it possible to link multiple object meshes as well?
Exactly is there a way to proxy link same object and still be able to manipulate it (using bones) differently?
Like imagine you would like to create a scene with 2 fighting Sintels – linked from 1 file but moving differently. It looks like at the moment Blender manipulates both objects at the same time when you manipulate just one of them.
what if you want to keep the texture on the object you bring in?
Wow exactly what I need. In fact I just requested a tutorial on this because I was unable to locate what I was looking for
i’m trying to append a textured object but for some reason after appending the texture doesn’t show up…how to append the textured object properly?