Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
It's true that so far all we have talked about is how splendid relative paths are for your project, and now we're
saying to change all paths in your shot fi le to absolute ones. Don't worry. They'll only be that way for a moment.
Move the shot fi le where you wish, restart Blender and open the fi le. Because you used absolute disk paths,
Blender still knows exactly where to look to fi nd the links, keeping them alive. Now, use the other path com-
mand from the menu: Make All Paths Relative , which will rebuild all the paths as relative and make your
whole project portable once again.
Moving an Asset File
Don't do this. Seriously. Just don't.
Obviously, if you've not linked any of the library fi le's assets into scenes in other fi les, this isn't a problem.
However, when you move or rename the fi le, there is no way to determine for sure which scenes have linked to
assets from it. You will only be able to tell when you open those fi les and fi nd the links broken. Unfortunately,
the process of opening a fi le with links, and especially proxy objects, can cause irreparable damage to the links,
meaning that even the Recover Missing Links tool in the External Data menu item will not fi x things.
The fi les will be relinked, but the damage to the proxy will already be done. If you do have to move or rename
an asset fi le, though, here are some suggestions to help you out.
Situation : You've moved the original asset fi le then linked those assets into other scenes from the new loca-
tion. Solution : Create a duplicate of the fi le and return the duplicate to the original location using the tech-
nique previously described if the asset fi le itself contains any live links.
Situation : You've moved or renamed the original asset fi le and for some reason cannot or will not duplicate
the fi le into the original path. Solution : You will have to locate any assets in the shot fi le that are linked to
the missing fi le and delete them (the Outliner can be helpful for this). Then you will need to relink them
from the Shift-F1 dialog, as though they were brand new links. If you used proxies before, you will need to
create new ones. After you have all of the assets linked back in, you use the Ipo window to reattach the origi-
nal animation Ipos to the appropriate objects. If you were rigorous about naming Ipos as they were created,
this will be easy. However, it will be more likely that you will need to go through a trial and error process to
fi nd the correct Ipos for each linked object.
Finally, you can directly change a library's path in the Library view of the Outliner by Ctrl-LMB clicking on
the path name itself. This changes the path into a text entry fi eld, allowing you to type a completely new path,
or fi x one that has changed. Note that this only works to fi x a broken path before the asset fi le changes loca-
tion. Simply opening a BLEND fi le with a broken link, typing the correct one, and re-saving will not work.
Or, to put it more simply, don't move or rename your asset fi les once you've linked to them.
Summary
Libraries and links are the technical bedrock of a consistent large scale animation project. Each asset in the proj-
ect (characters, sets, props) is created in its own BLEND fi le, which acts as a library to which other fi les can link.
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