Help getting started with animation

[NermNermNerm]

So I just barely have the basics of getting static parts modeled, so why not push my luck I say?

I'm looking to make a sensor that needs to be deployed and, when it's operating, I'd like to make it spin.  I'm just starting to watch the videos and try and get my head around the lingo.  I managed to make a spinning animation in Blender, that was no sweat.  So I thought the deployment animation (which looks exactly like the shielded docking port animation) would follow along nicely...  But no.  I used the standard "LocRot" keyframe and the object does move from its starting point to the desired endpoint, but not through the path I'd like.  So I feel like I need some questions answered in order to even begin how to teach myself how to do this:

1. Is this a situation to use a "Bone"?  I see them used in videos in the context of attaching bits of mesh to them, but haven't seen it done with a whole object, so I wonder if I'm thinking about it wrong.  If "Bone" isn't the magic word, what is the magic word I should plug into youtube to get me going?
2. I have a bunch of objects, but I've seen videos that say that for the sake of Unity's performance, I should somehow squish them into one object.  Is that a thing?
3. I think I need two distinct animations - one for deployment and one for running.  But it looks like Blender only has one animation timeline...  That can't be right - surely there's away to have several, right?
4. I see that Unity has its own animation model - would I be happier if I learned how to use that instead?
5. Are there any recommendable videos that explain this stuff?

Thanks in advance!

[NermNermNerm]

Addendum:  #1 is answered - "Parent" is the magic word.

[wasml]

I'll take a stab at two of them

#2: My imperfect understanding is that each object draw has a bunch of extra overhead - so it's better to have multiple disconnected meshes in one object than having an object for each disconnected mesh. Objects being the blender objects. So if you have a fuel tank with two end meshes and a tank mesh it's best to join the three together if possible. There are situations where this won't work - like if you have variants (in KSP) to swap end types.

#3: Blender only has one animation. You might be able to play some tricks like having the deploy animation from frame 1 to 40 and the first rotation from 41 to 61. Then in Unity specify your two animations - the first being frames 1-40 and the second 41-61 looping at the end back to frame 41. Another possible approach - I thought I saw a mod by linuxgurugamer that sounded like it might be able to do multiple animations (sorry don't recall the name (fairly recent though)) - have not used it myself so it may not do what I think it does.

[wasml]

Edit: I dimly recall seeing that Quaternions don't survive the trip from Blender to KSP - could easily be wrong on this but something to check if rotations are giving you problems.

it coming back - I think this was a problem with Blender's collada export

Edited November 21, 2019 by wasml
memories slowly seeping back

[NermNermNerm]

Thanks @wasml !  I have dorked around for some time and have started to form some ideas which may or may not be right.

1. Unity has this "Animator" concept which appears to be an orchestrator of "clips", which were the "Animation" object.  I haven't been able to get any life out of the "Animator" thing in KSP, but I'm pretty sure it's there because I saw KerbalExpressionSystem is using it.
2. The "Animator" thing looks to be a whole lot fancier than you really need for space ships.  All we ever do is extend/retract and maybe some spinning round & round.
3. I've been able to roll my own animations in Unity, but it's definitely pulling teeth to do it.  Seems like the whole process is more than a bit wonky in their editor.
4. I imported my blend file directly in Unity - and it looks like each individual part & property got its own clip.  I guess there's a way to roll all the right clips together somehow, but I haven't figured it out.  I've been figuring to get a handle on Unity animations by themselves before trying to combine Unity+Blender

[wasml]

As far as I know parts all use the Animation object (be sure to set to "legacy" mode)

I've briefly tried the Blender direct to Unity but didn't see a way to split the models up - I like to have multiple models in one Unity file (like all truss parts for a set) - so went back to using Collada which gives you one animation per model.