Um, joining in Blender 2.71 prior to unwrapping eliminates my animations? Ack!!

[sreinmann]

So, in my WIP I included a pic of my SDO satellite part. I'd created all the animations in Blender (9 shutters that open and close) once all the parts were present. Then I joined my meshes and unwrapped. After tediously going through and painting and adding textures to the uvmap, I returned to object mode and discovered that all my animations no longer play! Once I join, does it toss off the animations? What happened?

[mouzfun]

Not sure if it is the best solution (or if it even preserves animation, tbh), but you can try multiedit (http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?339369-MultiEdit-%28alpha-1%29-Multiple-Objects-Editing!), temporarely join them, unwrap and then unjoin them.

[CaptainKipard]

So, in my WIP I included a pic of my SDO satellite part. I'd created all the animations in Blender (9 shutters that open and close) once all the parts were present. Then I joined my meshes and unwrapped. After tediously going through and painting and adding textures to the uvmap, I returned to object mode and discovered that all my animations no longer play! Once I join, does it toss off the animations? What happened?

This is a lesson for you rather than anything else. Animations should be the last thing you do. (although you can often paint the texture whenever)

[artwhaley]

If you joined parts that were animated in relationship to each other, then you probably did lose the animation. The animation is attached to the 'object'. So when you move polygons from one object to another the animation doesn't go with them. As a slightly complicated work-around, you should be able to do:

Edit each panel - select all polygons - tap "P" to move all of the polygons to a new object (leaving the original object empty, but animated).

Join the NEW objects and fiddle to your heart's content.

Split the objects back from the composite object you made with the joining.

Select each split object and it's original animated object and join these. (Selecting the animated object second, I think? Whichever way keeps the name of the animated object.)

Though at this point it's probably faster just to split them and reanimate them, unless the animation was just crazy!