Attempting to animate multiple objects without bones (they are parented to each other)

Question

I have made a character for my game, and as I do not wish to fully rig it, I simply parented the leg and arm segments above each other to make animating easier. the issue with this, is that I end up with around 12 animations, which I do not wish to import into my game engine. I would like to be able to consolidate the movement of the objects to a singular animation track, rather than animating each object individually.

Here are some "fixes" i found that I have tried already:

1. Linking animation data

2. Unchecking "All actions" in the export toolbar (in .fbx format)

3. renaming the "NLA tracks" to the same name (please enlighten me on what these are, as I was not able to figure this one out)

Essentially all that I want is an exportable animation that contains the movement of three independent objects, rather than three animation for three objects.

If anybody has a fix for this, or can offer a bit of wisdom, that would be superb.

Answer 1

Use an armature in blender for the animation, but instead of a weight painted mesh, you can attach individual objects to the bones.

To do this select an individual object, then shift select the armature, then enter pose mode and select the bone you want to parent to, then press command+p and select 'Bone'.

Now you can animate the bones in pose mode, and you will get a single animation, but the animated objects are all individual meshes. (If you're using Unity, you won't need a 'Skinned Mesh Renderer' because the objects are all rigid.)