# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Parenting

In 2D drawing programs, you may be familiar with the concept of
*grouping* objects together, so that they can be manipulated and
transformed as an indivisible whole.

Blender can achieve a roughly similar effect through its concept of
 one object to another.
(Blender also has a concept called "grouping", but that serves an
entirely different purpose, which will not be discussed here, so don't
be confused.)

## Parenting and Unparenting

![](Blender268SetParentMenu.png "Blender268SetParentMenu.png") **To
parent one object to another** is simple: in object mode, select the
to-be-child object(s), then select the to-be-parent object, then press
 to bring up the "Set Parent To"
menu. The options in the menu have the following meanings:

-   Object: set the parent of the rest of the selection to the active
    (last-selected) object, clearing any existing parent relationships
    the new-children-to-be may have had. Any objects that were
    previously parented are reset to their original transformations
    before that previous parenting.
-   Object (Keep Transform): similar to the above, except the children
    keep the transformations from any previous parenting they may have
    had.
-   Vertex: this allows you to parent a child to a single,
    currently-selected vertex in the parent (which must be a mesh). You
    can go into Edit mode on the parent mesh to make the selection
    before using this option. The child will then track the movements of
    just that vertex, not the entire object.
-   Vertex (triangle): here 3 vertices are selected in the parent mesh.
    The child tracks, not just their translations, but also their
    relative rotations as well.

When viewing your scene in Object mode, you will see black dashed lines
connecting child objects to their parents. Try moving, rotating or
scaling just the parent object, and you can see how the same
transformation is automatically applied to its children as well.

**To parent multiple children at once to a common parent**, select all
the child objects in turn, then *last of all* select the parent object.
Now when you do , all the objects
selected (except the last one) become children of the last one.

A parent of objects may in turn be a child of yet another object; any
transformation of its parent will automatically be passed on to it and
all its children, and their children, and so on. 

![](Blender268ClearParentMenu.png "Blender268ClearParentMenu.png") **To
remove a parent relationship:** select the child in Object mode, and
press  to bring up the clear-parent
menu. The options here are:

-   Clear Parent: remove the parent/child relationship, and reset the
    child to the original transformation it had before the parenting.
-   Clear and Keep Transformation: remove the parent/child relationship,
    but the child keeps its current transformation as a result of the
    parenting.
-   Clear Parent Inverse: this doesn't actually clear the parent/child
    relationship, but it sets the transformation of the child relative
    to the parent to the same as the transformation the child had on its
    own before it was parented.

### Clear Parent Inverse Clarified

Normally, when a parent relationship is set up, if the parent has
already had an object transformation applied, the child does not
immediately inherit that. Instead, it only picks up *subsequent* changes
to the parent's object transformation. What happens is that, at the time
the parent relationship is set up, the *inverse* of the current parent
object transformation is calculated and henceforth applied before
passing the parent transformation onto the child. This cancels out the
initial transformation, leaving the child where it is to start with.
This inverse is not recomputed when the parent object is subsequently
moved or subject to other object transformations, so the child follows
along thereafter.

The "Clear Parent Inverse" function sets this inverse transformation to
the identity transformation, so the child picks up the full parent
object transformation.

## Lock Up Your Children!

![](Blender268PropertiesShelfTransformPanel.png "Blender268PropertiesShelfTransformPanel.png")
In the Properties shelf at the right of the 3D view (you can toggle its
visibility with ), you will see at the
top the Transform panel. This shows the overall object transformation
(translation, rotation, scaling), but note also the padlock icons next
to the transformation fields: clicking each one closes its padlock,
locking the corresponding field against further changes, *including
changes made with the usual object-transformation tools in the 3D view*.
(If you click a closed padlock, it will open again and remove the lock.)

This can be useful for a child object: if its object transforms are
locked, it will still follow changes to transformations on its parent,
but it cannot have its transformation changed directly. This can prevent
accidents when manipulating an "object" which is actually made up of
multiple Blender objects: parent them all to a common root object (e.g.
an Empty), and then lock them all, apart from the root object, and so
they will transform together by manipulating just the root object, and
cannot (accidentally) be separated.

For example, you might construct a car with separate objects for the
doors and wheels; these might be left free to rotate (about their hinges
and axles respectively), but are otherwise locked in position relative
to the car body.

## Example: Camera Pan

Imagine you want to make a movie where the camera does a 360° pan right
around an object. We'll leave the details of how to set up an animation
for later, but for now let's just consider how to set up the camera
movement.

Start with a new default Blender document. With the 3D cursor at its
default location (at the centre), add a new Empty object. It should end
up inside the cube, so it won't be visible; switch
 to wireframe view, and it should be
easier to see.

Select  the camera; then select
 the Empty as well; now
 parent the camera to the Empty.

Now select  just the Empty, and try
otating it: notice how the camera follows
along? For added fun, switch to camera view
 (make sure the Empty is still the only
thing selected). Now try rotating the Empty: it should look like the
cube is rotating in the opposite direction, when it is really the camera
moving around it.

