Dynamic Parenting refers to a situation where the inheritance of an object’s transform channels can be turned on and off, either by keyframes or other means, during the course of an animation. Commonly this is used to allow an animated character to pick up and put down objects. It is also very useful when controlling the binding and interaction of two molecular structures in a scientific animation. In Maya, the easiest way to achieve dynamic parenting is through the use of constraints.

This lesson will go through several variations of dynamic parenting situations as a means to inspire you to develop your own creative solutions to the problem. As always, there are a million ways to achieve something in Maya, and only 500,000 of those ways are a bad idea.

Point Constraint: One or more other objects control any or all of one object’s translation channels.
Orient Constraint: One or more other objects control any or all of one object’s rotation channels.
Parent Constraint: One or more other objects control any or all of one object’s translation and rotation (but not scale) channels.
Note that the Maintain Offset option will allow you to maintain the controlled object’s current position at the time these constraints are applied.
Other constraints include Geometry, Normal, Tangent, Pole Vector, Aim, and Scale.

Download pdf Constraints & Dynamic Parenting in Maya