Animating can sometimes take authors large amounts of time and also result in messy timelines once everything is in motion. Using groups in a clever way can help to greatly reduce the time required to animate as well as the amount of space used in the timeline to manage the animation.

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For Example:

You may want to animate a panel being removed that has a dozen fasteners. Typically you would need to animate each fastener. You can save time pasting the animation of 1 fastener to the other fasteners when animating but the result will still leave you with a dozen entries in the timeline that you will need to manage when performing any edits.

When an author uses groups the result is even simpler. You would animate 1 bolt along its local axis, since each bolt should share the same local setup. Local axis recording will ensure each bolt moves relative to its own pivot and not in a single direction as a group. Add the group to the timeline and then move the animation to the group by selecting the animation channels and dragging them onto the group. 

The end result is 1 object(the group) being animated and edited in the timeline versus 12.

How to get Started!

Start using groups to simplify your animations by navigating to the Window menu and selecting “Object Groups” or use the Alt + G hotkey. In the Object Groups window you can 

• add selected objects to a new group using the “Create Group” button 
• select a group(visible by orange highlight) by left clicking a group
• rename or delete a group by right clicking a group

In the "Object Properties" window you can

• assign objects to groups in default state or on individual steps
• create a new group in the group drop down list

In the "Timeline Editor" window you can add a selected group to the timeline