Disappointing timeline problem, I guess:P

After I put an animated softbody into my scene, I no longer can change materials on objects. When I do it, Blender doesn`t save the changes and after I re-load the scene, objects have their original materials instead of the new ones.

I`ve read in a LightWave manual that it is necessary to create keyfremaes for every change. Now, when I change a material,  also make new keyframe [Link and Materials panel: Delete, then in the materials tab, Add new>Data browse, choosing one, and clicking "Create new keyframe" or sth like that in the timeline window]. Now, the new material is persisting when I re-load the scene, but the renderer ignores it and renders the object whose material has been changed as if it had no material at all.

Blender 2.42a, rendering frame 150, softbody is baked [doesn`t matter, I guess:P].

Any help appreciated! I`m just about finishing this project and these problems stopped me for several weeks [madly busy with my exams;)].

That's very strange.  If you import a scene into a new file does the keyframe info come with it?  That might be a good way to keep your scene with the baked softbodies but lose the animation information so the materials might work properly again?  I haven't done much with animation, though, so maybe not.

I imported everything, and the problem persisted. I created key frames, and the probnlem persisted. I got really angry... and got rid of it :P

The clue was that Blender unexpectedly flipped some normals of some objects inwards! When I inspected my meshes, I realized I had to recalculate them out. After that, it worked again. It`s extremely strange since I imported this model for C4D a couple of months ago and already made a project with it and had no trouble. Blender really lives its own life...

"Presume nothing", wasn`t it its ad slogan a couple of years ago? :P