Skeleton layer reuse/exportation

I’m going to start by apologizing if this has been covered before, but I’ve done a few forum searches and have not been able to find what I was looking for.

Is there a way to reuse a skeleton layer either through copying or duplication so that it can be used on another character in the same animation file? I’ve tried doing both, but end up with a skeleton layer that is still linked to the first character. If I have to do something like unlink or rename each bone before using a copy, I might as well just make new skeletons for each character. :frowning:

A related but different issue:
Also in the interest of saving time I’ve made characters in their own files, imported them into a main animation, and then exported them so I can animate them. If the character has a skeleton layer though this causes the file to be unopenable. Can skeleton layers not be exported? I thought I read that somewhere, but can’t remember where.

Otherwise skeleton layers are awesome, and I’m so glad they’re in ver 1.0!

Thanks,

Hi!
I am having the same problems with my work flow concerning skeleton layers. As a solution I tried saving my clean unrigged characters in their own separate file, import them into a certain scene and from that scene export them to another canvas to rig and animate them but that did not work either. In the end I just used the group transformation widget instead of the skeleton layer and that went without problems or for more complex characters I use the add skeleton plug in that comes with Synfig. You can save, import and export that without any problems. Attaching a character onto it takes a bit more time though and the new version with IK does not work on windows (yet).
Greetz!

Thanks, Dirk. I’ll fiddle around with the plug-in when I get a chance.

Hello

About Skeleton management:

  • Other option is to use the deform skeleton layer, in the deform group. It can be used for “vector” objects too
  • Use the skeleton layer to act over group layers, put the vector objects that compose your character on those group layers. (was it mentioned before?).

Hi!
I never seem to get good results when I use the skeleton deformation on vector drawings. Apart from that it gives the same errors when importing or exporting as the normal skeleton layer.
Greetz!