make a cloned animated object?

[Pauli]

How can I copy an animated object so that the copy moves in the same way as the original but does not try to merge with the original and occupy the same space when animated? In other words copy the animated object but free it up to occupy different spaces, eg a herd of identical walking elephants.

[slowtiger]

Usually I duplicate the top layer of that animation and put it in a group layer, which I can translate and scale.

[Víctor Paredes]

I would use References instead.

[Pauli]

I am using anime debut. I guess I will need to upgrade to do this?

[Víctor Paredes]

I am using anime debut. I guess I will need to upgrade to do this?

Yes, that is a Pro feature. But, in the meanwhile, you can duplicate the objects, as Slowtiger proposed. The only problem about doing that is the objects won't have any connection between them.