Import a bone into the project

[chrochro]

Hello friends

Is there a way to import a bone from a saved project into the bones of the current project?

Thank you for your help.

[synthsin75]

Copy/paste?

[chrochro]

thanks for your response
That's right, but if the bone was smart, how do we import it with its actions?

[synthsin75]

A pasted smart bone includes it's SB actions.

[chrochro]

I have tested it, actions are created but do not include keyframes of the respective layers!

[synthsin75]

I have tested it, actions are created but do not include keyframes of the respective layers!

That's not importing a bone, that would be importing an action. Action keyframes are part of the layer, not the controlling smart bone.

[chrochro]

Thanks for your accurate answers.

I actually wanted to copy the head of a character who was on the body from the front view and made a lot of actions for his facial expressions, copy all its layers and bones to another position of the body, for example for the right or left side but apparently I have to repeat all my work for new views and there is no other way.

[Hoptoad]

Could you duplicate layer the character with the head, then replace the body parts with new parts?

[Greenlaw]

I'm tying to understand what you're wanting to do. Are you starting with a clean (unkeyframed) copy of your character rig and now wanting to apply only the head animation from the same character rig in another existing project? If so, I would simply make a copy of the animated project and clear the animation keyframes from the rig except for the animation on the head and any relevant Smart Bones. then, animate the rest of the rig as you wish.

If the issue is that you have already animated a copy of the rig and you wish to transfer only the head animation from the previously animated project, just open both projects and copy paste the animation.

Question: you're not completely recreating the rig for each new project are you? That should not be necessary. A common workflow is to create a single master rig with no animation, and then you import that rig to each new scene project. This way, there is no need to keep re-creating actions or importing them from other projects. To do this, just use the import command and select your rigged character from the import window.

For that matter, you can import the animated project, and select only the rigged character from the import window. This will include everything from that character including it's Actions and animation keys. Then you can strip the rig of any keyframes you don't want, and then reanimate the rest of the rig, or copy/paste keyframes from another animation.

If this head animation is something you intend to re-use many times, you might consider creating a Regular Action with the keyframes. Then, you can just insert the animation to the rig in any Project. Regular Actions normally come in with your master character rig, but if they don't exist in the master rig project, you can save the Actions from a project that does have the Actions, and the import the Actions to the project that doesn't have them. (Tip import these Actions to your master rig project so they will be there the next time you import the project.)

Hope this helps.

[Greenlaw]

Still trying to understand what you're trying to do, so here's another take:

If what you're trying to do is repurpose a part of an existing rigged character for a completely new character, then you can simply import the character and copy/paste the parts you want to the new character.

However, be aware that if this is handled carelessly, copying and pasting will probably break the rotation keyframes for Smart Bones and Smart Bone Dials. You'll know this by looking at the actual rotation values and they will be way off from what they should be. To prevent that, you should paste the bones directly into the bone layer of the new character including the whole hierarchy, and then carefully reparent the bones to the new character. Assuming the hierarchical structure and bone rotations are similar in the new character, this should preserve the rotation values in the Smart Bones and keep them from breaking. (Note The bone positions don't matter so much, this is more about the parent/child relationships and rotations. If this were a 3D character rig in a 3D program, you'd be dealing with similar issues, only more complicated.)

When the Smart Bone Actions do break, you will need to reset the rotation keyframes in the Actions. Chances are, it's only these keyframes that will be broken; the animation keyframes for the items controlled by the Smart bone should be fine. To fix the Smart Bone keyframes, I find it easier to just delete them and reset them.

Basically, the previous post is approaching your request as an animation problem, and this post is approaching it as a rigging problem. They can be related but they are two different things.

[Daxel]

I actually wanted to copy the head of a character who was on the body from the front view and made a lot of actions for his facial expressions, copy all its layers and bones to another position of the body, for example for the right or left side.

Okey you can do it copy-pasting different things. Here is how it goes:

1. You copy the head smartbones of the donor proyect and paste them into the receptor proyect:
You can select the donor bone layer, pick the select bone tool, select the bones you want to copy, Ctrl+C to copy them, then you go to the other proyect, select its bone layer, and paste them with Ctrl+V. This will paste the bones but as synthsin75 told you this will also paste the smart actions atached to those bones. So if you had a blink smartbone and you copy-pasted it, you will find the blink smart action on your actions panel. This smart action will only include the keyframes for the bone, because the smart actions keyframes are stored in their relevant layers and you dont have the head drawings yet.

2. You copy the head drawing layers of the donor and paste them into the receptor proyect:
To do this you use a different way of copy-pasting reserved for layers. You select one layer (you can only copy one each time, but if it's a group it will include its children), click on Edit, Copy Layer, go to the other proyect and there you click on the same place but Paste Layer. Layers store their actions so, for example, when you copy-paste the eyes layer, it will carry its blink smart action, and now moving the blink smartbone you pasted previously will make your pasted eyes layer blink as it should.

[chrochro]

Thank you very much dear friends.

Your experiences were very useful to me and I used them. The most accurate method for my work was the suggestion of dear Daxel. But other methods of friends were also useful and included instructive tips.

Thanks a lot.

[davoodice2]

Hello friends

Is there a way to import a bone from a saved project into the bones of the current project?

Thank you for your help.

2 easy steps:

1: copy & paste art layer into new bone layer group.
2: copy and paste bone on new bone layer.

NOTE: be sure names don't exists in new layer before paste.
NOTE: don't change names.

I use this way for copy hand and eye and every things are same in characters.