interpolate sub-layers in the action

[Borchc]

Is there any way to make interpolate sub-layers work in action?
Without action, if you switch with your hands, everything works as it should. And in the action, the switch starts working without this function.

[Greenlaw]

Interpolate Sub-layers will not work in a Smart Bone Action. This is because within the Smart Bone's timeline, you need to keyframe the Switch in a sequence, and the Interpolate Sublayers option needs to access any layer inside the Switch freely and directly.

In my experience, Interpolate Sublayers works best using the Switch Selection window.

[Borchc]

It's inconvenient. Because if the rig is for the series, then there may be 4 sets of mouths
- the emotion is neutral
- the emotion is negative
- the emotion is positive
- lipsing
in 5 angles
And the animator has to get to all this every time. It takes a lot of time to do this

[Greenlaw]

When I'm setting up mouth shapes in a switch, I usually create the base drawings in a 'neutral' pose. Then, I set up a separate 'emo' Smart Bone Dial (SBD), in which one direction of the dial is for 'happy' and the other is for 'sad'. (A SmartWarp Mesh outside of the Switch layer can work for this, and avoid conflicts between the smooth lipsync and emo controls.)

So, when I'm animating, I use the Switch Selection window for the lipsync pass, and then I use the Emo SBD to manipulate the emotion in the next pass.

Depending on the character design, I may have an additional SBD for the Jaw motion, which I'll animate after the lip-sync pass is completed. Some users will build the jaw animation into the Switch's mouth shapes, but when I'm using smooth head turns and smooth mouth transitions using Interpolate Sub-layer, I find it's easier to keep the Jaw animation separate. The separate jaw control takes less than a minute to animate, and deformations can look better.

All this can be more work up-front for the rigger but very fast for a crew to animate with.

I hope this helps.

[Greenlaw]

In the past, I have also used Regular actions to apply different emotions in the mouth drawings. This method is less elegant than using a dial, but it does allow for more variations in emotion.

Sometimes I may also use the Magnet tool directly on a mouth drawing when I need to insert a unique pose the Smart Bone Action doesn't provide.

[Borchc]

we tested such a pipeline, it does not suit us