Moving switch layer eyes, brows, and mouths along with head?

[trick0171]

Hello. I am fairly new to Anime Studio. I have gone through the tutorials, however, I can not seem to find one that answers what I need. I have created a character that has a normal head layer, switch layers for each eye, brow, and for mouths. The head is set on a body that has a layer for a midsection (neck/torso/groin), seperate layers for each leg and arm, and switch layers for hands and feet.

I now want to add bones to my character, however, I know I should split apart the head (along with eyes/brows/mouths), midsection, legs/feet, and arms/hands before I add the bones, and then connect them back together.

My question:

Is there a way to grab the switch layer eyes, brows, and mouths along with the head and move them all at the same time so that they stay together. I have the positioning of the switch layers the way I want them on the head ...and would hate to have to reposition each eye, etc...just to move it away from the body to add bones --> and then reposition them all back individually.

In other words, is there a way to move the points in more than one layer at the same time?

Thank you in advance for any suggestion you can give.

-Trick

[slowtiger]

In a setup like this:

- bone layer
- - switch layer
- - - mouth 1
- - - mouth 2

just bind the switch layer to the head bone via layer binding (see manual). That's all.

The sequence is: select switch layer, select bind layer tool, click the bone you want to bind to, hit the space bar. Done.

[trick0171]

Hey there slowtiger...thanks for the response - and nice to meet you.

I understand the binding of the switch layer to the head bone. That is not the problem I am having. The problem I am having is with the initial seperation of the head and switch layers from the body...prior to bone setup.

In other words, I do not want to add the bone while the head is connected to the body, so I want to move the head along with the eye, brow, and mouth switch layers. I would ideally like to move all of these switch layers and the head layer at the same time, to keep them together for the move away from the body...and then back.

The question in itself really has nothing to do with how to bind the layers to the bone (i got that from the tutorials), but rather, how to move more than one layer at the same time to keep them together.

Once I have the head and switch layers moved away from the body (kept together) - I can add the bone and bindings with no problem.

Thanks again

-Trick

[Genete]

The only way to move several layers at the same time is to group all them in a Group Layer and move the group layer. The problem is that you cannot select more than one layer at the same time.

Other solution is to move the points themselves. But again you cannot do it with all the layers at the same time.
-G

[mkelley]

Genete is correct. What I do is to have my eye, mouth, brow switch layers and face layer (along with any hats, etc.) grouped in a "HEAD" group, which I can then move to wherever I want (I can also easily flip this group so that my character can look to the left or right in my 3/4 view animation).

Then I move this group away from the body and add the head bone accordingly, using Bone Offset to move it back into body position.

[trick0171]

Thank you soo much Genete and mkelley. I did not realize that you can add them all into a single group layer - and then move that group layer like that (great tip on the head flip). I will try this when I get home from work...but sounds like the solution to my problem once I figure it out.

[trick0171]

Since I only had the cheap version it does not give a "Group" layer option. Only the Pro version has this.

Anyway, I just bought the Pro version, as this option was a necessary one for me and will save me a ton of work.

Just thought I'd post this for any non-pro version users looking to do this...you need the pro.

-Trick

[DK]

You can use a bone layer in AS Standard just like a group layer.

Cheers
D.K

[trick0171]

..but you can't add a bone layer (being used for a group) to another bone layer for the skeleton...so that would not have helped.

(at least i think)

[mkelley]

You could have indeed had a bone layer inside a bone layer, but the Pro version has Actions and you will benefit from them much more than anything else (this is worth the price of admission alone).

(There are other additions but quite frankly ASPro is worth it no matter what the price -- best piece of software I've EVER owned, and that's inside of 50K or more of software).

[DK]

(at least i think)

D.K

[trick0171]

*shrug*

@mkelley

Yeah...I bought the standard version not really thinking it would be easy enough to use...or be just as tedious to animate as any other way, but after playing around I realize it is some really sweet software that took away much of the tediousness. I knew I would buy the pro version eventually anyway. [/quote]

[Konservburk]

Just get the PRO version, much better