Change Layer order during Animation

[MrComoric]

Hey everybody,

I have a big problem: I don't know how to change the Layer order during the animation, for example:
First the character is standing behind a table and 10 seconds later he stands in front of it. Need quick help

Thanks for your answers!

[slowtiger]

Layers you want to switch must be inside another layer. In that layer, go to tab depth sort and enable animated layer ordering. Now each time you change a layer's position in the layer stack, a key will be created in the parent layer.

[MrComoric]

Thank you for the quick answer!

So I tried to make my character put something on a table with both of his arms, do I have to put the table into the bone character and active animated layer ordering and then what exactley. Im sorry, I dont really get it. I try to only put the arms above the table to put the things on, the rest of the body is still behind.

Thanks for your answer

[slowtiger]

If you use layer orderng, you put the table inside the character's top layer.
But for a simple nteraction with furniture I animate the character completely, the duplicate its layer, put one in front of the table, and set to visible/invisible where needed.

[MrComoric]

Thats how I did it a lo of times too, the problem is just that i dont want to duplicate both his arms acuse thats a lot of work and i was looking or an easier way. First the arms are behind the table, then they move up a little, then they put the things on the table, so the table layer moved behind the arms, but not the rest of the body. Is there no way to work with any layer options?

[drumlug13]

In my opinion, Slowtiger's method is the best approach. Finish animating the scene before you duplicate the layer. The duplicate layer will still have the same animation.

- Character (Copied) Above Table
- Table
- Character Below Table

Then when you have the items placed on the table, and you activate the Character above the table, you can just hide the parts of the character that need to appear behind the table (legs, feet, torso)

You would still only have to keyframe the character one time.

[MrComoric]

Thanks for the answer, Im gonna try that. That seems to make sense to me