Moho Forum

A Reference Layer is a 'copy' with active channels that are linked to the original layer. This means if you make any changes to the original layer, the Reference is automatically updated to receive those changes. For example, if you edit some points in a vector layer, the reference layer will get the same edits. This is a good way to have many copies of a layer that you expect to edit or animate all together later.

(Tip: It's a good idea to make keyframes in the original layer for channels that you anticipate animating in the Reference layer before you create the Reference layer. This isn't always necessary but it can prevent some potential problems down the road.)

If you make any changes to a Reference layer (instead of the original,) then that Reference layer will become unique...at least in the channels you updated. The other channels in the Reference that you haven't changed will remain linked to the original. For example, you could change the positions for multiple Reference layers but retain the ability to edit the points in all of them by editing only the original layer. (This assumes you have keyframes in the original layer and Reference layers for both Layer position and Points position.)

One thing to be careful about is accidentally editing the Reference layer when you actually meant to edit the original layer. ​If you do this, you can reset and re-link the reference layer by r-clicking on it and choosing Sync All Channels To Original. Note that this will completely sync all of the keyframed channels the reference layer to the original. If wish sync only some of the channels to the original, you can do that in the timeline by r-clicking over the channel's icon and choosing Sync Channel To Original.

On a related subject, you can import a file to your project as a Reference. This means any changes you make to the original file is updated in the referenced file in another project. One good use for this is to build a 'master' rig for your production. If you reference in your rig to a bunch of different projects, and then you decide you need to change the character artwork or a rig control globally, you can do that in the 'master' rig and then update them in your projects. Note that this isn't done automatically, but you will be alerted by a red reference icon when changes are made to the original file. To update the referenced layer from the other file, select the layer and choose Update Layer Reference. This will pull changes from the original 'master' file and update your current file to match. Note: not every feature can be updated this way. I can't recall off the top of my head which features don't update but I think it's any feature that can't be keyframed (like bone strength for example.) You will need to make those changes manually.

​Hope this helps

Re: the example you described, it doesn't work that way. If you flip the original layer then the Reference layer will also flip, but if you flip the Reference layer then you break the connection with the original layer. If you do the latter by accident, you can sync the Reference to the original as described above.

Note: If you haven't actually keyframed anything, you can break the connection completely this way. This is why I recommend making the keyframes for channels you expect to animate before you create the Reference. This way you can break the links for only the channels you want to change in the Reference layer, and keep the links for other channel active.

To be clear, the original layer has the bullseye icon and the Reference layer has the 'swoosh' arrow icon. To make this even clearer to myself, I like to prefix the Reference layer's name with REF_ as soon as I create it, and I may even give the layer a unique color (red for 'don't touch' is a good one.)

Referencing is an advanced thing but it's good to know about because it can even make some basic animations more interesting with little extra effort.

But, yeah, it's not something I use routinely or often.

Here are some 'basic' examples for layer referencing: Sometimes I like to use references to link a 'mask' layer (the Reference) to an artwork layer (the original) so I only need to edit one of layers for changes. Or maybe a bunch mouth shapes in a Switch layer; using a Reference makes is easy to 'reset' a mouth shape to the original's 'base' shape to create a new mouth shape from.

An example where project referencing is useful: Referencing 'master' character rigs has been very useful for the TV shows I worked on where I create Moho rigs that were animated by other artists. This allowed us to make changes or improvement to rigs or character artwork that could be easily dispersed to each artist if they needed these changes.

Jeremy at Cartoon Saloon described a great workflow where you have multiple levels of referencing: the 'master' rig that the artists referenced in to animate, and then a 'work' rig that the 'master' project references. This allows the animator who created the rig to make changes to the rig without disrupting the 'master' rig that everybody else is using. You can find more information about this system by searching this forum.

One more thing: it doesn't hurt to try using a Reference layer in your project. If the reference setup doesn't work and you just want to use the layer as a regular layer, you can select it, r-click and choose Break Layer Reference. This turns the Reference layer into a regular layer.

Same goes for referenced rig files...select the root layer (i.e., the top group layer) then r-click and choose Break Layer Reference. This will break the reference for the entire rig, not just the selected layer. Now you can work with this rig without worrying about changes made to the 'master' rig project messing something up in your current project.