Copy Smart Bones to existing Bone Layer (without creating new bone layer)

[MiMoveART]

I'm trying to find out if there is a way to transfer Smart Bones from one project to another existing Bone Layer in Moho.
I need to merge Smart Bones into the already existing Bone Layer, instead of creating a second Bone Layer.

Example setup:

Project A
Bone Layer
Smart Bones (lip sync, eye controls, etc.)

Project B
Bone Layer (already rigged character)

Goal:
Paste the Smart Bones from Project A into the existing Bone Layer in Project B, so that the final rig has only one Bone Layer with all bones and Smart Bone actions together.

Is there any workflow in Moho that allows copying Smart Bones (bones + their actions) and pasting them into an existing Bone Layer in another project?

[SimplSam]

You can just select the SmartBones in Project 1, Ctrl-C (copy), then go to Project 2 bone layer - and Ctrl-V (paste).

[Greenlaw]

Make sure you maintain the parental structure for the Smart Bone when copy/pasting, and then reparent directly. Otherwise, it might break the dial range for the Smart Bone inside the Action. (You'll know when the dial doesn't work as expected.)

But if you happen to break it, it's usually not a huge deal to fix, just annoying when you're not aware of it.

Tip: don't try to fix the range by adjusting it, just delete the keys and re-key it. It's easier.

[MiMoveART]

Thanks for the tip.

But I think I didn't explain my situation clearly.
Project A already has a fully rigged character with one Bone Layer and many Smart Bone actions.
Project B also contains a Bone Layer with additional Smart Bones and their actions.
When I paste Project B into Project A, Moho keeps them as two separate Bone Layers. What I'm trying to do is merge the Smart Bones (bones + their actions) from Project B into the already existing Bone Layer of Project A, so the final rig has only one Bone Layer.
From what I see, this seems to work only if the rig hierarchy is identical. If the structure is different, the Smart Bone relationships and actions tend to break or require manual rebuilding.

[Greenlaw]

Ah, I see. Yeah, it's always a little tricky merging Bones with Smart Bone Actions from another project. I've had success with it, but it's a specific process, and what I described above is only a small part of it. Anyway, as mentioned, the key is to maintain the structure when you copy and paste into the bone layer, and then simply reparent. You can delete these 'holder' bones after reparenting the bones you wish to keep. This should preserve the rotation values for the Smart Bone Actions.

Also, if necessary, be sure you've named the bones and Smart Bones Actions appropriately to avoid conflicts. (This part should be done, if needed, before using Copy Layer/Paste Layer.)

I'll document the full process and make a video in the near future.

If this doesn't work for you, there are other things you can try if you're open to using third-party tools.

First, try Copy Layer/Paste Layer from the Edit menu to move the bone group and relevant child group/layers from one project to the other. Next, use A. Eveseeva's Merge Skeletons tool to merge the bone groups. Be sure to try this in a copy of your project, as I have not used Merge Skeleton in this way myself. If it works, great! If not, you're no worse off than before.

If the second bone group is already in your rig, skip the Copy Layer part, and just use Merge Skeletons for the two Bone groups.

The other third-party tool to try is Mult Rush's MR Transform Rig Tool. Apart from being able to edit and manipulate parts of a skeleton within a character, this tool also has options for moving parts of a rig from one character's bone layer to another character's bone layer, including their Actions. Be sure to use try the latest beta version for Moho 14.4, as I've had mixed results with the current release version in Moho 14.4. You can get it here: Re: MR Transform Rig Tool 2.0 BETA 14

As with the previous example, I have not tried using it as described myself, so try it with a copy of your project. If it were me, I'd experiment with a stripped-down example first, to be sure I understand how it's supposed to work.

Good luck!

[Greenlaw]

Again, I want to stress that success still comes down to maintaining the structure of the bones you want to merge before reparenting them to a shared bone structure. This is because the part that typically breaks the Smart Bone Actions is where the rotation values change. If you can keep them from changing, the transfer should be good. (And, when it's relevant, whatever goes on with the bone names and Smart Bone Action names, of course.)

[Greenlaw]

It's been a while since I last use Merge Skeleton, so I tried it in Moho 14.4 a few minutes ago. I used it to merge two bone layers, each with different Smart Bone setups, and the result was a Bone containing all the bones with the Smart Bones Actions (SBA) intact.

To be clear, this tool merges the bones of a Child Bone layer with its Parent bone layer. To use it, select the Child Bone layer first and then run the script.

So, make sure the Bone layer you copied over is nested inside the Bone layer of the destination rig, or the script will not work correctly. After merging, the Child bone layer will remain, but it will be empty. You can safely delete this layer.

[MiMoveART]

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. I really appreciate it.

It sounds like using scripts might actually be the best solution here. I remember seeing the Merge Skeleton script a long time ago, but I never used it and honestly forgot it even existed.

As for MR Transform Rig Tool yes, I already have it. It's from Mult Rush, and he has a lot of really powerful scripts. I've used it before to duplicate fully rigged hand rotations so I didn't have to rebuild them from scratch. But I didn't realize it could also be used to merge parts of two Bone Layers.
In any case, I'll definitely test Merge Skeletons as well and see how it behaves in this situation.

My goal is actually pretty simple, but it seems to highlight what might be one small limitation in Moho's workflow. I like building small rig libraries for example, I have several different fully rigged mouth setups for smooth lip sync. These usually contain many Smart Bones and Actions.
Of course, I could just build a character directly inside that same project and everything would be fine. But the situation I'm thinking about is when I already have a fully rigged character, and I want to add another pre rigged system for example a mouth rig into the existing Bone Layer of that character.

Right now when I paste that rig into the project, Moho keeps it as a separate Bone Layer. Technically it works, but it becomes a bit inconvenient when animating. What I was hoping to do instead is merge those Smart Bones into the character's existing Bone Layer so everything lives in a single rig.

Funny enough, doing something like this is actually very easy in After Effects but character animation in AE is pure hell anyway lol

[MiMoveART]

I tested the Merge Skeletons script, but unfortunately it doesn't work for me it throws an error. I'm using Moho 14.4, the latest version, so I'm not sure what the issue is.

However, I just tried MR Transform Rig Tool, and it worked perfectly! A couple of clicks and everything was done.

Super convenient. Thanks again!

[Greenlaw]

Awesome! Glad you figured out a solution!