Deforming symbols in a rig

Hello,
I am prety new in TB and there are some things which I just can´t figure out.

  • I have a rig created from symbols (so i can swap drawings/poses inside of the symbol). I put symbols to pegs and created a parented hierarchy. Now I want to use curve derformers to animate separate body parts - but still keep the option to swap drawings inside of symbols - inside of pegs. I need to adjust or recreate a deformer for each drawing in the symbol (they have different shape) - I don´t mind that - but I have problems that when I put the deformer above the drawing layer in the symbol, they are animatable only inside of the symbol - not in the main scene. And when I create a deformer on the peg, I can swap the drawings but it still works as 1 symbol and I can´t create “new drawign on the layer” > I can´t create a new deformer.

Would you anybody have some tips? Thank you very much, Hanika

Hi John,
thank you for advice - I have already tried to explore it, but it seems it works only with a separate drawings on a layer, not with drawigns in symbols. I would need more exact explanation… :-/

I didn’t come to Harmony from Flash, so I’m not real big on using symbols. However, I believe I’ve seen documentation on converting symbols back to drawings. It looks like working with drawings can provide more latitude in our work-flow. It may not be as compact as working with symbols, but it may be what we just have to do to get the quality we’re after.

I’ve got to get some work out the door right now. I’ll look into this again if things slow down at the studio. Note that even if you’re using drawings, you can scroll through the drawings of any layer by using the library (slider button) - just like symbols.

I have had some similar concerns and found some interesting things by expanding (opening) the deformer module in schematic view. I’m not in front of my workstation right now, but you can change the way the deformer handles a drawing layer. You will have to experiment some. With a little persistence you will find options that Toon Boom hasn’t documented yet.