I’m kicking myself for not discovering how “Save as new version” worked earlier. To give a general rundown:
1- Layers present will exist in the new versions
2- Edits to these layers’ drawings will be consistent across all versions, while timings will be unique. Adding new drawings to a layer will make them available in other versions.
3- You can add new layers to the new versions without affecting the old ones.
4- Likewise you can delete layers from the new versions without removing them from the old ones
I’ve seen some complaints about how things update, but that functionality is actually something that I actually want myself, and so far it’s been a big boon to my efficiency.
The big question I have is:
Is it possible to import drawing layers from one version into another?
E.g. say I have version SceneA and version SceneB. To scene B, I add an additional layer that gives a character a hat. Can I import this layer directly into scene A, so it has the properties of bullet point 2 and edits in either scene will carry over, or can I only copy it so it behaves like property 3 (which you’d do by opening multiple instances or just by using the library), where each one is a unique copy?
You could make a template for the layer in the library.
Then import the tpl into the other scene.
When you save as version the newer version should already
have access to the layer and drawings. It’s dangerous to go
back and forth across drawing versions because you may delete
something in an older version that is used in a newer one.
If you’re using scene versioning be very careful what you delete
or modify. Disable the layer instead of deleting it for safety.
If you need to modify a drawing, instead copy it to a new drawing
(with it’s own cel label) and modify the copy instead.
From testing, the program actually warns you if you are gonna delete something outright, and you can de-check the box so it stays in the project but will be available to other versions.
Having dealt with flash for a long time, I’m no stranger to the risks (and advantages) of linked components. It’s not a big deal for me to just duplicate a drawing if I need to actually modify it (rather than update or fix an error).
As far as I understand though, using the library creates a copy of the components–which would mean editing drawings in one version wouldn’t carry over to the others. Or does it actually function differently?
I know when a version is saved to a library, you can overwrite versions in other files to introduce the updated components, but as far as I understood you have to re-save it to the library each time you update anything.
There are two aspects to the library, the default scene stuff that
already gets placed there automatically for each scene or a custom
template folder you create to store and manage templates.
When you make a template of a layer, all drawings of that layer that
are present when the template was made are available in the template.
You are correct in needing to re-save (or replace) the template any time
you want to update it.