Keyframe two characters on separate animation layers

This workflow is useful if you have two characters interacting closely in your scene. You want to key both characters at the same time, but you also want to organize your keyframes separately, making it easier to go back and tweak them individually.

To keyframe two characters on separate layers

1. Load the two characters you want to keyframe.
2. Click twice to create two empty animation layers. (See also Create an animation layer.)

   The layers are named AnimLayer1 and AnimLayer2 by default. You will use these two empty layers as parents to organize two layer hierarchies, one for each character.

3. Rename the two empty layers “Character1” and “Character2”.
4. For each character, select the parent object of the character hierarchy, and add it to the animation layer. See also Add and remove attributes from animation layers.

   Now that you have the two layers set up, you can select the hips of both characters and keyframe them at the same time. The keyframes for each character are automatically set on their separate layers. (See also Keyframe objects in animation layers.)

   Tip:

   The recommended keying mode for this workflow is Hybrid. Refer to the Options menu in the Animation Layer Editor menu bar topic for more information on the keying modes.

5. Select the hips of both characters.

   Notice that both layers both display a green “traffic light” , indicating both are active and will receive keyframes when you set a key.

6. Select the first character’s hips. Notice that only the keyframes for that character display in the Time Slider.