Importing Symbols and Templates

There are several ways you can import symbols and templates in your scene.

Sometimes a character rig is not a straightforward matter. Rigs, which are usually saved as templates, can contain symbols such as a leg that was made with a patch. However, a symbol does not work in the same way as an action template. In the Timeline view, you can add an action template into another template of the same structure. When working on a layer on the right side of the Timeline view and you place a symbol into a symbol of the same structure, instead of being added to the previous symbol, the new symbol becomes a copy.

For greater control over how the action template behaves when brought into the Timeline view, you can use the Paste Special feature—see Using Paste Special.

Since a template is like a scene, you can open the template's folder and select elements inside it such as drawings.

Instead of importing the entire contents of a template, you may only want to import a few drawings or a palette. In this case, use the Open As Folder command to import the items you want.

If you want to import a palette, simply drag the palette file into the Palette list section of the Colour view.

You can use the Expand Symbol command to extract a symbol's contents and place it on the root timeline. The symbol will not be removed from the Timeline view. Its contents will be copied and inserted into the root timeline. The symbol's layers will be parented to it in case you created motions and transformations on the drawing layer that contains the symbol. Breaking the hierarchy could result in the loss of any scaling and animation you may have created.

You can also expand a symbol within a group to avoid crowding the timeline with a series of layers. When you expand the symbols, the layers will be contained in a group module that you can expand to see the content.