When I create a basic free bone character (not a G2 or G3 canned actor) I can't seem to find a way to get the Layer Editor to show. So I can't seem to change the order of the layers in any actor I create. Is this an inherent limitation to the program - layer editor just doesn't work on you're own basic actors? Not sure what I'm doing wrong or if this is possible now. I've seen tutorials on using the layer editor, and it's pretty clear, but when I use my own actors the layer editor button/menu selection will not turn on no matter what I try. I just want to move one hand over the other. 

Any help? Thanks in advance.

The Layer Editor should work with Free Bone characters. With the character selected in Stage Mode press L on the keyboard to display the Layer Editor.

If this isn't working with your character, try loading one of the sample FreeBone characters that come with CTA4 and check with this character. Does this work?

                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

Thank you for addressing my post and giving me a path for troubleshooting forward. Right now I'm working on an animation that (thankfully) doesn't have this issue (sprite based animations only). I used a work around to fix the animations that display this problem -- which is every one of them that use any free bone character I've created -- by blocking the viewer from seeing the issue using a variety of methods that added time to the creation of the animation (that included rereading that awful online manual over and over and searching and viewing more youtube videos than I ever want to see again), and made me modify other things I shouldn't have had to fool around with. The end result added a great deal of time to the project. Naturally I feel a little aggravated by this work around and the time I wasted trying to get the layer editor to work and then redirecting the animation scenes by changing a bunch of stuff I didn't want to change to begin with. That's enough to stress anyone out. When I finish my current project and have some spare time I'll get back into this issue and let you know if the canned actor allows the layer editor function to work as described. Thanks again. I do appreciate the help. 

Glad to hear you have been able to work around the problems you were having.

FreeBone characters are easy to create and allow you to pretty much animate anything you want, but of course the downside is you can't use G3 motion clips with them and can only keyframe your animations. If you want to be able to use G3 character animations from the library then you have to use standard G3 characters.

As you have found the learning curve in software like Cartoon Animator is a little steep and things can get frustrating, but the rewards are worth it I think in the end. Hopefully, as you spend more with CTA4 you will find things more enjoyable and a little less stressful. 

                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com