Pose Library Deconstructed

I understand how the pose library works and how to create then and or delete them. However I am still trying to understand the relationship between the pose library and the dope sheet or action editor.

For example, I created a set of phonemes in the action editor and created new poses in the pose library for my phonemes. But when I went back to the dope sheet I saw the keyframes in my timeline and deleted them assuming they would still be in the pose library.

My thought was that the pose library kept a record of the pose and that I would start with a clean dope sheet to build an animation and then access the poses I needed. But when I did that, with the rig selected, the pose did not appear when selected from the pose library. I know this is all because I am still unfamiliar with the relationship between the pose library and the dope sheet. Any information on the connection?

What I dont fully understand is that I can see in the action editor that keyframes are added when I create a pose in the pose library and they appear in the actual timeline. This seems odd to me. I thought that the poses were saved in the pose library for you to use later in the timeline. I know I am missing something but anyone have any instruction on how the pose library works with the dope sheet and the actual timeline, I am all ears.

When you create a pose library, what you are actually doing is creating an action. You can have several actions in a .blend file, but only one action will be the current action for an object. Actions are found in the dope sheet. The dope sheet has several modes, found in the dope sheet’s menu bar. Switching the dope sheet to be an action editor lets you work with actions. You can now create/assign different actions to any object.

For example, if you create a rotation action for the standard cube, you’ll see keys in the dopesheet, but when you switch the dope sheet to an action editor, you see it as an action. In the action editor, you could name this action ‘rotateCube’. In the action editor you can now remove this action from the cube and create a new action for the cube. Name the action ‘locationCube’ and set keys for the cube moving around, changing location. You now have 2 actions for the cube, but only one action can be active. The active action in the one you see when the dope sheet is set to be a dope sheet editor. To switch between actions, you have switch have the dope sheet to an action editor. Now you can change actions.

So, if you have an armature, and it has no actions, and you create a pose library, that will be the current action displayed in the dope sheet editor. After you create a pose library, go to the dope sheet and switch it to an action editor. You can now add a new action to your object, and when switching back to the dope sheet you will see those keys.

There are also some tricks/faults with actions. Actions if zero users of the action won’t be saved when the file is saved, or something like that…

Feel free to ask questions,
Randy

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It is probably simplest to think of poses as not being related to keyfames - in the current Action. They are just stored positions. You don’t even need to create key frames to have them. Nor do they need to have an Action in order to be created. I mean yes there is a pose library Action with keyframes. So you can go into that action and create Poses. You will notice that the keyframes there are created automatically. You could also manually create them there in the pose Action.

But when you are actually animating you are not using the Pose action. Create a new action and start animating. Then you can simply browse the poses and add them where you want them.

After you chose and add a pose you then have to key frame it in the current action your animating in

Make sense?

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Yes, all makes sense thanks guys, and it is coming together. But here is my question. Let me say that I created all of these poses in the pose library, all have their own actions in the dope sheet showing the corresponding keyframe associated with the pose from the pose library. Now I want to begin a fresh animation from scratch utilizing the poses from the pose library but I look down at my timeline and I see key frames created from the recorded actions from the pose library. I dar not delete them in the dope sheet since they are connected to poses in the pose library. What do I do to start with a fresh timeline with no keyframes to begin an animation from scratch with poses in the pose libray still intact to be used later as I animate? Thanks again for explaining this. I am wrapping my head around so much in Blender and it is making sense but sometimes there are these small things that mean a lot.

I think you are just confusing one small part. First. Just to be clear. You don’t even need to open the pose lib in the action editor or dope sheet. Blender does all of this in the background. You can leave it all alone.

Unless… you want to go in and edit that pos lib, directly and manually in the dope sheet or graph editor, or even keep it open as you create poses. At that point, yes. You can open it as an action. You have options here.

But animating is a separate thing entirely. You do that in a separate Action. The pos lib exists in the background and you access it through commands in the pose menu or use the keyboard short cuts. You never have to touch the keyframes in the pose lib action because it should not be open when you are animating. If you are also creating poses while you animate, that is fine too. You don’t have to keyframe those poses in the current action at all. When you create a pose it will store the keyframes for that pose in the pose library. A separate action updated in the background.

The only time you must make pose keyframes is when you want to use the pose on the timeline in your current Action that you are animating (not the pose lib action) which is empty when you start and also maybe full of keyframes you have been animating thus far.

Again to also be clear. All your poses are kept in one pose lib action. I suppose you can have more than one library but that is another subject.

There is also this to help:

https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc%3A2.6/Manual/Rigging/Posing/Pose_Library

But I can’t find it. EDIT: Found it. Properties panel below bone groups.

Then this looks pretty cool.

So:

Pose Action - works in the BG. Don’t touch it.
Current Animation Action - in the FG use it to create keyframes from poses you make by hand or get from the library.

And then so:

What is a Pose?

It is just translation, rotation and scale values on the items you are animating at a particular frame.

How do you make a pose?

Simply transform your items. Done. You have made a pose. That is what a pose is.

How to preserve the pose while animating?

  1. Create keyframes in your current Action.
  2. Create a pose (which stores it as keyframes in another BG action)

How do you use a pose?

  1. Copy or duplicate any frame on the timeline with keyframes and paste it or slide it (duplicate) to another frame.
  2. Grab it from the pose library (but don’t open the pose lib action) using the pose menu. And then create keyframes for it in the Current Action.

This may help: