Blender 4.2.2 - Can I do a link override of animation data between linked scenes?

Artistic Support Animation and Rigging
1

I’m hoping someone can walk me through this?

I’m a total noob when it comes to Links/Overrides.

I’m interested in the idea of having a rigged character (Rigify) in multiple scenes. I want to link all the data except the animation data. In other words, All the geo and Rigify armature are re-used to save file size. But unique NLA stacks in each scene.

I’ve been looking at everything I can find about this question but I haven’t found the info I need.

Can anyone offer advice? I’m in 4.2.2. Many thanks for any and all advice.

2

Hello !!

Hum, I’m not sure about that one, if you link and override the scene datablock it might be too much to ask and it might be that overrides don’t handle well those cases.

But maybe just linking all the content of your scene might work better, at this stage you need to try stuff , it’s not the usual use case for overrides I’d say…

3

Hi sozap, I appreciate the company.

I’m really wondering if I’ve done a good job of explaining what I’m trying to accomplish here. It seems like it should be doable.

4

To be honest I wasn’t completely sure what you meant either :slight_smile:

If the goal is to reuse a character without duplicating it, and just change animation from one shot to another, this is basically what overrides are for so that should work fine !

If you want to push thing further and have a master scene with camera, lights, and everything basically and you want to apply the same principle here, you’re pushing overrides too far even though, in theory some parts of this should work…

You might talk about a scene like if it’s a shot from your movie. But a scene is also something in blender that contains all the objects , with a frame in/out , render path and so on…

Maybe the confusion comes from here…

5

Actually you just put it exactly!

This is what I want to do. I have a rigged character and I want to reuse the geo/armature but I want to have a different NLA stack in each scene.

I’ve been trying to do this with a simple scene but I don’t get how to break the link of the animation data block.

I hope my question makes more sense now? Thanks

6

Ok, I didn’t tried to override the NLA but IIRC this should be doable, how to you make the override ? I think there are different ways and ones overrides everything and should be preferred rather than creating them manually for all elements…

I’m a bit rusty on those but maybe someone will have an idea !

7

The library override is per datablock. For an animation of a posed armature, it is at object level.

If you link same rig object in different scenes of same file, its animation will be same in those scenes.
It correspond to same library override.
But armature datablock can be the same for several rig objects, and their animation can be different.

As long as rig object datablock has a single user, animation can be unique.

8

Thank you zeauro, that’s exactly what I’m looking for.

My question is how do I do it??

I made a sample file for experimentation: a single bone armature and a cube parented to it.

I gave it 3 different animations in the NLA.

I call this scene 1.

I make a Linked Copy of scene 1, renamed it scene 2.

So how do I make it so I can edit the NLA stack in scene 2 without affecting scene 1?

That’s my question.

9

The issue is to make a linked copy of scene.
When you do that, you link the objects of one scene in the other one.
So, that is the same object in both scenes. It is normal, it has same animation in both scenes.

From there, you have to create another collection in original scene, and move armature and character to it.
They should disappear from the other scene.
Relink those objects to copy of originalscene.
Create another collection in copy of original scene. Move them to this collection without equivalent in original scene.
The Object properties tab should show that those objects have 2 users, 2 different collections.
Click on the visible 2 for armature and character or use Make Single User operator on selection of those objects.
The objects are now, different per collection, per scene. They can handle a different animation.

A Library Override is for another purpose. It has to be used when an asset is created as part of a library.
You create character, rig it and mark the collection as an asset and save it as a file, in a folder used as your asset library.
Then, when you create file of the animation ; you link asset by importing character collection (mesh + armature) through asset browser or through File menu > Link > file browser window.
That is a link of data between files, not a link of objects between scenes.

Then, linked asset is fixed as in its original file. There, you have to create a library override to be able to pose armature.
To do it, use the Object menu > Library Override > Make, in 3D Viewport, or use Right Click menu > Library Override > Make, on item in Outliner.

If you want several similar assets in same file, it may be simpler to relink them and recreate a new library override, each time.
Trying to duplicate linked asset may be problematic according to how are set-up your duplicate user preferences.

Maybe it is simpler to start to test library override by creating environment props. Just create a library override to place it.
When it is understood, you can try to create pose assets for animation. Pose libraries are also made of assets to append.
That should allow you, to create animations faster.

10

zeauro, thank you so much for your informative response. I will study what you said in addition to all the research I’m doing regarding scenes and link overrides.

In my searching I came across this:

From Brave Search:

" Scene Overrides are specifically limited by design: you cannot directly override a linked scene’s settings or create library overrides for objects within a “linked copy” scene created via the scene menu. This is because linked copy scenes share the exact same data blocks, and library overrides strictly apply to data linked from separate .blend files. To achieve different behaviors per scene, you must link assets from distinct library files or use workarounds like Object Color drivers or View Layer isolation. "

Again, much appreciation. I’m going to immerse myself so I can ask more intelligent questions.

For anyone else interested in this type of inquiry (and to remind myself in the future), I have found these to be helpful:

From Notes Received:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLXKZYsl2wI

And from Pierrick Picaut:

Again, many thanks!