So I’ve been doing animation using the NLA Editor with linked actions (with some local actions as well) and linked characters using proxy rigs. My file currently has 3 linked characters.
Sometimes when a file is opened (with some work previously saved on it), the proxy rigs disappears completely - it doesn’t exist in the Outliner, and so the layers of animation tracks on the NLA for that character are gone as well. The linked character mesh is still there so that means the group didn’t get unlinked, right?
I’ve noticed a pattern that each time this happened: I had opened the character file and edited it, and the proxy rig that disappears in the animation file is the one whose character file I just edited. I thought this might be an issue with having multiple files with linking relationships open simultaneously, so as a precaution I made sure that only I only have one blender file open at a time. But this didn’t seem to help since one of the proxy rigs disappeared again when I re-opened my file.
Anyone have any ideas why this might happen? I’m using blender 2.69
Thanks in advance
Not sure about this one. I’ve started using proxies in the last few months too and have had some weird things go on for sure.
A few times I did have to experiment with re-adding proxy rigs and locating carefully based on the previous empty, then relinking the actions to the rig again. Make sure you give the actions a fake user before saving if you have to go there.
Recently I’ve been extra careful of my relative paths, and also using the ‘Edit linked library’ addon, which lets you click a button to save-open linked blend asset, then click ‘return to original’ to reload your scene file with the updated blend. This seems to save some problems, and is definitely a big time-saver when you’re doing lots of tweaking.
There’s also an issue with protected bone layers, but I can’t remember the details at the moment.
And one last thought. Brecht has fixed a couple of things with proxies (e.g. not rendering properly on first frame) in the latest builds, so probably worth picking up one from http://builder.blender.org and testing.
Like you, I’m looking forward to the overhaul of the library linking system that should be coming with the next open movie.