Links & Library Overrides are still glitchy after 4 years of development

We use about 3 tiers usually.

Character Rig for example.

And as a note we have very strict guides for this. And this basic guide was sussed out discused, visual graphs made and agreed before linking was used.

The artist is free to update all that they feel necessary to the original mesh object. These "name"v.000 versions live completely in another folder named WIP.

And the model file (no rig) always has the same extention. “Character_Name _MDL”.

The linked (_MDL) file always has a copy of itself in the WIP folder.

For example the latest .031 file is always the same as the _MDL file.

If changes are made .032 now is the same as the _MDL file. And so on.

This ensures that working versions are never ovewritten and debugging link breaks is easy. And the chain can be restored easily to the last working version.

This is all done manually!

No script.

The current linked file also has strict naming conventions in it. Strict guides that all artists must follow to structure and name collections within the file. So the _MDL file is always structured exactly the same from asset to asset.

And so it goes through the whole pipeline.

Each tier has only one logical override.

The _MDL file is linked into a rig file with its own location and also WIP folder.

It gets the name _RIG

The Character object(s) have an override so that they can be rigged.

This final _RIG file is then linked into an Animation File and now the rig has an override so it can be animated.

And so it goes through all of the assets.

The RIG file also has a proxi model for the animator in the case the original mesh is too heavy for animation.

And this ends the linking process as far as that goes.

The original RIG files - not the animator files - are linked into another file where scene layout and lighting is done.

Animations (actions) are simply apended into that file. The rigs have another override (from the ogiginal _RIG file not the animators file) so that actions can be stored in that file and used on the same rig.

Shot cameras are then set up in that file. Lighting is set and animations are applied where needed.

One extra step (and production note) is that we always link Collections.

So in the example of a character that is needed in one file to perform several shots and different animations, a new collection is created in that file with the linked RIG collection inside it.

That collection is then duplicated as many times as needed with the necessary rig settings of the original animation and hand props needed for that shot or scene.

Therefore one file has now all of the envioronment ojects and props, as well as characters linked.

Not linked in that file are Camera, Lights, Actions.

If there are 20 shots in that scene, they all live in the same file so that any updates to characters,rigs and environment objects only need to be managed one time. ANd of course versions are made .001 etc. of that layout scene.

There is a constant back and forth iteration between the rigging team and the animator team, as well as the model team, and even texture team.

These changes must be carefully monitored up the chain.

Animations might need to be redone to tweek for the rig changes, model changes and so on.

But this is all manageble.

But it requres a structure and a discipline to follow that structure as well as a knowledge of what to expect and what to know won’t work.

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