The habit of linking assets from library files is the most useful and used, I would say, not only in a Blender based workflow, but also in the industry. A linked asset, in our case a creature character, can be placed and animated even if not already completed in all its parts, thus it allows a team to work almost at the same time on the different aspects. In our case, the Gidiosaurus is still missing texturing and shaders, but can already be placed on stage and animated anyway.
To link an asset in Blender and keep the possibility of animating it through a rig, we must make a proxy of the rig itself. A proxy object overrides the animation controls of a linked object in a non-destructive way, so that an animator can animate it locally to the .blend
file the rigged character has been linked to. This way, the linked character object retains all its original information and is only locally altered by the proxy object scene.
As the first thing, we must prepare the library, so open the Gidiosaurus_final_detailing.blend
file:
Gidiosaurus_library.blend
.Gidiosaurus_library.blend
file, then click on the Group folder item, and finally click on the Gidiosaurus item. Click on the Link from Library button to the top right of the screen.A new object has appeared at the 3D Cursor location (that should be placed at the center of the scene), and what we have got at this point is the linked Gidiosaurus group; this means that the character and any other object inside the Gidiosaurus group in the library file are now linked and instanced on an Empty that is named Gidiosaurus as well:
Remember that in the library file, inside the Gidiosaurus group we put also the rig, which for the moment is not visible in the linked group because it is hidden in the library file.
The rig appears as a separate object in the Outliner, identified by the name Gidiosaurus_proxy; at this point, it is possible to only select the rig (which is still in Object Mode) and move it to a different layer.
Gidiosaurus_proxy.blend
.At this point, looking at the viewport Properties sidepanel, we will see the Rig Layers interface usually created by the Rigify addon, but if we save the file and reopen it, the interface is gone.
This is because, at least for the moment, the Python script that draws the rig interface doesn't get automatically linked with the rig, so it's something we must do by hand. This is not a big issue, and by the way, the procedure is incredibly simple:
Gidiosaurus_library.blend
file, click on it, and then click on the Text item. Click on the rig_ui.py item (the Python script for the interface) and then on the Link from Library button.3.22.66.140