Question Best workflow for flexibility, working with bones?

Hi everybody,

I did a couple of steps:

#1. I just made a character in Prhotoshop.
#2. Imported it and added bones to it.

Then I noticed I couldn't set a new bone as the main parent one because of "Cannot restructure Prefab instance".

#3. So I created a new original prefab.

Then I noticed a mistake and wanted to adjust some bone stuff, but I couldn't find how to do this on the new original prefab. I can adjust it on the Original but then I loose all my work of the new original.

I would really like a way I can keep adding stuff in photoshop, and working with every prefab version without doing double work.

I looked at Anima2D, it seems to be flexible in this way but it also looks like Unity is gonna deprecate it.

Anyway, what's the best way of solving these kind of issues?
What is the most flexible workflow?
And can you (if you know) put a link to a youtube clip that explains this?

With kind regards,
Nymo

 

you can get this asset https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/anyportrait-111584

solves ur issues. well, it cost 50 USD but it is worth it for your time.

 

The way you're wording everything is a bit confusing, but I'll try to shed some light where I can.

First of all, AnyPortrait is a lot more confusing than Unity's animation package. It looks like a really good tool for complex characters, but don't switch to it if you want things to be easier. It will be more difficult to change things after the fact.

If you want to work on every prefab at once, you need to update the original; the prefabs will inherit the changes. Don't move the bones around in the prefab, edit the bones in the original (where you created them).

If you want to add new parts to your character as you go, just save your PSB file over the one in Unity, and it should update accordingly. There are occasionally bugs, so make sure to back up your project regularly.

Hopefully this helps; your questions are a bit confusing and if you add images or video explaining your issues more clearly, it might be easier to help.

 

@Gamingbir that looks awesome!

 

@WeakInteractive hey thanks for your reply

First of all, AnyPortrait is a lot more confusing than Unity's animation package. It looks like a really good tool for complex characters, but don't switch to it if you want things to be easier. It will be more difficult to change things after the fact.

Agreed (but it looks awesome )

If you want to work on every prefab at once, you need to update the original; the prefabs will inherit the changes. Don't move the bones around in the prefab, edit the bones in the original (where you created them).

So this part: "Then I noticed a mistake and wanted to adjust some bone stuff, but I couldn't find how to do this on the new original prefab. I can adjust it on the Original but then I loose all my work of the new original."

Went as follows: I imported the file, drew some bones, then went into the hierarchy (so i'm no longer in the drawing bones area), and in the hierarchy I see that the most top bone, the bone that everything is connected to, has a weird angle and so it doesn't move right on the position axises. So I wanted to replace this main bone. But I couldn't because I wasn't aloud to make adjustments like replacing the bone because it would break the original prefab.

So I learned that after the bones and wights of the bones where set in the original, there was no way for me to adjust these settings in prefab varients (so I would like to open the setting bones and weigts window for prefab varients, but I don't know how to, or if it's even possible).

And also, I don't know how to rearange bone hierarchy in the original after all the bones are set and weights are put on them, I just couldnt find this option. So reconnecting bones wasn't an option that I saw. Does that exist? Can I make another bone and attach every other bone to that one?

Is there a way to make adjustments in the prefabs varients?
and still commit new things to the original (and so also the prefabs created from the original)? This would be really nice if it is possible.

If you want to add new parts to your character as you go, just save your PSB file over the one in Unity, and it should update accordingly. There are occasionally bugs, so make sure to back up your project regularly.

Good tip!

Hopefully this helps; your questions are a bit confusing and if you add images or video explaining your issues more clearly, it might be easier to help.

Thanks again, I now read what I wrote and I see that it was too much without context.

 

Hey, thanks for the clarification. You can edit the bones, meshes and weights at any time. It looks like you're having trouble finding them after your first import; hopefully I understood that correctly.

So to edit bones, you need to click on your PSB file in your project:

(If it doesn't have the image of your character, and just has the default PSB logo, your PSD importer package might not be working correctly, and I'd try re-importing it, or testing in a blank 2D project).

Then click on "Sprite Editor" in the inspector:


Once there, Click on the top left button that says Sprite Editor, and switch to "Skinning Editor."


Now you can edit anything you want and all the changes will be applied to all of your prefab instances:


Click on "Visibility" in the top right corner to see your bone Hierarchy:

Hopefully this helps. I work with this system a lot, so let me know if you still need help with anything, and hopefully I understood your problem correctly.

 

@WeakInteractive Hi man, thanks again, the visibility was what I was after. This helps a lot