Making Illustrator Puppet - Not Enough Sub-Layers

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
June 27, 2023
2 replies
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My puppet has a head hierarchy that's pretty standard: PuppetName - Head - Frontal - then face elements (Glasses, Left Eye, Right Eye, etc).

Here's the problem: I would love to put both eyes inside the Glasses layer, but I am unable to put them within that layer because Illustrator won't let me keep adding sub-layers apparently. I think I need all the hierarchy layers I currently have, so, what's the best way to overcome this limitation?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

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Correct answer David Arbor

It sounds like you might be trying to put a layer inside a group. It's not easy to tell what's what, but if you hit Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+G on your Glasses "layer" I'm guessing it will disappear and leave you only with what was inside. You likely need to make an actual layer called "Glasses" and then you should be able to put your eyes inside.

If that doesn't work because Glasses is an actual layer already, then just make the Eyes a group, not a layer, and put them inside.

D

David ArborCorrect answer

Inspiring

It sounds like you might be trying to put a layer inside a group. It's not easy to tell what's what, but if you hit Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+G on your Glasses "layer" I'm guessing it will disappear and leave you only with what was inside. You likely need to make an actual layer called "Glasses" and then you should be able to put your eyes inside.

If that doesn't work because Glasses is an actual layer already, then just make the Eyes a group, not a layer, and put them inside.

M

Mike281538326e2cAuthor

Participant

Thank you for this. This was a super-helpful answer. I've now got it nested just like I wanted (which I previously thought was not impossible). Getting rid of groups and then re-combining into layers was the secret sauce.

D

David Arbor

Inspiring

You're welcome! Yeah, it's tricky, especially if you use some of the included CH templates. The last time I checked, the Proteus puppet is actually a mix of layers and groups and it can lead to exactly the same issue you ran into.