How to work with multiple characters on a single rig?

[sritterfeld]

So here's my situation - I built a rig of a human character using an Illustrator file with separated layers, which I imported into After Effects. Using Duik Angela, I built the rig, and it all works nicely. To be able to make many characters quickly, I'm trying to figure out how I can easily create new poses and moves without having to rig up an entirely new character.

My workflow for that now is to duplicate the AI file, use guides to build a character in the same style as the original, and thanks to the guide, being able to replace the characters 1:1, without realigning much.

But now, I need to replace each layer one by one - alt-drag the layer, or ctrl + H to replace the footage - but to bulk replace the layers in the comp based on their name doesn't work.

I did manage to write a script that lets me select the exact files in the project panel and the comp, and it works, but it is still tedious. Ideally, I want AE to automatically detect the layers to be replaced and replace them with a script. Or to be able to simply duplicate and replace comps in the AE project with the new character files.

Is there a way to do this?

Thanks so much!

[Mylenium]

Long and short: No. All references in AE are based on absolute references and it simply has no way of doing any of that automatically.

Mylenium 

[Rick Gerard]

If you set up guides so all the hinges are in the same place and you follow exactly the same naming conventions, you can create a master comp, save it in a folder that contains the first character, then put your other character illustrations in their own comps and copy and paste the original master comp to each of the new character folders; you can just open the new comps and have them rigged and ready to go. 

You can then start a new AE project and start importing all of the master comps. If you change the name of the AEP for each character, AE's project panel will automatically create folders for each comp. You'll end up with a bunch of assets with the same name, but AE will keep the layers separate in each comp so you can do your combining or editing in a master AEP file.

If the hinge points are not all in exactly the same place, you'll need to edit your rig, but you won't have to rename anything. That's as close to automatic as you can make the process.