Need help understanding Illustrator Layer Structure

[media kat]

I have opened a few downloadable template puppet files, and I noticed that there are differences with which Layers, sublayers, etc. are included, and which are not, as well as how they are named.

Looking at the two attached screenshots of Layers from two different Templates, there seems to be Consistency with the Top most Layer that includes the Puppet's name, the Head sublayer and the separate Body Layers.

1. Why are there differences with how the artwork on each layer are named? Can you name the objects anything your want? Do you only need to name the key Layers of "Head", "Background" and "Body" with flexibility with the rest?

2. Looking at the blank template layer, if I wanted to add a tail, do I just select the Body sublayer and design my tail? If so, new object layers are created underneath the Body sublayer and I can just rename them "Tail"?

Thanks!

[Monika Gause]

You have to research that in the Character Animator documentation. There are some trigger names that help with setting up the structure in CA, but it is not a "must".

Naming the layers accordingly in Illustrator just streamlines the import. In CA you can also do the assignment.

Some of the sample puppets might be older. At that time, the naming and structure was relevant for importing them.

[TheOriginalGC]

You do not absolutely have to name the layers anything, as long as they are in the right order. The exceptions to that rule are the visemes for the mouth (it's very helpful to have the correct names for those parts) and the head itself - not because CH needs to identify the head so much as it's far too easy for CH to "autotag" more than one layer as the head, causing all sorts of problems. The face parts also frequently get autotagged, so it's very useful to use the proper layer names for the eyebrows, eyes and so on. But if you need to, you can also add those tags in rigging, just as long as you're careful not to add the same tag to more than one layer.

[Daniel McKittrick Ramirez]

Character Animator is quite flexible in supporting PS and AI documents with different naming and structure conventions. Maybe too flexible!

I do wish we had more consistency with the template puppets. My recommendation is this:

- Always have a top level group in your PS/AI document named "+Puppet". The "+" will make the layer an independent mesh, which you want for the entire puppet.
- Inside "+Puppet", use one of our view names, e.g., "+Right Quarter". Again, the "+" will make the view layer an independent mesh which is generally what you want. 
- Don't create redundant groups like "Body" in an effort to keep things clean. This forces everything inside that group to render in the same layer order position which prevents you from doing something like putting one arm in front of the head and the other behind the head.