What is an Action template?

An Action Template is a type of template that is saved in the Harmony library. It is defined as an Action Template by what is saved in the Library, and how it is used, otherwise it is like any other Library template in terms of format.

What is a template?

A template is a file format unique to Harmony and Storyboard Pro that allows you to access and reuse elements from your project, like animation, images, rigs, camera movements, etc. 

All templates are created via the Library view as a .tpl file.

Why is it called an Action template?

An Action template is called such because it specifically saves an action, or animation, of a character, and it can contain these actions in isolated parts of a rig. While Master templates contain the rig and all of its poses and substitutions, Action templates only contain an animated sequence of the whole rig, or part of the rig. Therefore, Action templates must be created from, and used with, a Master template. For more information, see What is a Master template?

Examples of Action templates:

• A walk cycle.
• A head turn containing keyframes & drawings made from just the head hierarchy of a rig.
• A blink or lip-sync made from just the drawing layer of the mouth or eyes.
• Keyframes from a specific peg in the rig.

Action templates allow multiple animators to easily reuse and edit animation on the same Master rig.

About creating Action templates

Action templates can only be used on the rig they were created from as the Action template can only apply animation to a hierarchy that matches its own. When creating Action templates, make sure of the following:

• The Master rig is finalised, or as finalised as it will be for this phase of the production.
• If the Master rig is changed significantly in any way (pivots, deformers, naming, etc), the Action templates should be remade with the new version of the rig.

Since Action templates always contain animation, the templates are always created by pulling the animation from parts of the Timeline view into the Library view. You can select a single layer, or entire sections of the rig.

The template will save the following information on peg, deformer and drawing layers:

• Keyframes, interpolations, and eases
• Drawing timing and exposure

When pulling animation into the Library, it is recommended that you close up any hierarchies of the sections you want to include as this will prevent you from leaving elements behind. You always want to make sure that all layers that contain the animation you want are included in the template.

Make sure you name your Action templates accordingly.

About using Action templates

If the Action template was created from the same rig it is being applied to, simply drag the Action template from the Library and drop it onto the same layer that it was created from.

Examples:

• If the template was created from a single layer, open the rig and drop the template onto that layer.
• If the template was created from the closed master peg of the head, find that layer, make sure the master peg is closed, and drop the template onto the same layer/peg.

In other words, the layer and its open/closed state must be exactly the same as it was when the template was created, otherwise the Action template will not be able to apply the animation.

Action templates can be dropped in at any duration in the timeline. You will know when you can drop the Action template when you see a yellow indicator on the layer.