Is there a way to link layers in separate groups to move with the same handle?

[DoomStein]

What I'm trying to do is make a mouth that has a hinged jaw with teeth that overlap the edges of the mouth. Here are pictures of the mouth closed and open to illustrate better what I'm trying to say:

In order to do this so far I had to make 4 layers. From the bottom to top layer there is the red layer that is the inside of the mouth. The next layer is the top layer of the mouth without the first 2 teeth. Then comes the lower jaw with the 2 fangs. And on the top layer are the first 2 teeth on the top of the mouth. In Illustrator everything is fine when I select the jaw's 2 layers and move them but in Character Animator I can only grab one of the layers at a time. I have the draggable handles overlapping on both layers in CA but it seems random which one it grabs. At any rate, is there a way to link those two layers together so they move as one despite being in a layer sandwich?

I apologize if there is something simple that I'm overlooking. I haven't been using CA for long and only in my spare time, of which there isn't a lot of.

[chrisn14887705]

You need to add a dragger behavior to at least one of the layers. If you don't give them their own dragger behavior, CH uses the general dragger behavior for both layers. And one behavior only lets you drag one dragger at a time.

[DoomStein]

I managed to get both to move at the same time but have no idea what made it possible. However, it then caused the inside layer to drag whenever I'd drag either one of my hands anywhere. So I gave up, trashed my puppet, and started again. Unfortunately, now I'm stuck trying to attach both lower jaws together again.

[chrisn14887705]

I've had the same problems. When you select a layer and scroll down on the right side, you can click the + symbol to add behaviors. If you give them their own behavior they'll react at the same time. On the right side of the scene window you can see all of your behaviors with red dots and visibility toggles. With the red dots you can decide which behavior you want to record. You could first only record the hand- or general dragger, then only record the jaw draggers, that way they'll never bother each other.

[Dan Ramirez]

I don't think the ideal solution is multiple draggable handles.

I've got some ideas, but they might not work, so if you're interested in having me spend some time rigging your puppet, please send it to dramirez|at|adobe.com and I'll see what I can do.

Thanks,

Dan R.

CH QA

[oksamurai]

First, a hinged nutcracker jaw is coming soon - should be an easier way to do this.

For the Dragger, you get one Dragger behavior added to the top level of your puppet automatically when you first import (along with Face, Eye Gaze, etc). When you click and drag, that will look for the closest dragger handle and move it. If you added more Dragger behaviors to individual layers/groups, it will try to also move those at the same time. If you added more Dragger behaviors at the top level and arm them one at a time, then you would be able to record one and see how it plays out while recording the next one - otherwise all draggers are always in "ready to record" mode and will move back to their default positions if armed (red dot is on).