Deleteing an action or smartbone

[Telemacus]

I've noticed that when I create a smartbone dial and then delete it later, I actually have to go down to each layer and remove the smartbone instances of each sublayer (which appear greyed out).
Is there a quicker way to remove a smartbone without having to do that?

[Víctor Paredes]

If you delete the action in the main layer, it will be also erased in the child layers.

[Telemacus]

Yes, that makes a lot of sense. I guess I must have deleted it when I was on a sub-layer.
Thanks!

[Noisefever]

I have the same problem. I have an action (no smartbone, just an action) which is distributed on more layers. If I insert that action then all the subactions on the sublayers seem to be individuals. I can't delete or reposition them all at once by manipulating the top most instance. It drives me crazy! Is there something I miss?

[synthsin75]

The OP is talking about deleting the action (in the action window), not the keyframes. Smart bones are the only way to delete or change the position or timing for actions across multiple layers, since smart bones do not write keyframes other than for the bone. So if you need to edit actions once on the mainline, I would suggest making them smart bone actions.

[Noisefever]

Ah I see, my fault.

But nevertheless this behaviour is really bad. Complex actions are totally useless this way. I can't use a bone in every situation.
Lets say I have an action which is endless: "starting an shower". This is an action which I just start an then it runs until I start another action: "ending shower". How would you solve this with a bone? There is a starting part with some frames and then a looping part. And for the end there is an ending part. As far as I see bones not applicable for an action like this. Or do I miss something?

Can you please help me out of this problem? Thank you!

[slowtiger]

You can have Actions made of Point or Layer animation anytime. This was always possible, would surprise me if it doesn't work in v11.

[Noisefever]

yes of course, but if an action affects more than one layer it will spreaded on each of this layers seperately.
For example: if my "start shower" action is defined on a group which have 3 layers, then it will be referenced to each of these 3 layers (and to make it worse: not in the group layer). So, if I want to delete or move the ONE action, I have to edit all 3 layer representations. Horrible workflow!

[synthsin75]

Ah I see, my fault.

But nevertheless this behaviour is really bad. Complex actions are totally useless this way. I can't use a bone in every situation.
Lets say I have an action which is endless: "starting an shower". This is an action which I just start an then it runs until I start another action: "ending shower". How would you solve this with a bone? There is a starting part with some frames and then a looping part. And for the end there is an ending part. As far as I see bones not applicable for an action like this. Or do I miss something?

Can you please help me out of this problem? Thank you!

You can cycle the smart bone just like you would the animation in a continuous action (I assume "starting an shower" starts a cycled animation?). You could then even go so far as to give that smart bone a regular action, that does the cycling at your predefined timing.

And it's super easy to make any existing action a smart bone action.

[Noisefever]

Oh yes, you're right. I haven't thought about that: animate that bone in an action too. Thank you so much!

I see, I have much left to learn

[sillyanimate]

I have a question, I am not sure missed something
But can smartbones be used for a cycles

Example: Walk Cycle

That way with if I change the smartbone keyframe (in mainline), the walk cycle would go faster or slow?

[Noisefever]

Yes, exact.