Eye rig- making lids invisible?

[Gibble]

Hey Gang!

I am setting up an eye rig and I want the starting frame [Fr.01] to be invisible.
See below for a better understanding.

It seems I cannot animate the Smart Bone to control visibility from 0% to 100%- or is this possible? I may be simply unaware of how to do this too.

Option 2: Switching the Layer Order to hide the starting point to be behind the eyeball- but this seems messy and I am sure there is a cleaner solution.
I am open to any suggestions on how to make this work in a different way too. Masks won't be an option though b/c I want the eyelid to also cover the black ring around the eyesocket too.

[Greenlaw]

There are many ways to do this. Here are a handful of suggestions...

- If the item is in its own layer, keyframe the layer's visibility. This is what I usually do.
- If the item is in the same layer as the rest of the eye, keyframe the alpha for the Style.
- Enable Animated Shape Order and hide the item behind other shapes in the layer.
- If the eye is a mask, animate the lid to outside the mask in a single frame.
- If the elements are in the same layer, use Liquid Shapes to mask out the element.
- Use a Switch layer to switch to a version without the item, or if it's in its own layer, switch to an empty layer.

I've used any of the above at one time or another. The best/easiest approach depends on how you've layered the items out, and how you're animating it.

Fun design, btw...what I can see of it, anyway.

[Gibble]

Thanks so much for all the great solutions, DR! There are many good options to choose from. I appreciate that you listed out all the possibilities, that is a great help!
And thanks for the kind note on the character design. I completed all the turnaround, mouthcharts, expression, etc so now onto the rigging!
Thx DR!!!

[slowtiger]

If the lid is not masked, I make it "invisible" via point animation: just make it so small and place it on another outline.

[Gibble]

Thanks for that suggestion SlowTiger! Another great tip