Variants

Turn any layer with children into a mutually exclusive switch, so only one child shows at a time and which one is keyframeable.

A variant parent is any layer whose children have been turned into a switch: only the child at the active index renders. Swapping which one is active is a keyframeable property of the parent, not a separate action for every pose.

Turning a layer into a variant parent#

In Properties, turn on Variant for any layer that has children: the toggle only appears once the layer has at least one. The Variants panel opens on that layer and lays its children out as a thumbnail grid.

Only Shape, Pixel, Image, Group and Mesh children can be variants. Anything else (a Bone layer, a Drawing, Video, Audio, Camera or a nested Symbol) shows dimmed with a red cross and cannot be picked.

Choosing and keying a variant#

Click a thumbnail to make it the active variant. Past frame 1, with Switch armed in Auto-Key Channels, that click also drops a keyframe; otherwise use the panel's Set Key button. Double-click a thumbnail's name to rename the child layer, or double-click a thumbnail that is itself a variant parent to step inside it.

• Drag a thumbnail to reorder it: the same order the Layers panel and Timeline use.
• Right-click a thumbnail to assign it to a named group, so a busy set of variants can be filtered down.
• Ctrl+click or Shift+click to pick several thumbnails at once, ready for Animate Shapes.

Variant groups#

Groups are purely organisational: a filter over the panel's grid, with no effect on which variant is active. Right-click ▸ New Group… names one; the Group combo at the top of the panel switches between them.

Animate Shapes cycles#

Pick two or more thumbnails and press Animate Shapes to bundle them into a new child group that auto-advances through its members over time, with no keyframes needed. Set how many frames each one holds with Hold, right there in the panel (2 frames by default). A cycling group shows a small clapperboard band across its own thumbnail so you can spot it in the grid.

Linking variant parents#

Shape Link makes one variant parent drive another: pick the target in the panel, and every change to this layer's active variant pushes the same index to the linked one, clamped to however many children it has. Turn on Link Back to make the pair drive each other.