How to maintain child-parent symbol hierarchy when break apart is applied to a head container symbol? [Tutorial]

Question

In the SMR MagneBot rig, when break apart is applied to the head container symbol (that has all the head angles), the hierarchy between the neck and head is still kept intact. When I attempt to do this with my own rig, however, the rig is broken and moving the neck with KineFlex no longer moves the head, and I need to use FreeStyle Smart Magnet rigging to reestablish the hierarchy. What can I do to replicate the effect the SMR MagneBot rig head container has symbol?

Answer 1

I recorded a video demonstrating the method (RORI) described below:

Answer 2

Use Roll Over Rig Info button (RORI) in SMR Helpers to transfer the metadata from one container to another.

You will find details and video demonstration here.

 

If you use the FreeStyle Rigging tool after breaking apart the head, this will give it a different ID than the one of the container, while if you roll it over with RORI you will maintain rig integrity.

You can check element IDs when you load the rig in Smart Magnet Rig panel, then hover over the nodes. The ID will be displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the panel.

 

If you already have your structures in place, you can use any symbol instance to transfer SMR info from the outer wrapper to the head angles inside:

Just create a box on the head container layer, convert it to a symbol and use RORI to write the SMR info into it.

Then cut it and paste it inside the container where your head angles are. Select it and use RORI to write that same SMR info into the head angles. Then delete the temp instance.

Now when you break apart, the different head angles will be part of the same rig.