Digital assets Anatomy of a digital asset

A subnetwork operator is used to gather together all the parts of your digital asset and acts as the asset’s outer container. While working on an asset you will be able to dive into the subnet to set up and edit the asset. Later when an animator works with an asset, the operators inside the subnetwork are locked and cannot be edited directly.

Digital assets can be nested within other digital assets to help break down a larger asset such as a character into more manageable parts. Each of these nested assets can have handles and controls that make it easier for animators to work with the parent asset.

When a subnet is turned into a digital asset operator, a new panel is added in the Parameter pane that contains all of those parameters promoted from the underlying network to the top level. These are the parameters that will be worked with by animators who are using the digital asset.

Interactive handles can be set up for a digital asset to provide direct manipulation within the Viewer pane for animators.

This panel is used by the technical director to create the digital asset controls and add help to the asset. This panel is locked down when the asset is put into the pipeline because the animator will focus on the Controls tab and any available handles.

The name that is set in the Type properties plays an important role. It is this name that is used to ensure proper updating when newer versions of an asset are put into the pipeline. Different versions of an asset are usually given the same name but are managed through different Operator type libraries.