Referencing problem - similar rigs sometimes transfer specific attributes?

[Anonymous]

Hey guys,

We're using Maya's referencing pretty heavily in our pipeline and for the most part its working great. There are a few quirks but its mostly smooth sailing.

However there is one issue I can't seem to solve consistently. 

When importing multiple characters that share a similar skeleton / control rig structure, occasionally certain attributes will get confused and transfer to the wrong bone / controller. 

For instance.

- Character A and B are animating together. They share the same basic rig setup and naming, however they're nicely tucked away in groups/layers etc. 

- We animate the ears on Character A. Everything looks good. Save the file and close.

- Upon re-opening the file, the animation from Character A's ear has been transferred to Character B. (This sometimes happens with things like the visiblity flag, or other random attributes as well)

This is the problem. A few additional notes. 

- There is nothing "special" about the occasional control this happens to that we can see. It is however always consistent within the given file. 
- The rigs we use are pretty much global. All names of basic bones and controls are shared. This has not been a probelm 99.9% of the time, and our pipeline pretty much requires it.
- We do not and can not use namespaces, which I realize could potentially help with the problem, so I haven't bothered to test this out. 
- Doing the following "fixes" the problem - Open the bad the file, unload the reference to character B, save/close/re-open. Animation is back on Character A's ear. 
- If you then reload Character B, save/close/re-open, the problem returns. Always on the exact same controller/bone/attribute. 

What I imagine is happening is that somehow the scene is confusing the order of these controllers when it loads, and just applying the data it knows belongs to C_LEar to the first C_LEar it finds, and for whatever reason isn't using the long name to save off the key. 

Any one have any thoughts? 

Thanks 
- Dan

[Anonymous]

First that i got on my mind was exaclty that - the names.  Is there any chance You can use unique names for the controlers?

[Anonymous]

how comes namespaces are a no go?

if its to do with exporting then you can simply transfer the anim onto a blank skeleton (without namespaces) on export.