Transferring animation from similar rigs with different hierarchies

[CDRGN8050]

Hi all,

I'm trying to transfer animation from one rig to another that is similar but with a different hierarchy. The original rig has curves, geo, joints and misc other nodes within hierarchy which is not engine friendly. The updated rig is cleaner with just control curves in their own hierarchy. The problem is now how do I transfer animation from the old rig control curves to the new? The hierarchies are different but the controls with keys I want to transfer have the same names. Is this even possible?

I'm trying to do the transfer using the time editor, but usually I only use it from character rigs that are the same. Its not working for the most part w/ time editor likely due to hierarchy issue. 

[CDRGN8050]

To be more clear, I have a set of controls in 2 rigs that are the same and have the same names, just with a different hierarchy. One is messy and one is clean. I want to just carry over animation from control curves from the messy one to clean one. 

[mcw0]

Why not constrain the matching controls and bake the animation?

[CDRGN8050 · Accepted solution]

Thanks mcw0. That's definitely one approach. I've decided to rebuild the rig properly (its old and not setup properly) and just use the old animations as ghost images to animate over. Not the most efficient but I don't see a better solution. It will be easier to correct and edit down the road.