Variants

A variant parent is a layer whose children are mutually exclusive — only one shows at a time, and which one is keyframeable. Perfect for swapping mouth shapes, hand poses or expression sheets.

Setting it up

Turn a layer into a variant parent in Properties, and its direct children become the options. The Variants panel shows them as a thumbnail grid — click one to make it active, drag to reorder, double-click to rename.

Animating the switch

Because the active variant is keyframeable, you switch it on the timeline like any other property — ideal for lip-syncing mouth shapes or flipping between poses. You can also bundle several children into an auto-cycling group with Animate Shapes.