The tool is available in the Layout tools toolbar or via the context menu on an object in the scene and can be used to convert an asset or light object from the environment, set or lighting scene into a placement.

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You can drag an asset from the environment/set/lighting scene into the selection field. If you start the tool via the context menu (right mouse) on an asset in the scene, this field will already be filled in.

You can either select the sequence checkbox to add it on sequence level or you can select one or more shots to add the placement only to those shots.

Select ‘Hide object’ to hide the asset in the selected sequence/shots

Select Move object to put the asset in another position in the selected sequence/shots. The original object will be hidden and a new clone will be created in the sequence/shot that you can then put in the correct position.

When a static asset is converted into a placement, we don’t disable it right away in the original environment scene because we don’t want to modify and save the shared environment or set scene. Instead we save all placements in a list in each sequence or shot and when the shot or sequence is activated, we also activate all linked placements. This placement activation happens every time you play a timeline:

• when scrubbing the timeline in the editor

• when playing the timeline in playmode

• when recording/rendering the timeline

• when exporting layout caches in playmode.

Deleting placements you don’t need can easily be done but is a bit different depending on the placement type:

• Hidden placements: Select the Placements object in the sequence or shot and then remove the hidden placement from the list of placements in the inspector.
  Then click on the ‘Refresh after removal’ button to refresh the env and set scenes.

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• Moved placements: Select the placements object in the sequence or shot and then remove the moved placement from the list of placements in the inspector.
  Next click on the ‘Refresh after removal’ button to also remove the clone itself and refresh the env and set scenes.

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• Added placements: Because added placements where never part of the static environment, its a bit different for them: just select the added object in the scene and remove it.

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When new shots need to be added to a timeline, they first need to be created in Ftrack and then a new otio file needs to be published on the server.

When there are new shots available, the button Import New Shots in the Layout toolbar will turn red:

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You will then see the list of new and updated shots. For each shot, you can click on Run Selected Operations to perform one or more of the selected actions: build the shot, import its audio, and import its storyboard. By default, all three actions are pre-selected.

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When shot lengths need to be updated, this can be done directly inside Unity.  You can adjust the shot timelines and rearrange the audio tracks as needed. All updates will be exported together with new audio when you do the timeline export, see Timeline Export.

A few tips when changing shot lengths:

• Always extend or shorten shots at the end, never at the start. The first frame of the shot should always be 1001. You can shift animation tracks back to effectively make the shot longer at the start.

An easy way to shift multiple animation tracks at the same time is to temporarily convert them to Clip Tracks.

1. Multiselect your timeline tracks (with CTRL or SHIFT)

2. Right-click

3. Select Convert to Clip Track

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When you’re done shifting them, you cna convert them back to editable tracks by following the same steps but selecting Convert to Infinite Track.

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• Always shift following shots in the sequence after your change so there is no overlap

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• Always apply the timing change on the Sequence clip in the Reel timeline too

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We don’t delete or remove shots, what we do in unity is mute the shot in the timeline and then disable the shot object in the scene hierarchy.

When you want to animate a very smooth or complex camera movement, you can convert the camera to a dolly track animation. Right click the shot camera and select SYNK -> Convert Camera to Dolly Track Animation.

This will create three objects:

1. DollySpline: This is the spline that the dolly cart will move along, you can adjust the spline here. The spline will start from the original position and rotation of the asset.

2. DollyCart: Contains the dolly cart. An animation track under the category track will be created for the dolly track with a keyframe at the start of the shot. Add keyframes to this animation track to move the dolly along the spline. You will have to animate the Position value of the CinemachineSplineCart component. The Position has a value between 0 and 1. 0 means the start of the spline, 1 means the end of the spline.

3. CameraParent: The shot camera will be parented to this object, the CameraParent is linked to the DollyCart via a PositionConstraint component. By doing this, the camera will not follow the rotation of the DollyCart.

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Animate the dolly cart by added keyframes of the Position of the CinemachineSplineCart

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Right click the rootprefab and select SYNK -> Convert Character, Prop or Vehicle to Dolly Track Animation.

This will create two objects:

1. DollySpline: This is the spline that the dolly cart will move along, you can adjust the spline here. The spline will start from the original position and rotation of the asset.

2. DollyCart: Contains the dolly cart. An animation track under the category track will be created for the dolly track with a keyframe at the start of the shot. Add keyframes to this animation track to move the dolly along the spline. You will have to animate the Position value of the CinemachineSplineCart component. The Position has a value between 0 and 1. 0 means the start of the spline, 1 means the end of the spline.

To add an animation cycle (asset animation) or animate the character before, after or during a dolly track animation (e.g. running, then turning) the rig fbx has to be used. You can make keys in the animation track, right click and add asset animations, or add an override track and animate it there.

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Shortcuts:

Select the objects you want to duplicate in the hierarchy

ALT+SHIFT+D Open asset duplicate window

CTRL+SHIFT+D Duplicate asset in same shot (prefab+rig)

CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+D Duplicate asset to next shot (prefab+rig)

One or multiple Props, Characters or Vehicles can be duplicated to one or more shots by selecting the gameObjects in the hierarchy and-

Right click --> SYNK --> Duplicate Asset Pose
or
ALT+SHIFT+D

This will open the Duplicate Asset window, in this window you have the following info:

• Selected Assets: informs you about the asset that will be duplicated

• Duplicate Options: how the assets will be duplicated

  • Root: Duplicates the prefab of the selected assets (position and rotation)

  • Rig: Duplicates the rig of the selected assets (position and rotation of animated bones)

It is possible to duplicate both root and rig of the selected assets at the same time

• Shot Selection: The shot(s) you want to duplicate the selected assets into

When you press the Duplicate button, you will duplicate the asset with the above settings at the current timeframe. A new animation track will be made for the chosen duplicate options and their first key will get the values of their current position → this means that you can duplicate the position and rotation of an asset mid-animation. The old animation tracks will be muted (so you can revert if you want).

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The Subshot Creator is a SYNK editor tool that embeds a pre-rendered image sequence from ftrack from another shot into a shot's Timeline as a mirror-projected overlay. It is used when a rendered version of a subshot (e.g. a reflection, screen content, or background plate) needs to play back on a surface inside the Unity scene.

The tool handles the full setup: fetching frames from ftrack, copying mirror assets into the project, building the scene hierarchy, and wiring the StreamingImageSequence track in the shot's Timeline. Running it a second time on the same subshot updates each of those parts independently, only what is missing gets recreated.

SYNK > Layout > Create or Update Subshot

• You must be logged in to ftrack in SYNK before opening the tool.

• The correct sequence scene must be loaded.

• The shot you are targeting must have a ftrack render version published under the Render asset type, with either _fin (EXR) or _lay (JPG) in the version name.

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Target Shot: Select which shot PlayableDirector the subshot should be created under. All shots in the current sequence are listed as toggles. The first shot is pre-selected on open.

Subshot Name: The name of the subshot, following the convention reel_sequence_shot, for example bott03_0530_00010. This name is used for the scene GameObject, the Timeline track name, and the folder path under StreamingAssets/subshots/.

The tool auto-fills this field based on the current ftrack task context (reel + sequence + a default shot number of 00010). Edit it if you need a different shot number.

A warning is shown if the name does not contain at least two underscores.

Mirror Surface Object: Drag a Renderer from the scene here if you want the Mirror material to be assigned to it automatically. Leave empty if you are handling material assignment manually.

The tool is safe to run when the subshot is in a partially broken state. The three main components (PNG files, scene hierarchy, Timeline track) are each checked and rebuilt independently. For example:

• If the GameObject was deleted but the track still exists: hierarchy is recreated, track is reused.

• If the track was deleted but the GameObject still exists: hierarchy is reused, track is recreated.

• If only the PNG files are missing: frames are re-fetched, existing hierarchy and track are reused.

"No shots found": The sequence scene is not loaded, or you are not logged in to ftrack. Log in via SYNK and make sure the correct scene is open, then click Refresh.

"No exrOut (_fin) or jpgOut (_lay) render found": No matching render version exists on ftrack for the subshot name you entered. Verify the reel, sequence, and shot names match what is published on ftrack, and that the version name contains _fin or _lay.

"Could not find existing SIS track": The tool is in update mode (hierarchy exists) but the expected Timeline track is missing and the track existence check somehow disagreed. Check the shot's TimelineAsset in the Project window for a track named Subshot_<subshotName>.

"Failed to copy one or more mirror assets from the SYNK package": The SYNK package may not be installed or the Resources/MirrorSetup folder is missing from it. Check the Unity console for the specific file that failed.

A Unity editor tool for posing characters directly in the Scene view. It supports two posing modes: IK (Inverse Kinematics) using FinalIK's FullBodyBipedIK, and FK (Forward Kinematics) using Unity's Animation Rigging BoneRenderer for direct bone rotation. The tool includes custom scene handles, timeline baking, and quick mode switching.

• FinalIK package installed (the IK features are compiled out entirely without it)

• Unity Animation Rigging package (for BoneRenderer)

• Character prefab with an _rig child object (e.g. char_Merlin_A_rig)

Select the root GameObject of a character that has a _rig child, then use one of:

• Menu: SYNK > Layout > Toggle Rig Posing Setup

• Context menu: Right-click the GameObject > SYNK > Toggle Rig Posing Setup

• Shortcut: Alt+Shift+I

This adds three components to the _rig object:

• BoneRenderer (Animation Rigging) - visualizes the skeleton and enables FK bone selection

• FullBodyBipedIK (FinalIK) - the IK solver, added automatically

• BipedIKPoser - the posing controller that ties everything together

It also auto-maps the biped references to the mGear bone naming convention and creates IK target GameObjects under an IK_Targets child.

Running the same command again removes everything.

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Select the _rig object to see the BipedIKPoser inspector. It has three sections.

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• Setup IK - appears if IK targets don't exist yet. Creates them and maps the biped references.

• Remove IK Targets - destroys the IK_Targets container and clears all target references.

Two mode buttons at the top:

• IK Mode - the IK solver is active, you pose the character by moving the IK target handles in the scene view. The bone renderer is hidden.

• FK Mode - the IK solver is disabled, the bone renderer becomes visible, and you rotate bones directly using Unity's standard transform tools.

Shortcut: Alt+Shift+T toggles between IK and FK mode.

When switching from FK to IK, the tool checks whether the IK targets still match the current bone positions. If they've drifted (because you moved bones in FK mode), it asks whether to snap them to the current pose. This prevents the character from jumping to an old IK target position.

Below the mode buttons:

• Snap IK Targets to Current Pose - manually repositions all IK targets to match the current bone positions. Only available in FK mode.

• Reset Pose - restores the character to its original bind pose (read from the source FBX prefab) and snaps targets to match.

When you switch to FK mode, the BoneRenderer component is enabled, drawing the skeleton in the scene view. The bone shape, size, color, and which bones are displayed are all driven by the RigToolSettings in the SYNK project config.

In FK mode you select and rotate individual bones directly with Unity's Rotate tool (E). This is useful for fine-tuning specific joints that are hard to control precisely through IK, such as spine twist, finger adjustments, or subtle shoulder corrections. You can also use FK mode to preview baked timeline animation without the IK solver interfering.

After posing in FK mode, use Snap IK Targets to Current Pose before switching back to IK mode. This ensures the IK targets match your FK adjustments and the character doesn't snap to a different pose.

Exposed as sliders in the default inspector area:

All weights default to 1. Setting a weight to 0 effectively disables that effector.

Switch between controlling the rotation of the head and controlling the Look At direction of the head.

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When the _rig object is selected and in IK mode, six handles appear on the character:

Interacting with handles:

1. Click a handle sphere to select it (a white ring highlights the active target)

2. Use Unity's Move tool (W) to reposition, or Rotate tool (E) to rotate

3. The tool respects the pivot rotation setting (Local/Global)

4. Click a different handle to switch targets

5. Unity's default transform gizmo is hidden while a target is active, to avoid overlap

The head target works a bit differently from the others: By default, it allows you to rotate the head with the Rotate Tool (E), the Move tool will not have an impact. There is also an option in the inspector to activate ‘Head Use Look At’, when that is checked, you can control the look-at direction rather than a direct bone position. Moving it changes where the character's head is facing.

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In FK mode the BoneRenderer draws the skeleton using the configured bone shape (pyramid, line, or box). Click any visible bone to select it, then use the Rotate tool (E) to adjust it. Rotations propagate down the chain as you'd expect from FK.

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When a character has the BipedIKPoser component but is not currently selected, a small white cube with a "Rig" label appears at the character's root position. Clicking this cube selects the _rig object, giving quick access to the posing tools without having to dig through the hierarchy.

1. Select a character root, press Alt+Shift+I to enable the rig setup

2. You start in FK mode. Click on the Rig gizmo or (Alt+Shift+T) to toggle betwen FK/IK mode

3. Start timeline recording mode on the rig animation track

4. Scrub the Timeline to the frame you want

5. Adjust the pose, either in FK or IK mode

6. Move the timeline to another frame, adjust the pose

7. After FK adjustments, snap the IK targets before switching back to IK mode

8. When done, press Alt+Shift+I again to remove the rig setup

9. Always preview the timeline animation in FK mode