Peg Hierarchy: Creating a pegged hierarchy of elements is a technique used in TBS to create and maintain relationships between the included elements. This is particularly useful in insuring that elements move together in a coordinated and predicitable manner. It is also the basis for construction of cut-out character rigs.

How to attach elements to pegs to establish a peg hierarchy

Assumptions: you have created one or more drawing or image elements and each of those elements contains one or more cells. If not you need to create your elements to follow these steps.

You are using TBS (studio not studio express) V 3.0 or higher.

We will be working in the timeline, on your left is a list of elements each element is also referred to as a track. When a track label is highlighted that means it is the current selection. For the purpose of this explanation I will use several drawing elements which I have named D1, D2, D3. These are just example names and not significant. I will name my pegs P1, P2, P3 ect. These are example names also and not significant.

My timeline track list starts off looking like this with 5 tracks:
D3
D2
D1
P1
Camera

Step 1: I select track D3.

Step 2: I go to the upper left corner of the timeline and click on the "add peg element" icon (it looks like an arc with a plus sign in the middle)

My timeline track list now looks like this with 6 tracks:
P2
D3
D2
D1
P1
Camera

I now want to attach D3 to P2.

Step 3: I click on D3 and hold the left mouse button while I drag D3 directly on top of P2 then I release the mouse button.

My timeline track list now looks like this with 6 tracks:
>P2
D3
D2
D1
P1
Camera

Notice that D3 is now indented under P2 which indicates that it is attached to that peg element. P2 shows a triangle icon that lets me collapse or uncollapse the peg and its attached elements.

I'm going to do the same thing to my camera and P1

Step 4: I click on Camera and hold down the mouse button and drag Camera directly over the top of P1 then release the mouse button.

My timeline track list now looks like this with 6 tracks:
>P2
D3
D2
D1
>P1
Camera

Now I'm going to attach D2 and D1 to a new peg.

Step 5: I select D2 and click on the Add Peg Element icon to create the new peg

My timeline track list now looks like this with 7 tracks:
>P2
D3
P3
D2
D1
>P1
Camera

Step 6: I "<shift> select" both D1 and D2 hold down the mouse button and drag this group of elements directly over the top of P3 and then release the mouse button.

My timeline track list now looks like this with 7 tracks:
>P2
D3
>P3
D2
D1
>P1
Camera

Now I want to attach P2 and its attached element D3 and P3 and its attached elements D2 and D1 to a common parent peg P4.

Step 7: I select P2 and click on the Add Peg Element icon to create P4.

Step 8: I click on the triangle next to P2 to collapse the peg.

Step 9: I click on the triangle next to P3 to collapse the peg.

Step 10: I "<shift> select" tracks P2 and P3 and hold down the mouse button and drag this group of pegs directly over the top of P4 and then release the mouse button.

My timeline track list now looks like this with 8 tracks and all pegs un-collapsed:
>P4
>P2
D3
>P3
D2
D1
>P1
Camera

That's the process, step by step, for creating parent child relationships using pegs in a hierarchy


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