Symbols & Instances: Build Once, Reuse Everywhere

Imagine drawing a detailed character eye — 8 shapes, perfectly layered — and then needing 2 eyes, left and right, that both update when you fix a drawing mistake. Or imagine a city scene with 40 windows on a building, all identical, that you can change with one edit.

That’s what Symbols and Instances solve. It’s the most powerful productivity system in Brinimate.

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🧩 What Is a Symbol?

A Symbol is a reusable master asset stored in the Asset Library. Think of it as a template.

An Instance is a copy of that symbol placed on your canvas. You can have 1 instance or 100 — they all reference the same master. Change the master, all instances update.

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🛠️ Creating a Symbol

1. Draw or select the object(s) you want to turn into a symbol (e.g., a character’s hand, a door, a UI button).
2. With the object(s) selected, open the Inspector on the right.
3. Scroll to the SYMBOLS section.
4. Click “Create Symbol From Selection”.
5. Give your symbol a clear name (e.g., char_hand_left, building_window, btn_play).
6. Your object transforms into a Symbol Instance on the canvas (you’ll see its special bounding box), and it’s now registered in the Asset Library.

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➕ Inserting New Instances

Once a symbol exists in the library, you can stamp it anywhere:

1. Open the Asset Library panel.
2. Find your symbol by name (use the search if you have many).
3. Click the + button next to it.
4. A new instance appears on the canvas.
5. Move it, scale it, or rotate it independently — the master symbol is not affected.

Use case: A forest scene. Create one tree symbol. Insert 15 instances. Arrange them at different scales and positions. When you realize the tree’s trunk is too thin, edit the master symbol once — all 15 trees update instantly.

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✏️ Editing the Master Symbol

Changing the master affects all instances of that symbol:

1. Select any instance on the canvas.
2. In the Inspector → SYMBOL EDIT section → click “Edit Selected Symbol”.
3. The editor enters Symbol Editing Mode — only the symbol’s contents are editable, the rest of the scene is greyed out.
4. Make your changes (adjust shapes, colors, paths).
5. Click “Finish Symbol Edit” to apply and exit back to the scene.

All instances — past, present, and future — now reflect the updated master.

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🎭 Symbols in Animation

Symbols unlock a technique called character rigging in 2D animation:

• Create a symbol for each body part: head, torso, arm_L, arm_R, leg_L, leg_R.
• Place all instances on the canvas and arrange them into a character.
• In the Timeline, each instance lives on its own layer.
• Animate each layer independently (rotate the arm, move the leg) — frame by frame or with tweens.

The result: a modular character that’s fast to animate and easy to fix.

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📚 The Asset Library

The Asset Library is your personal collection of symbols for the current project. From it you can:

• Browse all symbols by name.
• Search to find specific assets quickly.
• Insert new instances at any time.

Organizing symbol names well (char_* for character parts, bg_* for backgrounds, ui_* for UI elements) keeps large projects manageable.

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💡 Pro Tip — The Single Source of Truth: Name each symbol immediately upon creation and use a consistent naming convention. In a 5-minute short film, you might have 150+ symbols. Being able to type “arm” in the library search and instantly find char_arm_left and char_arm_right (instead of Symbol 43 and Symbol 71) can save an hour of hunting every production day.

Ready to push Symbols further? Learn about Instance Overrides to apply local changes to individual instances without breaking the master — the key to building diverse character crowds from a single asset.