Asset Library: Your Animation Inventory

The Asset Library panel (accessible via the Library button on desktop or the Assets bottom sheet on mobile) is where Brinimate stores every Symbol you create. If Symbols are the building blocks of your animation, the Library is the toolbox.

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📦 What Lives in the Library?

The Library contains Master Symbols. When you select artwork on the canvas and click “Create Symbol From Selection”, it gets packaged and placed into this panel.

Think of it as an inventory system:

• It holds character parts (heads, hands, eyes).
• It holds reusable props (cars, trees, furniture).
• It holds UI elements (buttons, menus, icons).

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🔍 Searching and Finding Assets

In a complex scene, your library can quickly grow to hundreds of symbols. Brinimate provides a built-in search bar at the top of the Library panel.

The Golden Rule of Naming: Always use descriptive prefixes when naming symbols. For example:

• char_hero_head
• char_hero_armL
• bg_city_building1
• ui_btn_play

When you need the hero’s left arm, typing char_hero in the search bar instantly filters the list down to exactly what you need, rather than scrolling past 80 background buildings.

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➕ Inserting Instances

To use an asset from the library on your canvas:

1. Make sure you are on the correct layer and frame in the Timeline where you want the object to appear.
2. In the Asset Library, find the symbol you want.
3. Click the + (Plus/Insert) button next to the symbol’s name.
4. A new instance of that symbol will be placed in the center of your canvas.

You can insert as many instances of a single symbol as you need. They all reference the same master definition.

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🧹 Cleaning Up Unused Assets

Over the course of production, you might create symbols that you end up deleting from your scene. However, deleting an instance from the canvas does not delete the master symbol from the library.

Currently, Brinimate retains all created symbols in the project file. If your project file size becomes too large due to hundreds of unused test symbols, consider reviewing your library and manually deleting the masters you no longer need (Note: Ensure you truly have no instances left in your timeline before deleting a master!).

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💡 Pro Tip — The “Sprite Sheet” Approach Instead of keeping 20 different mouth shapes as separate top-level symbols, create one char_mouths symbol. Inside it, place each mouth shape on a different frame of its internal timeline. Then, on your main canvas, you insert one instance of char_mouths and simply use the timeline to pick which frame (which mouth) to show at any given time. This keeps your library vastly cleaner!