# Where do keys go?

- Active layer concept. For anything that gets keyed keys go into active layer.
- Active layer is per action. If multiple objects get keyed and they have different actions they recieve keys in active layers of respective actions.
- Do we define need active (last selected) to be what gets keyed, or special property on layers that tells Blender that this is what should get keys (Chris)
- Maybe it can be looked at later when people have worked with it, maybe depends on how people use layers, for what purpose (Falk)

- Scenario 1: Active layer, keys just go there
- Scenario 2: like auto-keying's available channels only. this layer is already animating this character, put characters keys always there (implicit)
--- Sybren thinks this should be a mode anyway.
- Scenario 3: explicitly binding characters to layers even before keying, and Blender always puts keys there.
--- This can be done later, or not at all if we dont want it. But not for initial version.
--- Falk suggests keeping this is mind during development, to make working on it later easier.

--- Marion: what if instead when you select bone it sets active layer for you?
--- Bones keys can be in multiple layers.

--- Sybren: binding bones to layers can be good for only showing bones in 3D viewport that are binded to active layer.

- New user moves cube with autokeying, it moves, creates layer. This is most basic and how it should be. Rest of the usecases are mostly for advanced users (Marion)
- Yes. Active layer only becomes relevant if you have more than one layer (Sybren)

- Sybren: What happens when layer is locked. Error, or create new layer?
- Everyone agrees error is better way.

- What if you lock the slot because you dont want to animate it? (Marion)
- Locking slots sounds good feature to have, but could be looked at later.

- Nika: for second and third scenarios, how do we show users that objects got the keys, but are not visible in anim editor?
- Sybren: in principle it wouldn't make it more weird than it is now if user doesn't see that. But good to think about.

- Pinning: you want to animate in active layer, but need to see keys or fcurves from another (for example to match facial animation to lip sync), you should be able to "pin" lip sync keys and show it in anim editor above active layer keys.

Decision tree:
User hits I:
- If there is no layer: create it and use it
- If there is one layer: use it, its automatically active
- If there is > 1 and "Available Only" off: look for the active layer
- If there is > 1 and "Available Only" on:
-- If there is already 1 layer animating thing: Use that layer
-- If there is > 1 layer animating thing:
--- If active layer is animating thing: use active layer
--- If active layer isn't animating thing: topmost active layer animating thing
--- This feels like something that needs more feedback and testing
-- If there is no layer animating thing:
--- If autokey is on: ...
--- If autokey is off: ...

Nika: Should it be possible to not have active layer:
- Falk: what if you delete active layer?
- Sybren: we can make layer below active
- Falk: There are still cases conceptually where no active layer is needed.
- Sybren: Yes, but we should try to avoid that. If we say you're seeing active layer in editor, there should be active layer to avoid confusions.