Hi guys,

Questions:
(1) Is there a way to have a file layer based on a .kra file that I can expand into its layers and add to in my current file, i.e. I can see the file layer's own layers in my currently open document and add new layers in-between the existing layers, not to modify the underlying file-layer file itself, but to have it serve as a live-updating template I can work on top of, such that if I later modify the file of the file-layer, I can see the updated layer structure in my current document.

What would be ideal of course is to be able to completely modify the layers of the file-layer, but have the changes only be in my current document, i.e. changes applied on top of the file-layer file's originals. So that Krita always loads the original layer contents of the file-layer file, but applies my local changes on top of it in my current document.

But simply being able to load the file-layer's layers and to be able to add new layers in-between that I can work on in my current document would be very helpful already.

(2) If the above is not possible, how can I achieve similar behavior? What I need is the ability to create a template I can have a live-reference to in a new document, meaning that I can see all the layers of the live-template and that changes to the original template, such as layer-contents and layer structure are visible in any document that has the template as a base. What is somewhat useless to me is the existing functionality of having a template that only loads its contents once, so that if I update the template, files that already previously used the template don't see the changes to the template. I need to see the layers, layer-structure of the template and I need these to update in any file/document using the template when the template is updated.

(3) If the above is currently not possible, is it possible to achieve this via scripting? If so, how difficult do you estimate it to be in terms of doability/time for a single individual of average skill? I realize this is somewhat hard to assess, but guesses are welcome.

Background:
I have somewhat of a special need for optimizing productivity and drastically reducing repetitive steps in my workflow.
The background to my question is 2D video game art asset creation, specifically bone-based and freeform deformation animated characters.

Background Detail:
(1) Each character has many separate parts, which will be exported laid out on a single image.
(2) Since humanoid characters are all more or less similar in structure except for visual variations, I don't want to have to recreate each from scratch.
(3) The body parts must be of similar size and exported in the same location on the final image, so that they can be easily swapped out for new characters, as the body part images will be loaded as textures for 3D-meshes for the body parts in the game engine.

Since the 3D meshes locate the body-part on the texture image via UV-coordinates, the location of the body parts on the texture image must be more or less similar. Creating completely unique/different texture images for each character would force me to also re-create each body-part 3D mesh in the game engine, bind each mesh to bones, optimize bone weights, etc., all of which takes time and could be avoided, beccause it is in theory unnecessary for similarly structured characters.

(4) The character models are very complex and contain many different pieces: different angles, overlay parts, variation parts, shadow parts.
(5) In theory I could create one template image and used that as base for each new character I paint in Krita. The problem is, I want to start production as soon as possible and ...
(6) I don't yet know exactly all the pieces I will need and therefor want to retain the flexibility of changing the underlying template used for all characters at any time, so that I don't need to painstakingly paint every new part in the same location and matching size for dozens of documents/characters so that they align, so that all have similar output images, so I can easily swap the texture images of the 3D meshes in the game engine.

Any help/feedback greatly appreciated!

Kind Regards,
Shindoh