Animation transfer from one rig to another

Question

I have a large set of animations on one rig and would like to transfer them all to another rig. The rigs are different, the one with the animations is more complex than the one I'd like to transfer to. Though they are both bipedal rigs. What's a time efficient way to accomplish this?

Answer 1

All the animation data refer to the bone's names, so if you give to your new rig the same bone names it will work. Data with different names will be ignored.

Answer 2

If the rigs are identical, you should be able to go to the Animation Screen Layout > Dope Sheet and select Action Editor where you might select Edit Mode in the 3D Viewport. It probably currently says Dope Sheet. To the right of where it now says , you should see .

Don't click the button!

Instead, go to the button on the left with the 3 rhombi and select ArmatureAction, or something like that with the name of your armature substituted. Your final result should be something like:

-->

Now they will move in sync.