Templates are re-usable pieces of animation that you can share with different scenes in the same animation set or with many animation projects. Templates can help you reduce your workload through re-use, keep the file size of your animations small, as well as facilitate working in a group on the same project.
For example, you can create a template of a walk cycle and send the template file (with the extension TBT) to your buddy so that she can incorporate it into her animation.
You can create templates out of anything you draw or import into Toon Boom Studio - vector drawings, bitmaps, entire elements, groups of elements, sound or SWF files. With a template, you have a neat package of all the objects, which makes it easy to transport and manage. If you create templates from multiple elements, Toon Boom Studio even maintains timing (exposure) and layout information with the templates.
So why all this talk about templates? We created a template of the walk cycle of the painted ant, Mike. All you have to do is to drag it into the Timeline window and you will have added it to your scene.
To add the Mike Ant template to the scene:
1. Select Window > Show Library to open the Library window. The Library window is your center for Toon Boom Studio content management.
2. Open the Local folder, double-click the mikeAnt.tbt file and press the Play 
button in the Library window’s preview panel. Watch as Mike Ant runs in place, flames scorching his back (poor Mike!). Please note that Mike only appears at frame 35 in the template.
3. Drag the Mike Ant template file, mikeAnt.tbt, from the Library window to the Timeline window. Drop it just above the first element at the top of the list.
4. Save your animation set and move on to the next step, where you will make Mike Ant move as he runs.
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