# Time offset for referenced USD

**URL:** <https://forum.aousd.org/t/time-offset-for-referenced-usd/2570>\
**Category:** USD\
**Tags:** animation\
**Created:** [July 9, 2025, 3:16pm UTC](https://forum.aousd.org/t/time-offset-for-referenced-usd/2570 "2025-07-09T15:16:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kemote](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.aousd.org/kemote/32/945_2.png) [@Kemote](https://forum.aousd.org/u/Kemote)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 3:16pm UTC](https://forum.aousd.org/t/time-offset-for-referenced-usd/2570/1 "2025-07-09T15:16:31Z")

</div>

It’s my first post, so hello to **everyone**!

I’m new to USD, so sorry for **any** silly question, but what I’m trying to **achieve** is to add a layer time offset to animation from a referenced USD file. For now, I have no clue how to do that. At first, I thought that maybe I could just get references from USD and add (offset = 100), but I cannot obtain references using `GetReferences()`. That object can only add and remove references. Any tips? Or maybe can I somehow overlay **the** current stage?

Best

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dhruvgovil](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.aousd.org/dhruvgovil/32/3_2.png) [@dhruvgovil](https://forum.aousd.org/u/dhruvgovil)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://forum.aousd.org/t/time-offset-for-referenced-usd/2570/2 "2025-07-10T15:17:25Z")

</div>

Hi, welcome to the forum!

Have you tried working through this tutorial? I believe it covers what you need.

> **[Transformations, Time-sampled Animation, and Layer Offsets — Universal Scene...](https://openusd.org/release/tut_xforms.html)**

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paoloemilioselva](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.aousd.org/paoloemilioselva/32/267_2.png) [@paoloemilioselva](https://forum.aousd.org/u/paoloemilioselva)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 6:28am UTC](https://forum.aousd.org/t/time-offset-for-referenced-usd/2570/3 "2025-07-12T06:28:28Z")

</div>

Hi @Kemote ,

Welcome! 🙂

After you’ve done with the tutorial, you can have a look at this example scene.  
It uses a layer with overs to distribute an animation cycle over all the instances of the scene, with timeoffsets and classes to keep implicit instancing working.

> **[assets/intent-vfx at structure-for-first-intent · paoloemilioselva/assets](https://github.com/paoloemilioselva/assets/tree/structure-for-first-intent/intent-vfx)**
>
> USD Working Group assets. Contribute to paoloemilioselva/assets development by creating an account on GitHub.

Cheers!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kemote](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.aousd.org/kemote/32/945_2.png) [@Kemote](https://forum.aousd.org/u/Kemote)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 12:33pm UTC](https://forum.aousd.org/t/time-offset-for-referenced-usd/2570/4 "2025-07-16T12:33:23Z")

</div>

@paoloemilioselva @dhruvgovil Thanks! It was very helpful. I need to read a lot more about USD api 🙂