Are smartbones useful for image layers?

[Pinesal]

I was looking up the advantages of smartbones and so far they are all applied to vector layer. Right now I am working on mostly image layers. How would smart bones affect that?

[Víctor Paredes]

Smart bones can control several channels, included translation, scale, rotation, transparency, etc.
Also, smart bones can control other bones. I have been experimenting with rigging images and you can get very cool rigs.
For example, when you rotate an arm, you can make react the muscles of it, by just adding some bones over the muscles and move it with the smart bones. You can create squash/stretch of the entire body or specific parts using smart bones. You can create gestures over a face by rotating a bone.
In world book day videocard (you can check the making of linked in the video) I used a couple smart bones to control the squash/stretch and create a fake 3d rotation for each book. I also have some examples in my my rigging reel.
In the future Smart bones should be able to control more animations channels, that benefits the work with vectors and images.