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Layers disappearing in comp window…
Hello!
I’m having a strange problem. I have created a logo animation in AE, then precomposed all of the elements of the logo animation so as to keep them separate from the elements of the background animation. Everything looks fine when I play it back (by pressing space bar) in the main comp.
Now, I would like to make some minor changes to the actual logo animation so I enter the precomp and it looks like all but two of my layers have disappeared in the comp window. When I click on any of them in the timeline, I can see their bounding boxes, but that’s it. When I scrub through manually, I can’t see any of the action that I’ve created. BUT, when I hit the space bar, it plays back perfectly just how I made it. When I hit space bar again to stop playback, the layers are gone again.
What is happening? As you can imagine, this makes minor changes nearly impossible as I can’t see the layers while I’m moving them around.
Here are my specs, just in case..
Mac OSX Version 10.10.4
27-inch iMac (Late 2013)
3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 Processor
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 Memory
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4096 MB GraphicsAdobe After Effects CC 2015
Version 13.5.0.347Thanks in advance!
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10 Replies
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There is an update to Ae CC 2015 that addresses a lot of preview bugs:
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
Hello!
I’m always hesitant to do updates in the middle of a project, but I’ve done this one and it didn’t fix the problem. Could this be caused by something that I’ve inadvertently toggled on/off?
Thanks!
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Nope. Just double checked and none of my layers have the shy toggle enabled.
I’ve tried restarting (both AE and my machine) and I’m pretty sure it must be a setting or something somewhere.
Here’s a breakdown of what IS visible and what ISN’T in case that help someone diagnose the problem…
VISIBLE:
• The first 12 frames of a precomp (a rotating shape with a stroke applied).
• One letter of the logo, imported from AI (which is a 3D layer and also has another shape layer as an alpha matte).NOT VISIBLE:
• The remaining frames of the precomp mentioned above.
• Four other letters from the logo AI file (of which, one just appears and does nothing, one simply fades on, one has an alpha matte which reveals it, and another scales up and rotates on).Just to be clear, all of these are supposed to be visible and they are when I play the sequence back, but not in the comp window while working. There doesn’t appear to be a common factor among the layers that are visible and aren’t.
I’m puzzled.
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Hi
——– have had similar before when camera angle/positioning values/settings place the pre-comp layer out of sight in some way — — ie its visible from the main comp where the final result is calculated but not from inside the pre-comp because of the settings that apply there —
If this is the case it explains why it plays ok but is hard to adjust inside the precomp — in my case I suspect there was a better way of managing the project but I couldnt work it out so scrapped the file and started again
To test this theory you can reset the camera and all other values affecting the layer ( inside the pre-comp ) to see if it reappears and if it does then this is probably it …
——————————— chris —
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This is certainly strange. Next blind troubleshooting tip: clear your cache.
Edit > Purge > All memory & disk cache
Failing that, can you maybe post a couple screenshots of your entire UI so we can see what you are seeing?
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
Hello!
Purging cache didn’t work. Good suggestion though!
Here are a couple screen shots:
First, my main comp. All the action is visible either by playing back or by scrubbing through…
Next, my precomp. The playhead is in the exact same location, yet only the “N” shows.
Also, here’s a shot captured while the precomp is mid playback. The whole animation is visible.
Please help!
Thanks!
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Orthographic views in Ae (like the Front view) don’t render; they are for reference only. Create a camera or use the default Active Camera view and you should be able to see everything you expect.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
Ah! I hadn’t even realized I switched views. That must be why it happened all of a sudden. Gah!
Thank you!
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— interesting Walter……
……..looking back at it I would say thats the reason I had similar problems a while ago — if I reset everything it reappeared …
………. very good forum this — learn loads ………..
————– all the best ———– chris
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Hey
I have same problem but with major blunder. I have several layers that are not visible.
Also the above solution doesn’t work for me. The layers continues to disappear even in rendering on AME and Local Render as well.
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