-
stay in front of 3d layers
I much prefer to work in 3D because of the logarithmic zoom. However, some of my layers are disappearing behind the camera and I don’t want them to. (Also I sometimes have problems with layers disappearing behind other layers, which i don’t want either, which contradicts the stacking order of my art.) How can I control my layers — namely, keep them in FRONT of the camera no matter how much i track in on them?
thx
~ John
“Life is good, as long as it doesn’t take up too much of my time.”
-anonymous gamer
-
3 Replies
-
I think I’ve worked out the answer. For me the solution is to use scale instead of zoom if I want to maintain stacking order.
thx
John
“Life is good, as long as it doesn’t take up too much of my time.”
-anonymous gamer
-
When you make layers 3D they no longer refer to the stacking order in the Timeline for their distance from the viewer, this is determined by the Z position value. However, if you place a 2D layer between 3D layers this can “break” the 3D render order and can cause layers to “jump” in front of, or behind other layers, causing some confusion. Check your comp to make sure you have no 2D layers in between your 3D layers (including 2D adjustment layers).
If you still prefer to use Scale to fake a camera zoom, make sure to select the keyframes and then got to Animation > Keyframe Assistant > Exponential Scale. This will make it a more dynamic zoom-type effect. Without this the Scale animation will be linear and will therefore appear to either speed up or slow down over time.
Hope this helps.
cheers,
Angie
Angie Taylor animation & illustration for television, film, web and devices
https://www.angietaylor.co.uk
Twitter: theangietaylor
Linkedin: theangietaylor
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Angie-Taylor/118378194869002 -
Hey that is super helpful. Yeah, Angie, I noticed that as some of the layers in the 45 layer comp were popping off and on erratically (behind another element) on some frames, i went through and set all the disks to Z -1 above the black background. But it wasn’t enough. Some elements were still popping off occasionally, so I carefully pushed each problem layer from a Z position of -1 to -1.1 to fix the problem.
https://www.command-post.com/revendo2_264.mov
Then as I did this adjustment, another object would be pop off, even though it’s position had nothing to do with the object that I just adjusted by a tenth. Then I adjusted the next object on the popoff, perhaps to Z 1.2. Once that object reappeared, another one would disappear, so i tweaked the next and the next. Finally after several of these adjustments, all the objects were appearing properly. Mind you this is just on one frame of a 6 second comp. The behavior of the program’s 3d function on complex comps is somewhat irrational, but luckily it’s not so bad that one can’t come up with a workaround.
thx
~ John
“Life is good, as long as it doesn’t take up too much of my time.”
-anonymous gamer
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up