-
3D is not being 3D
Hi All—Back to my bird.
I want my bird to fly around a tree in a spiral. I keyframed exactly where I want the bird to be including the Z axis so it will sometimes be in front of the tree and sometimes behind the tree. However, it wants to always stay either in front of the tree or behind the tree depending on my layer order. I have 3D turned on on all my layers and when I look at the tree/bird under one of the views (pespective, right top) it looks like it should be going in front and behind the tree. But under active camera it won’t do it. Any ideas?
-
11 Replies
-
I should also add that the bird is the group of layers. Same goes for the tree. I have left all the layers on the Z axis at zero and have only adjusted the groups.
-
This should certainly work if both your bird and your tree are in 3d groups.
—
Mark Spencer
Freelance Producer/Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
Apple-certified Master Trainer
Author, Motion 4 from Peachpit Press
https://www.applemotion.net -
Well they are both 3D groups and it’s not working. However, I just tried switching the bird back to a 2D group and now it seems to be working. It also works if I switch the tree back to a 2D group. I don’t know what’s going on, but I seem to be finding a work around (at least for the moment.)
-
Layers in 2D groups cannot interact with other layers and are composited in layer order. Perhaps you could post your project I’d be happy to take a peek at it.
—
Mark Spencer
Freelance Producer/Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
Apple-certified Master Trainer
Author, Motion 4 from Peachpit Press
https://www.applemotion.net -
I’d love for you to look at it. Not quite sure how to upload it. I uploaded it, using “file upload”. Maybe this link will work 404_birdandtree.motn.zip
-
the link works, so if you can, i’d love to know where i’ve gone wrong with the 3D
-
Ellen, you didn’t include any of the assets so it’s a bit hard to see what’s going on. You can choose to collect the media when you save, then zip it all up and post.
—
Mark Spencer
Freelance Producer/Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
Apple-certified Master Trainer
Author, Motion 4 from Peachpit Press
https://www.applemotion.net -
Ok, I was able to figure out what is going on without needing to see your content. Notice that the “dove circles tree’ group is indeed a 3D group, but that the icon in the Layers tab has a box around it – this mean that the group is being rasterized, or precomped, which is forcing it into layer order, so it can’t interact with other layers.
If you go to the Properties tab in the Inspector, you’ll see a blue LED dot next to the Opacity parameter – that dot tells you that this is the parameter causing the group be be rasterized.
It’s tricky here because it looks like the value is just 100% with no keyframes, but you keyframed it and then disabled the animation, which doesn’t get rid of the rasterization. You need to click the animation menu, choose Enable Animation, then click it again and choose Reset Parameter. The blue dot will disappear, as will the box around the icon in the Layers tab, and your dove will now happily interact with (meaning can fly around) your tree.
—
Mark Spencer
Freelance Producer/Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
Apple-certified Master Trainer
Author, Motion 4 from Peachpit Press
https://www.applemotion.net -
Wow, how easy was that! And I’ve spent hours and hours trying to figure this one out. Mark, thanks so much! I’ll keep a look out for those blue dots in the future.
-
How funny. I saw the rasterization too, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what was causing it.
Andy
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up