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Artifact Lines in AFX 6.5 3D Renders
I am having a problem rendering a timeline in AFX 6.5:
I have a large number of 3D layers in my comp based on 2D Adobe Illustrator CS2 drawings imported from .ai files. I’ve been building up the project for several days and obtaining nothing but perfect renders in Advanced 3D renderer even using multiple light sources and the camera depth of field option. However, after adding in the last few layers, I began seeing patterns of black lines across many of my objects. The lines are all perfectly horizontal and vertical in relation to the layer, as if I’d drawn them on the layer before I imported them. Now I can’t get them to stop appearing in the render — removing the objects I added in just before the problem appeared doesn’t cause them to go away. They disappear only if I turn off the ‘Accepts Shadows’ material property but I need the shadows for the final render. I also tried reloading the project, restarting AFX, and rebooting the machine to no avail.
Any ideas on getting rid of these artifacts?
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14 Replies
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Do the artifacts appear on the same layers all the time, or different layers each time you open or preview AE?
Can you hide those layers and render them separately?
Can you render the shadows only and comp them back in?
Can you import the project into a new project?
Can you go back to a previously saved version of the project and retrace your steps one at a time to see when the artifacts started appearing? (shame on you if you can’t!)
If you can isolate the troublesome layers, can you go back into Illustrator and save as a previous version of Illustrator? -
Q: Do the artifacts appear on the same layers all the time, or different layers each time you open or preview AE?
A: The artifacts appear in identical positions every time. Although they do vary a little in each frame as the timeline animates, the position is not random.Q: Can you hide those layers and render them separately?
A: Unfortunately, they cannot be rendered seperately due to their relation in 3D.Q: Can you render the shadows only and comp them back in?
A: I was not aware one could do this with the AFX engine. I will try it.Q: Can you import the project into a new project?
A: The artifacts persist. Same issue if I nest the comp.Q: Can you go back to a previously saved version of the project and retrace your steps one at a time to see when the artifacts started appearing? (shame on you if you can’t!)
A: Yes, but I still can’t avoid the problem as I build toward completion. As soon as I add the last few layers, the problem appears again. I’d like to try to avoid redesigning the storyboard.Q: If you can isolate the troublesome layers, can you go back into Illustrator and save as a previous version of Illustrator?
A: Will give this a try also.Additional Note: One of our production machines has AFX 7.0 on it; the problem is completely eliminated in the new version with no changes. I’ll get my deadline met with the AFX 7.0 machine and work on resolving this in 6.5 as well to see if there’s a good solution.
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you might look at the physical differences between the 2 machines along with the memory and cache settings. it may vary well be that the 3d render engine in ae7 has been improved from 6.5, but what you’re describing sounds a lot like ae6.5 running out of memory. you could try enabling disk cache on ae6.5 (or increasing it) and see how that effects the lines.
Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
Have you tried updating to 6.5.1?
Regarding shadows: my mistake. You can’t easily hide the shadow-receiving layer, but you can hide the shadow-casting layer in that layer’s material properties (casts shadows:only) .
I’m trying to work out a way right now, by filling the receiving layer with white, but it’s not working yet. Stand by.
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It’s clumsy, but you could try setting the shadow-casting layer to “only”, and filling the receiving layer with white. Then you render the white shadowed layer, bring it back in, and composite (multiply) it over the same layer, un-filled, unshadowed.
It might work.
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i can’t remember if ae6.5 can change the shadow map resoultion, but that may help… in ae7, choose comp settings, advanced tab, advanced 3d, options… select a smaller shadow map.
Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
i can’t remember if ae6.5 can change the shadow map resoultion, but that may help… in ae7, choose comp settings, advanced tab, advanced 3d, options… select a smaller shadow map.
The shadow map resolution is set to comp size, which is only NTSC DV, but reducing the map did not resolve anyway. I’m using a dedicated video workstation with 2 GB Ram, a 512 mb SLI video configuration, and a terrabyte of hard drive space with a 10 GB AFX scratch. I shouldn’t be running out of memory but of course anything’s possible.
Also, changing the layers to white did not remove the artifacts, thus comping shadow maps back in would not work with that method. Good trick to use for later though, thanks!
I’m beginning to think that the problem lies with some bad math in the renderer itself which is generating mistakes about where the shadows are supposed to fall. A key to this may be that all of the .ai files are using alpha channel information from illustrator, and AFX seems to be having a hard time with that. I noticed that objects which overlap are allowing some light to pass through their seams as well. This also goes away in the 7.0 render so maybe Adobe corrected it in that version. I also noticed that while repositioning layers does not remove artifacts, it changes the pattern – though not predictably.
I am still going to try exporting the .ai’s out to an early Illustrator version and I think I’m going to give some raster conversions a shot as well to see if AFX might just be having trouble with .ai alpha information versus what’s stored in .png or something.
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Could you send me your project, Raven? Maybe I can figure something out.
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I’ve had the same problem and have reported it as a bug to Adobe. It’s been present in 6.5, version 7 is much better but still has the same problem.
As you have discovered it’s to do with shadows, and occurs when AE gets confused about which layer is supposed to be in front.
All I can suggest is that you render out several versions with different shadow map sizes, then edit together a “final” version from these as they’ll have different artefacts.
Apart from turning off “casts shadows” for any layers that you don’t need to cast shadows there’s nothing you can really do.
-Chris
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Sent. Thanks for looking at it.
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