Environment Layer issue

[Hannah Sander]

Thanks for the reply!

I’m using CS6. Most of the tutorials I followed were for CS6 as well.

[Brian Charles]

You need to add a camera for the environment layer to work.

See the attached file.

8205_enviro.aep.zip

While its true that Adobe have abandoned further development of RayTracing in After Effects, I don’t agree with Dave’s characterization of the RayTraced renderer, I still used RayTraced 3D for some work.

However, C4D is far more capable.

[Hannah Sander]

Thank you so much for the example, Brian! I was able to open it up and have all the layers work perfectly.

However, when I opened a new composition and mimicked exactly what your layers were, my environment layer still disappeared! Is there a specific order I need to do it in?

I made my solid layer with a fractal noise effect, then made a new camera and text layer. I made them 3D enabled. I have ray-traced enabled. I then pre-composed my background layer before right clicking and selecting “environment layer.” My background layer then goes black.

It just seems so straightforward, I can’t imagine where I’m messing up!

[Brian Charles]

Here’s a demo.

Is the Comp panel set to Active Camera?

ENV2

[Hannah Sander]

Thanks Brian,

Here is what I just attempted:

Environment Layer test

When it goes to black (or checkerboard, when I have the BG set to transparent…) I can’t rotate with the camera or anything. It’s just like the layer vanished.

[Hannah Sander]

OH MY GOODNESS! I went back and studied the sample project you gave me and realized I was clicking the “Draft 3D” button (because that’s what I thought I had to have selected to enable 3D layers…) AND HUZZAH! It worked!

Thank you so much for all the help, Brian!

[Brian Charles]

[Hannah Sander] “realized I was clicking the “Draft 3D” button”

That would do it! I done similar things myself, its how I learn.