layer disappears

[Dave Johnson]

I don’t now that it’ll be any of these, but when I’ve had a layer just mysteriously disappear for one frame even though I had no opacity or other keyframes at that point in time, it has most often turned out to be one of these three things:

[1] If there were 3D layers in the comp, something about the placement of the layer that was disappearing caused it to briefly disappear into the 3D abyss. For example, even though there were no keyframes at the frame where it was disappearing (or in that layer at all), it or other 3D layers were keyframed at other points in time and, at that particular frame, there was a conflict with how they interacted in Z space causing one of them to just dissappear (or in some cases be overrun by another 3D layer).

[2] I think this one has been resolved in newer versions of AE, but in older versions it was very common to have to switch between the “Standard” and “Advanced” renderers in the composition settings window when working with 3D layers in order to prevent 3D layers from doing weird things as they interacted with each other (like completely disappearing for one frame).

[3] An OpenGL error wherein the layer wasn’t really disappearing at all … OpenGL just didn’t feel like showing that one frame. I turned off OpenGL and problem was solved.

[Steve Renard]

Cynthia – it sounds like the layer disappears for the remainder of the comp, not just one frame like Dave is referring to – is that right?

If so, it sounds like there is a 3D conflict going on, more than likely. Does your AI file have the 3D switch turned on? If so, the layer order in the timeline won’t matter to AE – just the 3D position.

Check the 3D position and see if something else is coming in or moving to a 3D position at the same time that might be causing your problem.

Good luck!
Steve

[Cynthia Develvis]

Thanks for your reply… here are my results…

1) I do in fact, have 3D layers, but I’ve tried turning off their visibility and the stripes still don’t appear. So I don’t believe that is the case.

2) I have it set to Advanced Render… just for luck I tried switching to standard, but it told me I shouldn’t so I switched it back

3) I was hoping Open GL might be a fix but when I turned it off, nothing changed.

Basically, nothing helped. But I do appreciate you taking the time to respond. Any other advice? Besides probably upgrading AE? I’m just really upset by this because, stupid me, I forgot to make a duplicate of my composition/project before making changes. Unless there’s some sort of magic Autosave like in FCP that I am not aware of?

[Steve Renard]

First of all, if you have autosave turned on, then yes, there is an autosave feature in AE. If you don’t have it on, go turn it on now. Also, before you try anything I might suggest, duplicate your comp and make the changes in the duplicated one. You can always go back to the old one that way.

Further to the problem, then, I’ll toss out a couple other ideas that could, perhaps, create the issue you describe…
1. perhaps you’ve pre-comped the AI layer at some point and you’re actually looking at the pre-comp in your master comp? If the AI layer did not go all the way to the end of the pre-comp, that would create the problem you describe.
2. Perhaps there’s an effect that’s not happy with the number of layers, or if you’ve got the Continuously Rasterize/Collapse Transformations switch turned on for your AI layer, or something like that. Try turning off all the FX for that layer…?
3. It sounds like the addition of the Photoshop layer was the start of all of this. Is there anything in that Photoshop file – a weird alpha channel or something? – that could cause something underneath it to disappear, even if it didn’t look like it was covering something up?

I’ll keep thinking on this, and let you know if I come up with anything else. If you get a moment, post a screen shot of what you’re looking at before the layer disappears, a another of after, and I can see if I can spot anything that might be the trouble.

Good luck!
Steve

[Cynthia Develvis]

I just figured it out. I was “building” the caution tape across the screen – one stripe, then a few frames later the next, and so on, up to 12 stripes, each stripe being a separate ai file. Well, my 12 file for some reason isn’t showing the stripes, so when 11 ended, which happened to be the same frame that the psd file came in, the stripes dissappeared.

I’m still not sure why the 12 file doesn’t have the stripes (when I look at that layer is it just black), because when I open it in AI it does, but I think I can figure it out from here, and it will be easier then delving into my 3D layers when that obviously wasn’t the problem.

Thank you both for your help, and I’m sorry if I wasted your time since this problem isn’t what I thought it was at all.

[David Johnson]

[I’m still not sure why the 12 file doesn’t have the stripes]

After re-reading your first post, I did misunderstand about the single frame thing so it initially sounded like the 3D conflict Steve mentions, which is a clearer way of saying what I was getting at. However, it now seems you might have a file issue. Even so, the short layer in a precomp Steve mentions is a very common oversight so check that first. That’s one every AE user has been shamed over after frantically investigating what must be a much more complicated issue so we’ll understand if that’s it and you don’t own up. ;~) In other words, no worries of wasting anyone’s time … I think most forum users understand the torment AE can inflict and agree that the important things are to solve issues, finish good projects and post solutions so others can save the time you lost … in that order.

This is another shot in the dark, but it wouldn’t be unheard of if AE didn’t recognize a file anymore if you happened to change it … especially if while the project was open in AE. Just for grins, I’d try refreshing AE’s interpretation of that 12 file by replacing it with with the same file. Better yet, re-import it and replace it in the comp (select the layer, hold ALT & drag it in). Similarly, as Steve suggested, maybe it’s the PSD so you might try the same on it.

[Jeff Rogers]

No idea how this turned out, but for anyone stumbling upon this in the future: one thing that was not mentioned in this thread was layer styles. Layer styles have the same effect on 3D renders as, say, a 2D layer or an adjustment layer: layers above that layer are rendered on top of the layers below it, no matter their respective positions in 3D space. The effect is that layers further down in the stack seem to disappear as layers that may be further back in Z-space are being brought to the front as if they were a nested pre-comp laid on top. I’m betting that in this instance the psd layer had some sort of layer styles applied to it, likely imported with the layer from Photoshop. If you’re having this problem, check your layer styles.

[Daniel d Lindmark]

I just had a two-hour head scratcher of my layer disappearing during rendering.

I’m working solely with vectors drawn and imported from Illustrator. I had one layer that would appear and disappear while my camera was tracking.

I don’t know what caused it, because I made sure everything was at the same z-height (I just wanted to operate the camera to pan & zoom).

The thing that made it all work was to click on every layer to render continuously. Problem solved. Two of my vectors resized after doing that (not sure why).