Lighting Problem on 2.5d Project

Adobe After Effects

Lighting Problem on 2.5d Project

Posted by Eric Goldstein on May 25, 2011 at 12:07 am

Hi,

I’m having a problem with lights turning off and objects disappearing on a project. The project itself is a somewhat complex 2.5 project. I’ve included a compressed file of the rough project. Please note that half way through the shot, shadows disappear (for instance) from under the chairs at the side of the trailer. There is nothing in the layers themselves or the lights that make this happen. When I isolate the chair and ground layers. There is no jump in the lighting, but with all layers on, the jump happens. Any thoughts on how to get around this?

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
er**@*********lm.com

Darby Edelen replied 14 years, 11 months ago 4 Members · 9 Replies
9 Replies

Eric Goldstein
May 25, 2011 at 2:10 am

Sorry,

I tried to upload a compressed version of my last render, but it didn’t work in the first post. So here it is:

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com
Eric Goldstein
May 25, 2011 at 2:12 am

Sorry, maybe the third time is the charm. Here’s the link to the video:

https://reels.creativecow.net/film/lighting-problem-in-25-d-project

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com
Darby Edelen
May 25, 2011 at 4:33 am

You might try increasing the Shadow Map resolution, which you can do in composition settings under the ‘Advanced’ tab with the “Options…” button next to the Rendering Plug-in.

The second thing I would recommend is to start disabling/re-enabling layers individually to try and figure out if a specific layer (or set of layers) is causing trouble.

You might also consider checking the order of the layers in the timeline. Even though they may all be 3D layers, I have seen layer order make a difference sometimes with rendering issues like these.

Is each ‘object’ a pre-comp with transformations collapsed? If not then you might consider using pre-comps as they will make the project easier to understand at a glance and easier to triage when trouble arises.

Those are my suggestions!

Darby Edelen
Tudor “ted” jelescu
May 25, 2011 at 6:46 am

Besides what Darby suggested, I would check to make sure that no 2d layers are mixed between the 3d layers- that tends to mess things up.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist
Juan Urquhart
May 25, 2011 at 3:56 pm

also adjustment layers and layer styles mess things in 2.5d projects…
Eric Goldstein
May 26, 2011 at 4:39 am

Hi Darby,

Thanks for your thoughts. I have been through and isolated layers. When the problem layers are isolated (The chair layers and the background sand) there’s no problem, but as soon as I switch on the other layers the problem is back. I’ve tried turning off all unnecessary shadow casting and light acceptance. The chairs were originally precomped, but I tried putting them directly in the main timelline; nothing made any difference. I will try layer order as you suggest.

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com
Eric Goldstein
May 26, 2011 at 4:41 am

Thanks Juan,

There are no adjustment layers or layer styles.

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com
Eric Goldstein
May 26, 2011 at 4:44 am

Thanks Ted,

The only two D layer is at the bottom of the stack.

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com
Darby Edelen
May 26, 2011 at 5:36 pm

Check the shadow map resolution too. By default the shadow map matches the resolution of the composition. If you switch to Half res do the shadows disappear sooner or later than at Full res?

Darby Edelen

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