Help! Images become invisible when playing timeline using switch layers

[mmmaarten]

Hi,

I'm now bumping into something weird: [please see video below]
when walking frame by frame throught an action timeline where switch layers switch images only the images of a switch layer show just fine in the viewport and switch as expected.
However when I press play to run the animation the current image dissapears and no image of the switch layer isn't show no more, eventhough they were working just fine before when I stepped through the frames.
This doesn't make any sense to me and I'm stuck on this. It starts to feel like a bug, but I've seen the same kind of method working before in another file so I just don't get why it's not working now.

The only animations in the whole file are just two action timelines which both eacht control a complete different switch layer, so there could not be any conflict. Both timelines do have the same issue tho.

I'm at the point I need to decide whether or not to continue this somehow or to throw away hours of work, because I can't get it to work no more and it's taking me way too much extra time now (it's already the third solution because some other things didn't work as hoped ). So I'm hoping somebody could help me with this.
Anybody familiar with this and who could tell me if this something I'm doing wrong or a known issue of some kind perhaps?

[slowtiger]

I can't see something obviously being wrong, so there's no way but bug-checking:
- is the switch layer set to visible, as well as all layers inside?
- is there some animated opacity in any of the layers?
- has any of the layers been shifted in time via sequencer?

- does this happen if you take the switch layer out of the hierarchy to top level? If so:
- which of the parent layers is invisible?
- is there some masking involved?

as this is an action:
- what's happening in the main timeline?

Hope this helps.

[mmmaarten]

Hi Slowtiger, thanks for this;

I can't see something obviously being wrong, so there's no way but bug-checking:
- is the switch layer set to visible, as well as all layers inside?
- is there some animated opacity in any of the layers?

Neither of the layers is set to invisible or switched off. All opacities are at 100% (and Allow Animated Layer Effects is unchecked on all of them, as well as 'Don't render this layer' and 'Hide in editing view'). Also no keyframes on any of these properties All checked a few times and did another check just now.

- has any of the layers been shifted in time via sequencer?

No. I never used the sequencer so far, but just checked it to be 100% sure. Nothing looks weird there.

- does this happen if you take the switch layer out of the hierarchy to top level? If so:
- which of the parent layers is invisible?

The switch layer is already on top for the PSD workflow; it's a direct child of the PSD named layer. My guess is that if I would put it above/outside the PSD layer it would break the synchronisation. But of course tried it anyway; still the same issue.

- is there some masking involved?

No masking on none of the layers. BTW this is a newly created file with only a PSD imported and two switchlayers animated in their own actions, which are both referenced inserted at frame 1 of the mainline. Nothing more done so far in this file.

as this is an action:
- what's happening in the main timeline?

Both actions are put as a reference on frame one of the mainline. But same issue when I play the mainline; when stepping through the frames it's working, but when playing the timeline it's invisible.
Weird thing tho is that one of both switch-layer-actions IS working when playing, but the other one is not.

For the record: the same issue is there when running an animated preview and when rendering/exporting to image sequence.


But there IS one thing I could check now that I think of it, but if that's the case it's def. a bug, but very good to know...: the layers with these shadows DO have an opacity other than 100% in the original krita-file, while the signature layers, which don't have this issue, all are set to 100% opacity. Checking this now...

[Greenlaw]

Just a thought:

Some GL effects and features (fx, transparency, etc.,) will drop out when played at full speed directly in the workspace. This is Moho reducing the quality in favor of real-time playback.

When It's necessary to see the animation with all the active FX and features, I use Preview Animation (which is just a GL render, so it may still be missing some FX/features,) or I submit a proper render using Export Animation or Moho Exporter. (Enable Half Size and disable AA if it's just a test. This will reduce your render time to lower than 25% of the full render time.)

Normally, I only spot-check a few frames with Ctrl-R because it isn't necessary to see all the bells and whistles while I'm animating a scene. Unless I'm doing something really unusual in the animation, I trust that what I see with Ctrl-R is what I'll get in the final render.

[mmmaarten]

Thanks for the help guys. I just found the cause, made a video about it and filed it as a bug on the Lost Marble site.
I just posted it on the bug forum here also, together with the cause (how to avoid this issue), just in case others experience the same issue before it's fixed.

You can find it here: https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewto ... 41#p212541