Very stupid question

kevinhalg · Post by **kevinhalg** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:44 am

I apologize in advance for the stupidity of this question....I am very new to AS.

I have a character built in layers. Specifically the eyes, I have a whites, pupils, highlights, upperlids, and closedlids layers.

All I want to do is make the eyes blink using the layers but i can not for the life of me make it work.

I have tried adding keyframes in on the closed layer and having that layer active/not active but I can not get it to work.

Would someone please hit me over the head??

Thanks for the help.

Kevin

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:49 am

We need more info please. What you describe is not enough to say where the problem is. I could give a whole bunch of solutions and maybe get the right one. Better to get a file or more info.

Key frames? Where? The Points? The layer? Did you just add keys or actually move something? Details details. More details.

-vern

kevinhalg · Post by **kevinhalg** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:01 am

Sorry. I'm not sure how to explain this. As I mentioned, I have some eyes created with several layers. I would like to have the closed lid layer become visible and then not in an attempt to simulate the eyes opening and closing. (all of which you probably understand)

The only movement would be the fact that the closed lid layer would become visible to cover the rest of the eye layers and then not visible.

What I have been trying to do is turn on/off the visibility in the layers palette on different keyframes, without success of course.

I could send the file but all it is at this time is 6 layers that make up an eye.
Layers are whites, pupils, highlights, upperlids, lowerlids and closed. Everything else is static, just want to open and close eye.

Is that any better?? Sorry if I am not being clear enough.

Thanks again.

kevinhalg · Post by **kevinhalg** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:24 am

Ok. I think I got it. Not very hard of course..

kevinhalg · Post by **kevinhalg** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:44 am

Can you not use Layer Visibility on the timeline when the layer is in a group?

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:16 am

kevinhalg wrote:Can you not use Layer Visibility on the timeline when the layer is in a group?

Yes of course. However the group layer's Visibility will over ride the sub layer's.

So you figured it out? Can you fill us in?

From your description it sounded like maybe you were using the "eyeball" icon which is NOT an animated property. That "eyeball" icon on the layers in the layer palette is only part of the interface and doesn't make keys.

To know if something is invisible look at the time line. The whole time line for that layer will be "pinkish" or "redish" along the time line where the layer is invisible.

If might be easier to create a "blink" by using a switch layer. Put the two eyelid layers (open, closed) inside a switch. Now all you have to do is right click on the layer at a point in the time line you want to blink and pick one of those layers.

You will find this WAY easier than using visibility and technically it's exactly the same thing really. A layer not selected in a switch is really just "invisible".

-vern

kevinhalg · Post by **kevinhalg** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:02 pm

Thanks Vern. I got it to work when not in the group by using the visibility line on the timeline but when grouped, it wont work. I will try it out with the switch layer. My only question is can I nest that switch in the "eye group" layer? I would like to keep all the eye layers together so that I can scale and move then all at once. I will give it a shot later today and let you know how it goes. Thanks again!

Kevin

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:20 pm

Like this?:

http://www.kelleytown.com/freeware/MyEyesOnly.zip

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:57 pm

I wish you could post the file somewhere. There is no reason that visibility woudn't work inside a group. I do this ALL THE TIME. It works great. Are you certain you are keying the right layer? You key the layer in the group not the group? When you say it "doesn't work" does this mean the layer doesn't turn invisible? Or you can't see the "red overlay" on the time line?

You may want to use that feature again. It would be nice to find out what you did wrong.

-vern

kevinhalg · Post by **kevinhalg** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 6:10 pm

Yeah in the group when I have the closed lids layer highlighted, I then go to the timeline and click the visibility(red shows on timeline) although the layer is still visible when you scrub the timeline. I am using the non-pro version right now so I am using a bone layer as my group. I did download the pro trial and I get the same result when placing the layers into a group layer. Here is the base file without the group/bone layer.

Again, it does work while the layers are not grouped.

http://halgrimsonphotography.com/eyes.zip

I can see if I can save the pro trial file with the group so you can see that as well.

Here is the pro file with a group and on the closed layer I have added some keys in the visibility timeline. http://halgrimsonphotography.com/eyespro.zip

Hope that is helpful.

Thanks again!

Kevin

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:06 pm

Well that first file has the 'closed' layer hidden with the global visibility setting in the layer palette. That setting works only for hiding and showing a layer on the whole timeline. The visibility animation channel can be set manually in the layer settings dialog (double click the layer).

That second file works fine, blinks once where the 'closed' layer is visible. You will not see this if you have that layer selected since it is assumed you'd need to see the layer you are editing.

kevinhalg · Post by **kevinhalg** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:19 pm

I knew there must be a simple explanation.... I had that layer clicked while scrubbing! Thank you!

Kevin

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 1:48 am

Phew! Glad we figured it out. It was a puzzler.

-vern

sanitarium · Post by **sanitarium** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:57 am

kevinhalg wrote:
http://halgrimsonphotography.com/eyes.zip

http://halgrimsonphotography.com/eyespro.zip

Kevin

are the links broken ? when clicked it gives error 404

kevinhalg · Post by **kevinhalg** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:20 pm

I took them off my server. Needed some room....

Kevin