Issue with layer effects not rendering

[Mattyj]

Has anyone else had any issues with layer effects not rendering in animations? E.g. blur or gradients etc? They aren't rendering in still previews of frames either for some reason.

[Franky1966]

Make sure you have 'Allow animated layer effect' checked in the layersetting of the layer you want to animate. Doubleclicking will get u there.

[Greenlaw]

Also check that the render settings for Apply Shape Effects and Apply Layer Effects are enabled.

If they are disabled by default, you may want to reset your default settings.

[Mattyj]

Awesome cheers again Greenlaw it might be the second one.

[Greenlaw]

It's probably as Franky1966 suggested because I don't think the Render Settings options have any affect on Render Preview, only for final output renders.

But check all of these suggestions to be sure. Good luck!

[Mattyj]

Still doesn't seem to work, I managed to get the gradient affect to show on a circle in the viewport, but added a shading effect to the bottom of the circle and no luck, even when rendering a short preview animation and when exporting the animation, with layer effects enabled

[Mattyj]

Ok so when I go into the layer settings, then go into the shadows tab, and turn shading on while also having allow animated layer effects checked, the shading shows in the preview render, but I believe it is being directed by this process, not by choosing effects in the Style panel.

[Greenlaw]

Shadows in the Layers tab is a different effect from Drop Shadows in Styles. Shadows creates the effect based on the visible contents of the layer. It is not visible in the workspace, it only appears in a render.

Drop Shadows in Styles is applied directly to the shapes using that style. This effect works independently of the layer's Shadow setting. Also, unlike some of the other Styles effects, Drop Shadow is not visible in the workspace, it only appears in a render.

To make either of these effects appear in a render, you will need make sure the appropriate Render Settings options are enabled. I believe these are on by default, but check to be sure. Note that these settings don't apply to Render Preview (Ctrl-R.) Render Preview should always render the applied effects.

The Allow Animated Layer Effects option in Layer Settings allows you to keyframe the Layer-based version of these effects; the effects should still work with this option disabled, but you can't animate them until it's enabled. Note that the option is meant to work with the layer version of the effects, and it isn't related to the Styles version of the effects.

[Greenlaw]

Also, don't confuse the capabilities of Preview and Preview Animation...these features use completely different renderers.

Preview (Ctrl-R) uses something close to what Export Animation and Moho Exporter uses for final quality renders, but it's not exactly the same. Use it to see a good approximation of what your final render will look like. Preview will render effects like Layer>Shadow and Styles>Drop Shadow. And, of course, Preview will only render the current frame.

Preview Animation's result is closer to what you see in the Workspace. Use this to quickly check your animation playback at the actual frame rate, but don't use this to check render quality. Effects like Layer>Shadow and Styles>Drop Shadow will never appear in a Preview Animation render.

Hope this helps.