Layers are disappearing...

[Hauksbee01]

I imported several characters, with multiple cells (no bones). Each on a different layer with the intention of combining them into their own Switch Layers tomorrow. I saved, and closed the doc. But later I opened the doc. again and most layers were invisible. The eyeballs are all in the "on" position. But the square box to its immediate right of the eyeballs is grayed out. How do I get those layers restored?
.

[hayasidist]

open the layer settings for each greyed out layer, and in the "general" tab make sure that

- visible is checked
- opacity is 100%

hope that helps

[synthsin75]

Also make sure "hide in editing view" is not checked.

[Hauksbee01]

hayasidist: Thanks for the come-back, but it didn't help. "Visible" is checked and Opacity is set to 100%. I opened Settings for the layers that are visible, and I can see no difference twixt them and the invisible. I re-imported the art for an invisible layer, and it shows up just fine. I'd hate to have to re-do all the bad layers. More importantly, I'd like to know why this happened.

Strangely enough, it's happening here in this post. I uploaded an image using TinyPic at the first post. Now the image is gone even though the URL info is still there...not that I suspect any connection to my main problem. Just sayin'.

ps: "Hide in Editing View" also not checked.

[synthsin75]

Are you talking about image layers?

[Greenlaw]

That's pretty weird. Here are some things to check out.

Are you pulling the images from a local directory or a network location? If it's a local drive or network directory, make sure the location is still available.

If the location is still available, you can relink the images through the Layer Settings panel. Try that first but if you have a lot of images, you might be better off re-importing them. I recommend using the Import Image Sequence script if that's not what you used.

Note that if you used the Import Image Sequence script, it's very fussy about naming conventions. (Description of proper usage can be found in the script itself.)

What image format are you using? Typically, I use PNG but most of the common image formats are supported.

How large are the images and what bit depth? I believe ASP only supports standard 24-bit color at this time, so images with higher bit-depths might not load properly. As for size, unless you don't have enough ram for it, large image files shouldn't be an issue. In fact, I'm amazed by how well ASP handles large image files--much better than some other 2D animation programs I'm using.

I'm not sure why your Tiny Pic isn't loading but unless you're using a non-standard file format for both Tiny Pic and ASP, it's probably just a coincidence.

[Hauksbee01]

Greenlaw:

Taking your queries in order:

I am pulling the images from a desktop folder. It has not moved.

'Went to Layer Settings, but do not see how to re-link the images. (if you could point me at it...?) Not sure what constitutes "a lot" of images (newbie here) but there will be two drummers. Each will have four (maybe six) arm/hand positions, the Throobeezie player has seven arm/hand positions, and the Cymbalist player has nineteen positions as he side-steps back and forth.

I did not use the Image Sequence Script, but I will give it a try.

All images are .png. I started off trying .jpg but found that the white background in along with the image. After experimenting, I found that .png did not and settled on that.

The images (according to "Images" in Photoshop) are 8-bit color. The Cymbalist is 100 pixel/in. and 752Kb. The Throombeezie player is 8-bit, & 72pixels/in. at 536Kb. One possible issue: due to an oversight of mine, some of the elements were pretty big when imported and had to be re-sized on the stage. Could that be a problem?

And that's it. Thanks for your help.

[hayasidist]

it's the embed code for your image that isn't working -- but it is at http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=XaT ... h4l5k2TGxc -- various image layers for throombootie, drummer and Zimbalist. looking at that, import sequence may not be a good option for all.

the layer settings has an image tab -- and there's a set source image there.

a second look at your layers snapshot - I'm wondering how many image layers you have and if you imported them all in one go - maybe via general import - and AS simply ran out of memory? (which is why importing them one by one sorts out the problem?).

[synthsin75]

It's not a missing assets issue, otherwise there would be red Xs on the image layer icons.

Can you post the file, without the images?

[Hauksbee01]

it's the embed code for your image that isn't working -- but it is at http://tinypic.com /usermedia.php?uo=XaTRJmVkC3f%2BHgzGF8iGYoh4l5k2TGxc --.

I discovered this myself this afternoon. I had copied the URL of the page instead of the code for the image.

As for images/layers: there are 2 for the background + 1 for the lanterns +3 performers. The Throombootie player has 7 arm/hand positions. The Cymbalist has 19 positions. Each one was imported separately.

As for posting the file, do I need to go through TinyPic for this too?

[synthsin75]

Upload it to Dropbox or similar and post link to it.

[Hauksbee01]

synthsin 75:

I'm a little vague on how Dropbox works, but I think this might do it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sbtgave8f13oz ... .anme?dl=0

[synthsin75]

You got it.

Hayasidist was right. All of your invisible layers are either because the 'eyes' visible icon is turned off in the layers window or the layer setting 'Visible' checkbox is unchecked. When you select a layer, the red on the timeline means it is not visible in the layer settings, and this is animated. It also looks like you've move a lot of layers on the sequencer. I don't know if that was intentional or not.

[Hauksbee01]

Hayasidist was right. All of your invisible layers are either because the 'eyes' visible icon is turned off in the layers window or the layer setting 'Visible' checkbox is unchecked.

I had a feeling that there would be a simple solution to this, seeing as I had it working once. (I love simple solutions!) However; the down-side of simple solutions is that I usually feel like a simple-minded doofus for not seeing what was right under my nose.

Thanks to all for getting me back on track.

[jahnocli]

Nice visuals - would love to see them move