Sorry this has been bothering me for hours. If you have 3 characters as symbols on 3 layers and a camera. All have 3D turned on then you place them in the top view. How come the layer order still affects the sorting of whats in front of what. how do you override this?
Thanks!
Anything on the same z axis then the layer order determines what is on top, however if they on different points in the z axis they become the determining factor. So in short to override the layer order move in the z axis.
Hum, thats kind of the problem I have. I have the 3 layers at 3 different depths yet its requiring me to have the proper layer order. meaning something further back from the camera will be on something that is closer in the z depth.
I’d have to see your scene file first to be sure, but sometimes what happens is that when you have a symbol, the symbol itself might contain layers that are at different depths. So then when you bring this symbol into the main scene, and then displace it, if you were to go inside the symbol itself some of its elements are still in front of or behind elements in the main scene.
Does that make any sense? Once again, one of the reasons that I recommend staying away from symbols whenever possible. It’s easier to understand what’s going on in your top view when you can see the whole element laid out instead of just the symbol representation.
~Lilly
Toon Boom Support
I can’t think of a situation that would make sense. Could you explain why/what you are trying to do? I might be able to suggest a better way to do it.
Let me see if I can describe this a little better. I have 3 layers with three symbols on them, I need to have the symbol on layer 2 be under layer 3 but not in the layer order, the reason is this layer will later have to be in front of 3. I turned on the 3D mode and in the perspective view I can see all the positioning and the cameras all setup right but then when I view it through the camera, layer 2 is always over layer 3 even though in the perspective window its behind.
I hope this makes more sense.
Thanks
oh like you have an arm and a need them in that order cause of parent child relationships but want to change the order?
Are you using pro or standard?
In standard you will need nudge the layer you want to change the order of in the z axis.
If you are using pro and you can reorder in network view on the composite module.
First off I just wanted to say thanks, some online software communities are not all that responsive to questions/issues.
I think I found the issue and it was somewhat tied into what lillyV said. The issue is I am using symbols. I need to because I have an army of similar looking characters in a crowd (I know a little hack), so I have to use symbols.
The three layers on the main timeline are all set to 3D. The problem is if you have a layer for some reason thats over another layer in the network, but you need it to appear below and you are using symbols you need to go into the symbol and just nudge it back slightly, otherwise the bottom layer will always be behind the top (sorry its confusing). I am using the pro version. For the most part though I agree with lillyV to not use symbols, but if you are reusing assets you can’t help it.
You can also nudge the symbol’s position after you import it into the scene. Once you import the symbol, you can use the transform tool to move it back and forth. Just be aware that if you have nudged the contents inside the symbol, it will combine the translation inside the symbol with any translation that you do back on your main scene.
I hope this helps!
~Lilly
Toon Boom Support
You don’t need to make it into a symbol to reuse. You can reuse drawings too.