Bug: Layers become invisible in Precomp (not due to being converted to Guide or Adjustments Layers)

Question

I just experienced the weirdest issue in After Effects I have ever come across (in 10+ years). I precomped a Photoshop layer but when opening the precomp, nothing was visible. The new comp was completely empty/transparent. However, the content of the precomp still appeared in the original comp AND in the preview thumbnail of the project panel.

I checked if I accidentally turned it into a Guide or Adjustment Layer but it all seemed alright. What was even more strange was that when I created a new shape layer in the precomp, it would also turn "invisible", despite also showing up in the preview thumbnail. I cleared the Cache, created a new comp of the same size and even did a restart without any success.

I couldn't find any explanation online so tried a few random things and I stumbled across a solution.

It turned out that certain pixel heights of my precomp made the layers disappear! In my case, any heights of 144px, 146px and 148px were causing the issue (comp was set to 510px wide, 25fps, square pixel in case you'd like to try it yourself 😉 )

When I changed the height to 145px, 147px, 149px or higher, the layers became visible again!

I’d be interested to know if anyone else encountered that phenomenon.

Mylenium · Accepted Answer

Nothing weird about it. Something is wrong with your GPU acceleration or you have encountered a limitation/ bug of AE's implementation. Other users have reported this jsut as well in otehr scenarios - for GPU acceleration to work, minimum comp sizes have to be used. There is also nothing magic about the content appearing with odd-numbered dimensions. It simply reverts to software rendering since GPU acceleration stuff typically only works with power of two math due to how its simplified algorithms work. So you see, it can all be explained easily, including possible solutions/ workarounds.

Mylenium

Ren_Cloudsurfer · Answer

Thanks for the great explanation. Didn't think that the GPU acceleration could be the culprit (obvious in hindsight though). After turning it on an off the precomp behaved 'as advertised".

Still a weird situation to run in to in my opinion. Most posts I could found around that issue had to do with layers that had been turned into Guide Layers. I only found the ‘fix’ with the comp height by chance. Understanding the underlying technical cause is above my pay grade! 😉

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