After effects - Contents of layers have all moved up one

[perrymanderson]

Hi.

So I've just opened a saved after effects thing I was working on and the contents of the layers have moved up one. So the contents of layer "head" are now in layer "mouth". Has happened once before and I just redid the whole thing, but can't be going on like this. Have I hit a short cut or something silly like that or is this a bug?

Can anyone help?

[Roland Kahlenberg]

What do you mean by "moved up by one?

And the Layer Index number system in AE should provide some clue as to whether a new layer has been added into the layer stack.

[Martin_Ritter]

There is no shortcut for such an operation, so something is odd.

First thing is to purge all memory and see, if anything did change.

If not, can you please make sure that the layer content has changed in AE by single the layer and have a look at it only. Click on the name column so see the comp-name and the source name. Are they identical? Then, right click and reveal the layer in AE project. Double click it and have a look at it in source view. Finally check if the layer content and/or name is actual wrong by open it in AI or PS, or whereever you created the artwork.

Please add a screenshot - that's always helpful.

*Martin

[perrymanderson]

Many thanks for your time.

Purged and nothing changed. Right clicked on one of the layers, select "reveal layer source in project" and it is refering to a different layer. I added two more layers to the original psd file, would that of caused all of this to change? Can I change the layer source?

Thank you

[Martin_Ritter]

Are the layer names changing when you click on "Layer Name" in comp-panel (timeline). There is a source name and a name of that layer in your comp - and they can be different.

As far as is know, if you add layers to the source file, they are not appearing in AE until you import them manual. Shifting of names is something I never experienced.

If seems that all layer names in comp-panel have been renamed all at once. But there is no shortcut for such a thing, but maybe you run a script which does that?

The same thing could be happening in PS, as well as moving the content of the layers into another layer. If you added two layers in PS and now all names are two layers off in AE, this is very suspecting and might be the cause.

Make a new PS with some layers, import it into AE and add some layers to the PS to verify.

To get you out of the mess, you should import the PS as new composition with the same import options from last time (I guess: as composition, retain layer size) and then replace each layer of the messed comp with the correct one from the new comp. You do this by selecting one layer in messed comp, select the corresponding layer in project panel, press and hold ALT key and drag the layer from project panel into the comp to the selected one there. Repeat this for evey layer.

All effects, keyframes and what ever you did to the layer will stay.

To make this work as intended, it's critical that both layers (old and new one), are exactly the same size. But if you don't changed the layers in PS, just added some, this should work.

*Martin

[perrymanderson]

No script run (i'm definitely in the beginner stages of ae)

Thank you for your fix, will get on it and replace those layers! 

Worth reinstalling all adobe programs so it doesn't happen again?

[Martin_Ritter]

I don't think this is a bug. AE works non-destructive until you do something on "purpose".

*Martin

[perrymanderson]

Thank you so much for your help Martin! Greatly appreciated! 

[Roland Kahlenberg]

This go wonky when you insert new layers into a multilayered AI/PSD file that has been imported into AE. In the future, add empty layers in your multilayered AI/PSD files before importing them into AE. Then, when you require new layers, in AI/PS place the new layers into the empty layers.

Alternatively, add layers but import the multilayered AI/PSD again. The copy the new layers into the originally imported AI/PSD comp.