After I render the video, the effects that I added to the video have magically disappeared even thought they still show up in after effects. Help please!!

[batopolis]

Hello!

In after effects I added some muzzle flashes and other effects to a video. I than rendered it out. When I watch the finished video, some of the muzzle flashes and effects randomly disappeared. I even went back into after effects to make sure that the effects were actually there and they are. But they don't show up when I watch the rendered video. I have rendered it over 5 times now and I am still getting the same issue. And also, I have done this same sort of stuff before with all the same settings and it worked just fine with other videos. The file type I exported it as is AVI because it doesn't show any other options when I render the video. But I have rendered plenty of other videos as AVI files and they were just fine. Someone please help!

[Roei Tzoref]

they don't show up when I watch the rendered video.

a common user error is to accidently check the layer as Guide layers.if you see this symbol

then right click on the layer and check off "guide layer"

if this is not the case, show us a full screenshot of your Ae interface so we can examine it.

The file type I exported it as is AVI because it doesn't show any other options when I render the video.

this does not sound normal. where is this video going? if you are creating a lossless file you are better off using Quicktime and for a codec - Animation is a popular one. you need to install Quicktime to have these options. (on Windows you had better install just the essential components because there are some security issues associated with Quicktime player). if your intention is to playback the video for your entertainment of upload to some service online, then you should export using Adobe Media Encoder and you don't have to render it in Ae before you do that. see here for exporting options in Ae: Basics of rendering and exporting in After Effects CC

[batopolis]

Yeah I checked and the guide layer is not on, so that is not the issue. Here is a screenshot, like you asked for:

To answer your question: I will be posting the video on youtube. Here are all the options that AE gives me to export video as:

I'm not sure what one is best for uploading to youtube but I have previously uploaded AVI videos to youtube and they worked just fine. Thanks so much for the help!

[Roei Tzoref]

1. What is the main composition you are rendering? the screenshot shows a precomp inside a composition which is 13.043 fps which is probably a bad idea. I am guessing this is a stop motion sequence but the fps should be even. It's usually 12 or 24. This could be the problem. We also need to inspect inside the precomp where those muzzle flashes layers are. Show more screenshots and provide more information.

2. if you want to export you video to a playback codec you should encode it to H264 using adobe media encoder. more about here: https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/basics-rendering-exporting.html

[batopolis]

Yeah It is a stop motion that I shot at 13 fps (my personal preference). When I imported the 13 fps stop motion it automatically brought it to 13.043 and I have yet to find a way to make it even 13. It used to be over 150 layers but I made pre-comps to compress it. Here is what is inside the main pre-comp that you saw in the first screenshot:

Than here is what is in each of those pre-comps:

And than finally in each of those are the original layers:

Could all the pre-comps be the issue?

[Roei Tzoref]

When I imported the 13 fps stop motion it automatically brought it to 13.043 and I have yet to find a way to make it even 13.

stop motion is made of still images, you import them as sequence and then decide what frame rate to attach to them. have you made the sequence through some other software and got a video instead? this could be part of the problem. it's really hard to tell what is causing this. you are going to eventually want someone to watch this so you better stick with a common frame rates. 24 for stop motion is a good choice. if you did some compositing based on keyframes, you would want to work at the sequence original frame rate (12) and make the nested composition to be at the original frame rate (tick preserve frame rate when nested).

It used to be over 150 layers but I made pre-comps to compress it. Could all the pre-comps be the issue?

I am not sure what you mean by compressing it. it looks to me you are trying to edit your animation with After Effects and this could get messy pretty quick same as we are seeing here. these pre-comps reveal nothing of use and we can't really tell what's going on when everything is in boxes. it reminds me when I was a kid and was told to clean up the desk and I just took everything and pushed into the drawers. I hide the mess but it's still there. it only looks organized but it's really not.

here is what I advise you to do:

1. if you can, edit your sequences in Premiere and not Ae. work in a 24fps HD Composition

2. import your sequences at common frame rates: 12 is good for stop motion and common.

3. whatever shot needs to have composition/VFX you should copy paste to Ae, fix it, render it using a production codec such as QuickTime Animation and place instead the previous clip in premiere.

4. for final output use H.264 through export in premiere.

if you are already in Ae and want to save what you can you should:

1. make sure you sequences are imported as 12fps

2. make sure your compositions are set to 12fps

3. fix the keyframes where they need to be fixed

3. render your final composition as QuickTime Animation

4. drag your video to Adobe media encoder and change the frame rate to 24 fps in the video settings.

[batopolis]

I think you're getting off track from my original issue. My Issue is that I spent over 6 hours editing this video and now all of the things that I added to the video have disappeared after I render it out. That is my issue. It doesn't really have anything to do with fps or pre-comps because when I preview the video in AE it show me everything that I added, but after I render it and watch the rendered video, the things that I added disappeared. That Is my issue.

[Roei Tzoref · Accepted solution]

All the things? or just some of them? Are these effects or footage of flashes? it's hard to tell and get the full picture because of the way you setup you project.

I understand you don't want to start over or take steps back in your project. Do what you can but I gave advice for you anyone who is dealing with a stop motion workflow. The way you edit and setup your footage is prone to all sorts of errors.

the frame rate and precomps relation to your issue: I suspect the 13.043fps can create this sort of problems Because it is a not whole fps number and not a common frame rate that is supported with some codecs. So maybe the rendered footage is not the same frame rate and this means skipped frames. The precomps are related because there are one inside the other several times and this makes it difficult to detect where is the mismatch. it is still unclear where are the exact layers that are missing. where are these muzzle flashes? Is this a video or an effect?

Try this:

import your rendered video to Ae and see what frame rate it interprets it in. If it's not the same then it skipped frames=skipped some of the layers. also try and Trace the exact points in time where you missed some layers by placing the rendered video above the original comp and dig inside the precomps and look for frame rate mismatch.

[Rick Gerard]

I think that most of your problems are probably being caused by the non standard frame rate and trying to render directly to video. Video, especially highly compressed delivery formats, have standards that you should not mess with. The first thing in your first post that told me that you were new to this was:

Yeah It is a stop motion that I shot at 13 fps (my personal preference). When I imported the 13 fps stop motion it automatically brought it to 13.043 and I have yet to find a way to make it even 13.

Unless you can move your models very quickly using some kind of magical control I don't know how anyone can shoot 13 frames per second when doing stop motion photography. I suspect that you mean that your personal preference for the interpreted frame rate for the footage is 13 fps. You shouldn't do that because there is no standard media player that will run at 13 fps. As Roei stated the standard for animation of any kind is either 12 (Buggs Bunny, and almost everything else ever animated in a non PAL country) or 24. 

if you have set up a comp with a non standard frame rate and short effects like muzzle flashes are not coming out the way you thought they should when you render video I would suggest that you render your comp to an image sequence. This should assure that every frame in the comp is rendered. Once you render your image sequence you can fix the frame rate problem by choosing a standard frame rate, then render to a suitable delivery format. This also means that you may have to retime the audio a bit because sync will be off.

[batopolis]

Thanks SOO much! I changed it to 12 fps and it worked! Thanks so much! It's a relief that my 6+ hours of work on this video have paid off...

[Dave_LaRonde]

batopolis wrote:

It's a relief that my 6+ hours of work on this video have paid off...

You say that like you spent a long time working on this.  Wait until you tackle a project that takes several days.

[batopolis]

I spent 2 weeks on this video

[Dave_LaRonde]

6 hours spread over a 2 week period ain't nothin'. 

Wait until you put in a 40-hour work week on a minute and a half of video.

[batopolis]

Dave I didn't ask you to tell about how long your projects are. And anyway, When I said 6 hours I meant 6 hours just adding light, effects and muzzle flashes. I spent about another 8 hours actually animating it too. Which makes a total of about 14 hours. Oh and one more thing, this was actually only half of the video so far. So by the end I will have spent almost 30 hours. You are probably going to reply to this with another comment, but just know that it will not be seen by me because my question has already been answered here. Good bye and have a nice day.

[Roei Tzoref]

Glad we sorted you out. now if only we could see this masterpiece?

[batopolis]

I still have the other half of the video to finish, but when I finish it, I will be sure to show you!