Basic question about layers

[Dee Flouton]

I have, what is most probably construed by all you techie gurus as an extremely basic question, but at the risk of sounding *super neophyte* I must ask it anyway. I may be missing something very elementary here, but I was painting in 2 different layers and wanted to merge the two into one. I flattened layer 2 and it disappeared. I had intended to combine it with layer 1, but now that seemed impossible. Decided to run the history sequence in any case to see if what I lost might be re-couped but it wasn't. All I got was a supersized image of Layer 1. Lost all the paint strokes on layer 2, etc. Where did layer 2 go? I did not delete it prior to running it. Played the Paint Action Sequence as a second shot and all I got was something that was similar to the image, but not what I expected. I appeared to be something that was "stuck" in the PASeq sequence from a previous "run" even though I had ERASED it previous to running it. Bottom line: Is there a way to merge the contents of layer 1 with the contents of layer 2 and replay it supersize without losing either layer in the process? If this topic has been covered in an earlier post to forum, please direct me to it. Thanks!

[Synthetik]

When you flatten, all of your layers vanish except one, which is filed with the composited view from your layers before flattening. And since flattening is not undoable in 3.5, you can't get back to your original layers at that point.

One approach to do what you want to do, which is essentially to flatten to a new layer while retaining the old layers is to first make a new layer, then un-click the checkbox associate with it in the layer window so it does not display in view all layers mode. Then make your muted new layer the current layer. Then run the canvas : layer commands : capture to current layer menu. This will capture a flattened snapshot of the current view all display into your new layer.

Option clicking the little layer memory button on the left side of the layer in the layer windows would actually do the same thing as running the menu command, so that's the shortcut way to do it. like all memory buttons in studio artist option clicking records (records the current view into the layer in this case), which clicking on the button switches that layer (plays back the contents of the layer into the current view).

The history sequence does record which layer you did each step in. But you would need to have the paint action sequence configuration preference called 'layer track' turned on if you wanted the layers to adjust themselves accordingly when you played back the history sequence. The history sequence is really just a second paseq that is handy to record your session history while still allowing you to use with the main paseq window in your work. So the paseq configuration settings apply to it as well. Layer Track is defaulted turned off since many people want to be able to choose a given paseq preset and then run it on whatever is their current layer. If a paseq always played back the layer info recorded in it you would not be able to do that.

[Dee Flouton]

I tried the first approach in a simple test. I ran the paseq and It processed until the end, but finished with a white canvas on the last step. Same was true when I ran the hist. sequence. Tried your 2nd suggestion as well but that was equally disappointing and rendered only a white canvas at the end. The layer track was turned on in both cases. See attached pix.
What am I missing?

Picture 2.png

[Synthetik]

Your layer view is set to current layer. so when you switch to the new empty layer that is what will be displayed on the canvas. You want the view popup at the top of the layer window to be set to view all.

[Dee Flouton]

Thanks, John. I thought that everything would "drop into" layer 3 and then be seen there only.

[Synthetik]

I think i may have misinterpreted your post. So i'll try to answer differently. The PASeq or history sequence in 3.5 will not playback adjustments in the individual steps to the mute checkboxes or the other layer controls like the composite popup or the transparency numeric settings. When you turn on layer track it plays back changes to the current layer when the paseq plays back. but the settings in the layer (like the mute checkbox and composite) will remain what they were when you started.

When you first start playing the paseq in layer track the initial layer settings (# of layers and initial control settings) should adjust accordingly but any changes you made to things like view or composite or mute while recoding the paseq will not play back.

In general, layer menu commands do not playback in a paseq. so anything you do with the layer command menus will not be recorded in your session history. the whole point of paseqs and the history is that they can be played back into c different size layers, so they don't deal with commands that do things like resize layers.

the option click on the layer memory button does record as the 'capture to layer' command in a paseq. that's because often it is useful to be able to move layer contents around in a paseq script.