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If you want to document Blender 2.5 features please edit pages under Doc:2.5/Manual.
If a "2.5" page doesn't exist please copy the text from 2.4x Manual and edit the new page (i.e. you should paste the wikitext from this 2.4x page to this new 2.5x page and then update the latter with 2.5 features)
Many times you want an object or actor to wait off stage until it is their time to come on and do their thang. In Blender, you commonly render only a few of the 20 available layers. Further, you can set some lamps to illuminate only objects on their layer. By changing an object's layer during the animation, it is possible to animate an object's layer "membership" and thus it's visibility in the scene, and its lighting.
Further, by putting the object on a layer that is not selected in your 3D view, it will not clutter up your workspace. During the frames of the animation when it is on a visible layer, you will see it and be able to work with it.
To animate an object's layer membership, go to the frame when you want the object to appear. Ensure the object is on a visible layer (Move Layer command will tell you what layer it is on). Insert an Ipo Key, and choose Layer (the menu option located below the Location and Rotation selections). In your Ipo Window, you will see the Layer channel now has a value corresponding to the Layer. Back up one frame, Move the object to an unselected (invisible) layer. Now, here's a slight glitch; you cannot add a Layer Key because the object is on an unselected layer. So, temporarily enable that layer by shift-selecting it from the 20 Layer buttons, Insert another Layer key, and then de-select the undesired layer.
Select All Layers
To activate all Layers, press ` (accent grave .. top left of US keyboards)
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Scrub or play through the animation and you should see your object appearing at the indicated frame. You can edit this Ipo control point, usually in Keyframe mode, to change when the shift occurs.
[edit] Tips
You will note that the Layer Ipo "curve" is a discontinuous jump. There is no way to have an object gradually change layers. To make an object fade into view, you have to animate its Material Alpha setting to fade in from 0.0 to 1.0.
There are two ways to check which layer an object is on :
- Press M to display the layers menu, the object's layer(s) buttons will be enabled. Press ESC or OK to dismiss the menu
- Display the Buttons Window / Object Buttons F7. Under the Draw panel, the Layers buttons displays the object's active layer(s). The active layer(s) can be changed from that panel as well, instead of using the floating layer panel M
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