Problem: Imported PSD layers suddenly merged in Motion 5.1

Question

Problem: Imported PSD layers suddenly merged in Motion 5.1

I'm experiencing a weird and annoying problem in Motion 5.1…

I'm working on a project which contains a layered PSD. I've imported all the layers (6) of the Photoshop file, the layers are smart objects. I use Motion to animate the individual layers and all looks well. But… sometimes when I re-open or export the Motion project the PSD layers are merged. The animation is still there, but looks crappy because it animates the flattened file instead of the individual layers.

In the Properties section under media the layer box says 'Merged' and I can't change it to the individual layers. When I re-conect the file in the Media-tab (replace media) and I go back to Properties I can change 'Merged' to the correct layer and all looks well again.

But… after a while the problem re-occurs. Bummer.

Is there anyone who experiences the same problems, or has a solution?

I'm working on a MacBook 15" 2.4 GHz i7, 16 GB, late 2013.

Motion 5, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Jan 3, 2014 2:50 AM

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Answer 1

BenB

Level 6

12,097 points

Jan 4, 2014 5:30 AM in response to Edwin Venhorst

Be sure to report this to the Motion feedback page. A link to it is in the Motion menu.

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Answer 2

Jan 4, 2014 11:27 AM in response to BenB

Thanks, I'll do that immediately.

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Answer 3

R1Law

Level 1

8 points

Mar 5, 2014 7:35 AM in response to Edwin Venhorst

I'm having this issue as well, seems that layered files are not importing the layers (I'm holding, no hook).

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Answer 4

Mar 5, 2014 7:53 AM in response to R1Law

That's a different problem I think. In my case the layer-import works fine, but Motion merges the layers at a certain moment. Still not solved by the way.

Maybe it's a good idea to open a new post explaining your specific problem, because then it is more likely you get a solution.

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Answer 5

Jan 20, 2015 11:17 AM in response to Edwin Venhorst

I'm getting the same problem and it's driving me bats.

Importing layered Photoshop files works fine for a while, but when you quit Motion and re-open the project each of the layers comes back as the merged version.

Stranger, Motion shows the layers, and you can open the media selector, but (alas!) when you select a layer it reverts immediately to "Merged."

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Answer 6

tjreid

Level 1

18 points

Feb 17, 2015 6:51 AM in response to MattHagen

I had the same problem occur for the first time today (been using Motion since version 1). All of my autosaves exhibited the same behavior and I was starting to get worried because I'm using a layered PSD on 50 different Motion layers and they all suddenly became merged. Following Edwin's initial suggestion to reconnect the media didn't seem to work for me at first, but once I unlocked all my layers and reconnected again, everything fell back into place and the layers were back to the right selections. I submitted a bug report to Apple. Hopefully it won't happen again.

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Answer 7

Feb 13, 2016 6:41 AM in response to Edwin Venhorst

Discovered that this problem should be linked to the lock/unlock layer feature lock.png. When don't use the lock features this bug does not occur.

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Answer 8

Aug 22, 2016 6:05 PM in response to Mizerable

I noticed the same thing, when I lock a layer, like a background layer, that layer is merged when I reopen the project. It has happend several times now.

Once I had this happen to me on a very large file with 50 layers, all animated and working fine, but when I reopened the file the next day all those layers were merged. The way I fixed it was to go to that PSD file and export each layer as a PNG, and then in Motion swap the merged layer with the individual png file (although you need to export with media box). It is very time consuming, but it worked and the project file was stable from then on.

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Answer 9

R1Law

Level 1

8 points

Aug 23, 2016 2:29 AM in response to Mizerable

Also, make sure image mode in Photoshop is 8 bit, I had 16 bit as default and that caused issues on import to Motion.

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Answer 10

Aug 23, 2016 5:44 AM in response to R1Law

That's good to know, thanks! My PSD's are in 8bit. I only use 16bit when I need really good quality gradients.

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