[Bf-committers] Layers and Renderlayers, a strange fact

[Campbell Barton]

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Michele Coke wrote:
> Hello,
> as everyone of you knows, the selected layers have to be the same of 
> those set in selected RenderLayer in order to be rendered, otherwise, 
> you'll obtain just the Sky as written in the manual at this link:
> http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Render_Layers#Finding_RenderLayers
> In other words, you have to sync the visible layers with ones in 
> renderlayer in order to render.
> That means for Blender that an hidden layer is equal to an 
> not-renderable layer, in other words, a layer is hidden AND not-renderable.
> That's bit strange compared to a simple logic used also in other 
> softwares, where a layer could be hidden BUT STILL renderable or 
> viceversa or both.
> In my opinion, this sync should be avoided and it could be done in a 
> simple way, because there's all ready in Blender.
> Let's make an example:
> I have to model a car from a box using simple planes with attached 
> images as references.
> The car is in layer 1, the planes are in layer 2.
> Now, before to render the car, I should deactivare layer 2, then hitting 
> F12. At the end of the render, reactivate the layer 2 to continue the job.
> A boring process ! What to do to speed up things  ?
> Thanks to RenderLayers, I could create one called "Just_Car", which has 
> set only layer 1, and when I press Shift + F12, Blender will use layers 
> set in actual renderlayer to render, in my case, Blender will not 
> consider layer 2 because is turned off in Just_Car.
> It's quite simple, isn't ?
> This is a simple example, but the list could be huge.
> In this way, I suppose, it can avoid the creation of Layer Manager for 
> the moment, even if it should be taken in consideration, with a simple 
> keyboard shortcut.
> But the worst thing about sync is not ended here.
> If you create a renderlayer node and you want to render only that node 
> using the "Re-render this layer", AGAIN, you have to sync layers, 
> otherwise you'll obtain just sky !
> Does someone here think I'm wrong ?
> Waiting for answer,
> Thanks and sorry for my english.
> Michael