Mesh Layer Turns Gray Opaque

[CSCorbridge]

Hello all...I was building a character with a smart mesh layer and suddenly it has turned opaque so the image cannot be seen underneath it with the triangles all different shades of gray. Can't figure out how to still manipulate the smart mesh in frame 0 and still see the image underneath.
Thanks!
-Casey

[synthsin75]

Don't know why that would happen, but the easiest fix would be to lower the layer opacity for the smart mesh.

[CSCorbridge]

I decreased the opacity to 10% with zero change...I also exited the program and re-loaded, no change either. I was thinking maybe I made it too complicated for the program, so i deleted almost all points, again, no change. It's bumming me out, it was a pretty complicated smart rig I had created.

[synthsin75]

Did you accidentally disable transparency in the display settings?

[SimplSam]

Worst case scenario - you can move the smart mesh layer below the other layers so that they are visible. You will still be able to see the mesh points when using the point tools on the mesh layer.

[CSCorbridge]

Wes, I'm not even sure how to enable/disable transparency in display settings...couldn't even find display settings. Also, dropping the layer behind the others seems like it will work at least for my smart bone rig, but is very cumbersome because it only shows the points not the shapes/lines.

[CSCorbridge]

[youtube]https://youtu.be/Ym1FPSDENeA[/youtube]

[Greenlaw]

At the bottom right corner of the Workspace, look for the pop list called Display Quality. Here's where you find most of your display options. Transparency is one of these options.

FYI, typically, I leave the last three (Fade Unselected, Antialiasing, and GPU Acceleration) disabled until I need them.

Fade Unselected is mainly useful when you're using images as a guide during rigging. When I turn it one, it's for a specific task and I turn it back off immediately after I'm done. You also want to have GPU Acceleration enabled to use this option correctly.

GPU Acceleration allows you to see certain effects in the workspace, but it can also have adverse effects for masking. I don't normally need to see any effects while I'm animating so I leave this off most of the time. (Like 99% actually.) GPU Acceleration is most effective if you have a lot of high res bitmap images in your project. A prime example to test this feature is Chucky's Crustacea (File >Import > Library > Scenes > CK Crustacea >Crustacea).

Anti-aliasing is mostly optional. You may experience better performance with it disabled, and disabling it does not effect the final render quality.

I'll enable/disable the other options as I need to. For example, sometimes it's useful to disable Fills so you can see through layers, or disable Paths if you're having trouble seeing the vector paths and knots.

I always have Labels enabled because I always name my Smart Bone Dials.

In Preferences, there is another option for the GPU. This is a global switch and normally you want to leave this enabled. Disable it only when your certain the GPU is causing problems for you.

Hope this helps.

[synthsin75]

Looks like you probably want to disable GPU acceleration.

[CSCorbridge]

Greenlaw and Synthsin75 - thank you both for your input!!! Changing the default antialiasing as well as disabling GPU acceleration has removed the gray that was blocking the mesh layer with the opaque grayness as well as showing all my mesh lines in the layer, not just the points!!! Using both of your recommendations in tandem is what did the trick. Thank you! The only drawback, which isn't a drawback at all in my workflow process, is that the mesh "triangulation" isn't visible, but who cares! This is allowing me to use my rig again. Thank you to both of you!