Render visibility applies to both the render region and the final render.
Scene layers are containers — similar to groups or render passes — that help you organize, view, display, and edit the contents of your scene. For example, you can put different objects into each layer and then hide a particular layer when you don’t want to see that part of your scene. Or you might want to make a layer’s objects unselectable if the scene is getting too complex to select objects accurately. You can create as many layers as your scene requires.
Every new scene contains a single layer named Layer_Default. This layer is set to display every object in your scene. It is also the current layer for the scene. You cannot delete the default layer until you’ve created at least one other layer. If you delete the default layer, the least recently created (oldest) layer in the scene becomes the new default layer. Objects from the deleted default layer are moved into the new default layer.
Each scene layer has four main attributes: viewport visibility, rendering visibility, selectability, and animation ghosting. You can enable or disable each these attributes for every layer in the scene, as described in Setting Scene Layer Attributes.
Viewport Visibility
Viewport visibility determines whether a layer is visible in the viewports or not. An object in a layer whose viewport visibility is disabled is neither visible nor selectable in the viewports, but you can still select it from the explorer.
Objects in layers that are not viewport-visible will still render if the layer’s rendering visibility is enabled.
Rendering Visibility
Rendering visibility determines whether a layer is rendered or not. Objects are not rendered if they are in a layer whose rendering visibility is disabled.
In the viewports, you can still see and select objects in render-invisible layers if their viewport visibility and selectability are enabled.
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Render visibility applies to both the render region and the final render. |
Selectability
Selectability determines whether a layer can be selected in the viewports. None of the objects in a layer are selectable in the viewports if the layer’s selectability is disabled. They are, however, selectable from the explorer.
Ghosting
Ghosting determines whether animated objects in a layer are ghosted or not. Animation ghosting, also known as onion-skinning, is a viewing mode that lets you display a series of snapshots of animated objects at frames or keyframes behind and/or ahead of the current frame. This lets you easily visualize the motion of an object, which can help you improve its timing and flow.
For more information about ghosting, see Ghosting Animated Objects in the Animation guide.
You can apply properties to scene layers much the same way that you apply them to groups. Properties applied at the layer level are propagated to all of the objects in the layer.
For example you can set a layer’s display color, which defines the wireframe color of objects in the layer, provided that the objects are not selected. This color is actually controlled by a Display property (see [here]) applied in branch mode to the layer itself. If the layer has no such property, you must create it before you can define the layer’s display color (though you can also create is on the fly when you define the color).
For more information about setting a layer’s display color, and other custom properties, see Setting Scene Layer Properties.
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