Apple Motion Objects suddenly disappear

You may have to reinstall Motion. Drag the application to the Trash and go to the App Store to reinstall it.

Truth here: I am out of my element. I've never had to do this. You may get better advice from Tom Wolsky or Luis Sequeira.

Don't panic... everything is still there. It looks like you've accidentally solo'd a layer.

If you hold down the Option key and click on 12 chichester 111 layer's checkbox, the solo'ed layer will be unsolo'ed and everything will probably come back.

Or, (I think - I don't usually use this method) you can go to the Object menu and select Unsolo > Video and Audio and everything should be restored and the Soloing turned off.

Hi Fox! (Can I say just Fox or do I have to say Fox_m? I don't want to be rude!)

Anyways...

I'm having the same problem. And I've restarted the computer and trashed the preferences.

I checked to see if I had anything on Solo. I don't.

I saw everything perfect this morning. Came back in and this evening it's gone blank...except I can "see" the "lights" in the upper corners of the project. What in the world happened? I've included a couple of screenshots for you.

Thank you for being there Fox...

Here's the thing. But wait. First, I have gone in and reset the parameters under the Spot Options. (I think that is what you were asking me to do). Nothing happened.

Let me go back to the here's the thing, thing...The files I am looking at are the original tutorial files from Ripple Training. I even reloaded them from their website and when I open them this is what I see. Even the HUD shows everything. But the canvas...nothing. I have gone in and looked at every single thing I can think of to look at. (Which with my limited experience doesn't really mean much). These files were all working perfectly and have been working perfectly all along.

And no cat btw...dog person - but no dog at this time either. :)

Fox I'm seriously discouraged here. So many things go wrong and its so complicated and without your help I seriously would have given this up a long time ago. I've never worked with software like FCP and Motion that has so many weird things happen with it. Anyways, let's see what you come up with. You are the the Motion Magician after all!

Here's another screen shot of the Properties Inspector. I reset the Position. I then reset the parameters for Rotation as well. When I go in and try to just set them to -0- it will not let me. I don't know if this is normal or not. I've never worked with the lights before...but as I stated before - this is the tutorial file copy. (and I'm just now realizing that I maybe don't have the right to do that...smh). But the fact of the matter is, I am trying to recreate it. But even in recreating it I am getting the same problem.

All the project looks like is a Color Solid and an Emoji (🕺) with two light sources.

You reset the Spot Options and I recommended resetting the Properties > Transform > Rotation parameter(s), although the 45º Cone Angle will help out immensely!

There's a lot that I can't tell, like what the Point At behaviors are actually pointing at, the orientation and placement of the Color Solid and the emoji character (I also don't know what size the emoji is).

Also, I don't have any idea what Ripple Training exercise you're talking about (never worked with them - some really old stuff they did on MacBreak Studio iTunes podcasts...) — are you going for something like:

?

One more thing...

I am trying to give as many different scenarios for you to work with that I can. So sorry for sending so many different replies.

I started a brand new project. And I entered in some text. As you can see, it shows the text in the top of the Inspector window. It shows the text I wrote in the Layers panel. It shows the text I wrote in the Timeline. It shows the bounding box in the Canvas, but the text cannot be seen.

Wow, this just keeps getting better and better...

So, I tried adding a rectangle to the project. Then I deleted the rectangle. It is deleted in the Layers panel and the Timeline. But it is still showing on the Canvas. I also clicked back on my Text layer but the bounding box has disappeared now along with the already missing text.

I got rid of the white rectangle. I'm not sure how...I was clicking all around.

I'm not sure where you are asking me to look. I pulled down the Window menu...I don't see what you are asking for. Sorry....

Also - I did reset the Preferences...right before we started the thread. But I will do it again, no problem. After I hear back from this post.

Ok. Reset the Preferences. Seems worse. Now I don't see the words written in the Inspector window anymore. I do see the writing in the Timeline and in the Layers Panel. But no bounding box, no actual words...just blank/black canvas.

It looks like you have your lights set to Spot and both are pointing directly down (-86.5º on the X-axis)... with a very narrow Cone Angle.

Try resetting the Transform > Rotations of your Lights and rework them from there.

I don't know how you could see everything at one point then return later and have everything dark... got a cat that likes to walk over you keyboard?

Yes. Very similar...just two different colored lights. Your expertise makes me smile when I really don't feel like smiling right now!

Did you see my last entry with the text? I thought I'd give us something much more simple and basic to work with.

And of course you wouldn't know about the tutorial. Silly me. I should have clarified I was just trying to show that it wasn't me who made the little project, that it was coming from a professional source. Also, to say that I have been using that source for many months now without any problems like this before.

Problems on my side...oh yeah. I've made all kinds of mistakes trying to re-create them and you've been amazing at getting me out of my jams. But in this particular case - it is the actual professional file that is showing up with problems...not mine.

At any rate let's forget that file and my re-creation. It's to complicated. Let's just use the simple text and troubleshoot that, it might be easier!

I've looked your other screenshots — Where is the canvas??? It should look like a black rectangle.

I am not familiar with this happening! Normally, I don't like to recommend that anyone reset the Preferences, but you might have to. [Quit Motion, hold down Command and Option when restarting it.]

But before you do that, check the Window menu and see if Show Canvas on Second Display is checked... (if you only have a single monitor, that might make the canvas disappear from your main screen.)

Ok. I figured that might be the next thing to do. And if YOU are out of your element, you KNOW I am haha

I will start the new thread tomorrow. It is getting late and I am sure everyone would like to rest now...including you!

Thank you so much for everything. I seriously had tears I was so frustrated. But it really helped having you walk me through this even this far. Have a good evening Fox...until the next time!