Bugs

So, I thought I was almost done. Before adding sound effects, I decide that I will be good and consolidate my layers to save space (and download time). You see, when I composed each thread, I made each part of each thread a layer (or two if there were overlapping effects--not to mention the constant background, buttons, actions, and sound layers). This really helped keep me organized, and it saved me some time when revising, since I only had to click on that layer to find where that part of the story picked up and left off. My plan was to consolidate these layers when I had finished. And the plan overall seemed to go rather well.

Only I forgot about bugs. For whatever reason, what might work perfectly well one set of layers apparently doesn't work as well when those layers are merged into others. There is no logical reason for it, according to experienced users, and sometimes when you try to modify these layers, they act "funny." I experienced this when I first started, but I chalked that up to inexperience, and luckily, since I save each version I complete successfully as a different file, I was able to go back to the last version and insert the working layers in place of the buggy ones.

Well, after two hours of trying to fix the (many) bugs in my almost final version, I finally realized that I could do the very same thing (duh). After trying for nearly an hour it fix a fire effect that I had successfully created in a previous version, even having the previous version open to confirm that the layers were of the very same timeline and order as the working ones, it finally dawned on me that, well, space be damned, I should just insert those three layers into movie.

Yes, I increased the file size, but in retrospect, I would do it again if only I didn't have to spend another hour trying to fix illogical bugs.