backdrop images not loading

[kjones3d]

Hi there,

I'm a high school animation teacher and we're following some video tutorials made by Graham Toms.

When my students go to load reference images, one or two of them have no luck getting the images (jpegs) to display. It appears they have loaded, no error message, the filename appears in the image drop-down box, but no image shows in the viewport.

I've tried deleting and reloading the input-output plugins with no success.

Any ideas as to what's wrong?

Thanks!

[JonW]

Have you changed the “Size” from 1m to say 100m. The image maybe just hidden by an Options panel.

[kjones3d]

Jon, thanks for replying,
I just gave that a try and it still didn't work.

My class has 24 students and in one class, 2 computers have this problem and in the next class only one.
One computer doesn't work in either class, but the other just fails for the first student, not the student in the same seat in the next class.

[Dexter2999]

You have Background Image in the display options (camera view background) set?
Rescan the I/O folder to make sure it is loading the JPEGS. Never had it fail on me but I have read on the forum where it has happened to others once or twice.

[JonW]

Have you tried a tif or tga etc.

Sometimes when you are changing from multi viewport to full screen, the backdrop disappears & needs to be reloaded.

[Dexter2999]

Also, sometimes, a JPEG can be in CMYK with LW no likey. Must be RGB.

[kjones3d]

I'll try TGAs or TIFs tomorrow.

It's just really weird because everything works perfectly on my other 22+ computers in my lab...

[Sensei]

When my students go to load reference images, one or two of them have no luck getting the images (jpegs) to display.

But is it really the same file used by all people in the class, or each one has different?

[Skonk]

if your talking about backdrop images in modeller; then make sure the students haven't disabled the "Show Backdrop" toggle in the Display Options panel ("Layout" Tab).

Had the same issues with my own students; usually caused by them randomly clicking stuff before they know what it actually does.

[cagey5]

If all else fails you could delete the config files to ensure they are all starting from the same baseline.

[nickdigital]

One thing to try and help unify all your LW setups is to have all your LW shortcuts point to a single ext and config file and store all your plug-ins on a network folder. This way you know that all your LW workstations are pulling in the same plug-in list and using the same config file. However, the downside to everyone using the same config is that if someone wants to make their own shortcuts or menu layouts then everyone has to use them.

If you can standardize your environment as much as possible it'll should reduce the amount of random trouble shooting that you have to do so you and your students can concentrate on learning.

I would even back up the ext and cfg file in case someone modifies it by accident. You could even restrict the read/write permissions so only you can modify it.