How to switch Render Layers on and off for different frame ranges?

[howiem]

I’ve got a complex scene, 2000 frames long, and I have several render layers set up so I can have separate files saved for each frame: edges, hilights, FreeStyle etc.

All works beautifully - I just hit the old Render Animation button and everything renders out ready for compositing elsewhere.

However, some of the layers are only needed for parts of the animation (maybe a few seconds in the middle) but they get rendered for the whole animation range regardless.

Is there any way I can switch them on or off at certain times? So for example I could have my “background” layer only render at frames 1-200 and then at 1800-2000?

(At the moment it’s a balancing act - do I take the time to set up and render each range manually/separately [eech… error-prone] or would it be quicker to just let the extraneous layers get rendered even though I don’t need them)

If there’s no easy way, is it worth me asking in the scripting forum, d’you think?

[Rich33584]

Just hover your mouse over the renderlayer checkbox and hit I( that I , not L) on your keyboard. Do that at the beginning and the last frame you want that layer visable. Then go to the next frame, uncheck that box, then hover your mouse over the checkbox and hit I again.
It may not work when you ctrl+a to go through teh animation, but it works when you actually render.

[howiem]

Thanks! I never cease to be amazed at what you can animate by just pointing at it and hitting I - should’ve tried it before asking, d’oh

Much appreciated