Process: Difficulties

I learned later on in the making that adding on and adjusting the layers was extremely difficult in timeline animation. I originally started in frame animation, but this type of animation was restrictive in the actual animation part. It is great for rendering each layer and time rate, but awful for effects with animation (example the smoke). I converted my frame animation to timeline, and found some things did not transfer over well into timeline. Hence the pause/gap/glitch around 14 seconds. Whatever information frame animation allowed, timeline seemed to have dropped, and vise verse. For example, the only way I could adjust the time rate for each layer would be in frame animation, and the only way I could add sound effects was in timeline. When I converted back to frame animation to adjust the frame rate, I lost all of my sound effects and when I converted back to timeline they did not return and I had to redo inputting them, placing them at the right spot, and adjusting the fade in and volume. 

Speaking specifically about my vanishing scene at the end: Timeline animation made working on an individual layer near to impossible. Shutting off all of the layers to focus on that one scene would have been a nightmare. I could have but I would have needed to make over 170 layers non-visible in order to do this. I had to scrub ahead to the scene I needed to adjust and try and figure out which layer that was on. Then the issue of adding more layers came into play to make the smoke roll in smoother. For some reason those added layers would not appear when played back. I adjusted the placement on the timeline in any way I could, but the scene would just hold or disappear. The smoke filter that Photoshop offers was able to happen when I placed it on its own layer. I could not flatten these layers down or the 'moving' of the smoke did not work. I am happy I had enough layers prior to add this alternate ending.