• Adobe After Effects

  How to Load a Precomped Layer into the “Layer” panel to Clone Paint on it?

  Posted by Scott Clements on April 8, 2023 at 6:55 pm

  Hi, Everyone.

  I’m pulling my hair out over this one. I want to load a precomped layer, that I’ve already clone painted on before, back into the layer panel to continue the work on it, but I am stuck. I just can’t access the precomped layer in the layer panel again. Double clicking doesn’t work, as I need to paint on the original frame, as well as transparent surrounding space of a precomp.

  Please know that I am not a continuous After Effects user and only dip into it a few times a year, so there are some big gaps in my knowledge, yet I’m not a complete newbie either.

  This having business of having to load stuff into the layer panel to paint on it has always been a problem for me, as I don’t always want to paint just on the original video footage layer, but often beyond its borders too. After Effects seems to have a mind of its own about what it allows you to load in there through double clicking. At one point I was able to get into the precomp and paint on it, but I seem to be locked out and now it only seems to want me to be able to paint on the highest level of the composition, which is not what I need.

  Does anyone know what I am talking about and how to load what I want into the layer panel to paint on?

  Scott Clements replied 3 years, 4 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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