Duplicating Comps

[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

Hey Mark,

from what you defined, such behaviour should be possible only in those cases:
1. If you are replacing actual .ai file/part (which is in the projects panel). In such act, you are replacing the single item, which is referenced in all duplicated comps. Meaning, all comps are pointing to that X item, and its replacement would cause change in all layers.
2. If, after duplication, you open new comp, and it has some other pre-comps with those .ai layers inside. That way, main comp duplication few times in the project panel duplicates only.
3. Both points above covers,assuming duplication of items are done inside the project panel. If you are doing this inside the comp, then you are simply creating the references of original. Opening any of those ‘copies’ is reference to the same original. Unique duplication is done only in project panel.

Find out more:
After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.

[Mark Wilde]

thanks Tomas

1. If you are replacing actual .ai file/part (which is in the projects panel). In such act, you are replacing the single item, which is referenced in all duplicated comps. Meaning, all comps are pointing to that X item, and its replacement would cause change in all layers.

This is exactly what’s happening, yet I have duplicated within the project panel which I thought was the correct way.

I guess I somehow need to duplicate the .AI illustration and relink this to the duplicated comp, so I have a duplicate of both the comp and the artwork contained within the comp.

How is the comp file linking to the .AI artwork? How can I change this?

[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

If I understood you correctly, try to do this:

1. Duplicate your comp.
2. Import ‘new’ .ai files into the project.
3. Open duplicated comp.
4. Select new .ai file in the project panel, and layer to be replaced with new file inside opened composition.
5. Do ‘CMD + OPTION + /’ on Mac or ‘CTRL + ALT + /’ on WIN.

That way, you will maintain the same layers structure in the duplicated comp as it was in origin, but will replace layers with new .ai files.

Let me know if this helps or either if you need a different option!

Find out more:
After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.

[Kevin Camin]

One thing you can do if as a preemptive measure is create a bunch of blank layers in your Illustrator file so if you do need to add artwork in the future you can so easily. I’m not sure if the positions of your layers would shift with the introduction of new vector data, but what you could do is create a dummy layer that is the exact size of your AI canvas and just hide it inside of After Effects. I feel like shifting wouldn’t happen after that.

I’m not tracking what you are trying to do. If you duplicate your comp 3 times, you should be able to option drag things from your project panel onto a selected layer and just have it affect that comp. Can you elaborate more perhaps?

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Mark Wilde]

Thanks for your replies to this, I had sorted it using a work around but I am a newby, so need to understand for future use.

Here’s what i have>

So Comp 1 > inside comp 1 links to Illustrator File A
So Comp 2 (duplicate of Comp 1) > links to Illustrator File A (as above)
So Comp 3 (duplicate of Comp 1) > links to Illustrator File A (as above)

If I change Illustator File A it changes in all comps (obviously)

But, if I nested Illustrator File A within another comp would this have solved the problem?