Is it possible to edit SETS made in Photoshop, in After Effects?

[Filip Vandueren]

Normally, sets will appear as nested compositions, so open the nested comp (alt-doubleclick on the layer name in the timeline), you should see all the seperate layers there.

[Scott Spengler]

Did you import the psd as footage or as a Comp? Check your import settings and let us know. If you imported it as footage, you won’t be able to adjust the layers.

Scott

[Daniel Haskett]

Hi there

Ive imported it as a composition, but because the PSD file has 100 layers and is 200meg its taking sooo long to do anything! Its at 150 dpi, but because I have multiples of the same layer the file size is huge its just ridiculous!

Ill find a way…..

cheers

dan

[Daniel Haskett]

Actually, can I ask for some help please?

When you open up a set in after effects as a nested composition, you obviously cant see the composition that it is in behind it? If that makes sense, say you have a set of chairs on a background in a photoshop file, when you open the nested comp of chairs, you can no longer see the background right? Is there anyway of being able to see the background still, so that you can time things and put them in the right place?

thanks

dan

[Filip Vandueren]

Short answer: No,

After Effects has no “edit in place” a la Flash.

what you can do is open a second window, so you can see the changes you make in the precomp reflected immediately in the parent-comp.
Just drag the tab of the maincomp out of your preview window.

If that’s no option, try “de-composing”, bring all the layers back in the main comp.

BTW; if after effects is getting sluggish, look into using smaller place-holders or proxys for your layers

[Daniel Haskett]

Hi

Thanks for the help…what are place-holders and proxys and what do they do? I just find whenever Im working it has to be in either Half or Third resolution which can get annoying sometimes, Full just takes hours.

cheers
dan

[Steve Roberts]

You can use the “create proxy” command to make a smaller copy of large footage. It gets scaled up so it’s the proper size, but it looks low-res. When it’s time to render, you can choose to render with no proxies.

A placeholder is the thing that looks like SMPTE bars, inserted by AE when a piece of footage is missing. You can insert one if you like, but I find them annoying. Proxies are better.

It’s all in the help.

Steve