layer properties query

[Ashish Gupta]

chris,

If u copy a layer in the project window than only it is truly duplicated and you can change the duplicated layer and it won’t affect the original one .

But if u duplicate a layer in a comp than its simply an instance of the original layer.. you can apply different effects and animate both differently but if you change the layer for example in case of an image .. edit the image or in case or in case of a precomp change anything inside the precomp .. than the changes will happen in all the instances of that layer or precomp ..

Hope that makes sense .. !!

Ashish Gupta
Motiongraphics artist and 3d generalist

aashi.29nov@gmail.com

[Chris Brett]

Hi Ashish –

– many thanks –

– think I get it —

— but if not all straightaway it will sink in over time …….

——————– cheers — all the best ——chris

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[Walter Soyka]

[chris brett] “Hi — cant quite work out w3hat the logic regarding copying of layers then altering one without the original ( all the others if multiples ) changing. Sometimes if I alter a copy it changes the original as well but sometimes not……”

I’m not following — can you describe a scenario where you’re seeing this behavior?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Chris Brett]

Hi Walter

————- thanks for follow-up ….

…… if I duplicate a pre-comp and alter the settings of the copy it seems to alter the original as well ….

……………. sometimes anyway — but not always …

I think Ashish has the answer but its still a bit hazy in my mind so any tutorial / whatever might be useful.

Seems to me you can alter some thimgs without changing the original pre-comp but not others ? ?

————————————–chris —

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[Walter Soyka]

Got it.

Duplicating a comp creates a copy of that comp only — it does NOT create independent copies of any comps contained within it. It links to the existing sub-comps instead. Therefore, what you change in the main-level comp you copied will be changed locally, but once you step into a sub-comp and change something there, it will be changed globally everywhere else that sub-comp is used.

If you want to duplicate the entire comp tree such that it’s completely independent, you can use a script like True Comp Duplicator [link] which steps through the entire comp tree recursively, creating duplicates of everything.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Darby Edelen]

[chris brett] “…… if I duplicate a pre-comp and alter the settings of the copy it seems to alter the original as well ….

……………. sometimes anyway — but not always …”

Every item in the Project Panel is a source asset. Duplicating in the Project Panel will create a new source asset that After Effects treats separately from the source it was duplicated from.

Each source asset can exist in dozens (if not hundreds) of places in one or many compositions in a project as ‘duplicates.’ However, the layers in a timeline of a comp are references to the source asset and will change if the source asset updates. If you modify the source asset this change will exhibit itself wherever that asset is used in the project.

Darby Edelen

[Chris Brett]

— many thanks to you all for the excellent feedback on this –

— added them all together and I got it !

——————— much appreciated ——chris

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