Pre render mov replaces Composition

[Walter Soyka]

[fabienne de vries] “whenever I pre-render a composition, After Effects automatically replaces the composition with that mov. Why is it doing that and how can I turn it off because I don’t like it :)”

That’s exactly what pre-rendering [link] does — it renders a composition and replaces its usage with the rendered output.

What are you trying to do? Perhaps you’d rather use a proxy [link] workflow? Although most folks think of proxies as low-resolution or low-quality versions of a comp, there’s nothing to stop you from using high-quality renders as proxies to speed up your work.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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[Juan Martínez]

Hi Fabienne, just like you I don’t like that replacement of the Prerenders also, fortunately Adobe team has an option for people like you and me so what I do is this:

1. Go to > Composition > Pre Render

2. In the render queque select the option “Post Render Action” and choose the want you prefer, I personally use only the import One.

[Walter Soyka]

That’s a good tip, Juan!

In case it helps, you don’t need to choose “Pre-render” to get access to the “Import” post-render action. You can do that with any item added to the render queue, and you can even make your own output module with the post-render action set to import (or even set it as the part of the default output module if you do this all the time).