Problem With Nesting

Adobe After Effects

Problem With Nesting

Posted by Ala Mctoom on February 4, 2011 at 4:54 pm

By default, After Effects switches the composition navigator (viewer) as you switch the composition frame down below.

In some cases, I want to work in the child comp frame, but view the parent comp. I do that to check the changes as I’m doing them.

There is a way of course, to lock the desired comp viewer. But this trick has its troubles: you can’t interact with the comp viewer, you can only change the values in the comp frame. Also, the changes are not live updated.

Any other way guys?

Walter Soyka replied 15 years, 6 months ago 2 Members · 8 Replies
8 Replies

Walter Soyka
February 4, 2011 at 5:17 pm

See Viewers [link] on the online help. There’s a section there that describes ETLAT (edit this, look at that), which is exactly what you are trying to accomplish.

Basically, you want to open a second Viewer window and lock it to your “look-at” comp. See the image below for where to click to make a new comp viewer, then click the Toggle Lock button ():

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
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Ala Mctoom
February 4, 2011 at 5:29 pm

Is it interactive + live updated?
Walter Soyka
February 4, 2011 at 5:33 pm

[Ala Mctoom] “Is it interactive + live updated?”

Off the top of my head, I don’t think so. Only the active comp is, and there’s no way I know of to change that.

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
Ala Mctoom
February 4, 2011 at 5:37 pm

AE developers should find a solution for that, it’ll make life much easier. In general, AE still needs improvements on the interface usability.
Ala Mctoom
February 4, 2011 at 5:38 pm

Dear Dave, I think this option is irrelevant to the problem.
Walter Soyka
February 4, 2011 at 5:40 pm

[Ala Mctoom] “AE developers should find a solution for that, it’ll make life much easier. In general, AE still needs improvements on the interface usability.”

Agreed, it would be a nice feature!

If it’s important to you, you might let the AE development team know about it — they do actually read all the bug reports and feature requests:

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

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
Ala Mctoom
February 4, 2011 at 5:41 pm

I’ll work on that. Thank you a lot Mr. Soyka for the help!
Walter Soyka
February 4, 2011 at 5:48 pm

Happy to help — and I hope your project goes well!

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

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