Project window, reduce duplicate instances of file

[David Johnson]

Figure out which instance of the footage is already used the most times by right clicking each and looking at the “reveal in comp” count. Then, select all the layers in each comp that use the other instances of the footage and hold the ALT key while you drag the instance that you want to keep over them to replace them. If you don’t understand what I described, look in the AE help for “replace layer”.

[Anders Hattne]

Thanks for the reply,
that’s what I ended up doing but when there are several instances and layers and comps and precomps it becomes quite.. cumbersome.
I guess a script would be the answer..

If you don’t do this kind of clean up you’ll end up having X copies of the footage when you do a collect files..
Not a big deal, but if there is an automated way of doing this, I’d like to know!

A

http://www.ardillamedia.com

[David Johnson]

There’s a script out there for just about everything now, but I still consider the best and simplest way to be prevention, rather than solution … only bring each clip into AE once and use the same instance of it in every AE comp..

[Anders Hattne]

Thanks to a tutorial on Creative COW I just found the solution to this problem ( I think!)

under File> Consolidate All Footage

and it reduced all instances of the same file to one!

http://www.ardillamedia.com