[Alex Smith]

That’s about what I’d figured too. I’d love if someone from Adobe would chime in. It’s very odd to me that there seems to be a much more efficient way to export the final, so I wonder what the trade-off is with their way of doing things.

This is agonizing when your back is against the wall just to finish the edit and then you hit export and have to wait what might be hours just to show the client something that plays back 100% fine on your machine. I usually don’t work against deadlines like that, but I imagine that export time could be a deal breaker for some folks. If I’m doing something wrong I’d like to know.

[Alex Smith]

Thanks. I see what you’re saying. Thing is, as the car moves in three dimensions, it changes shape dramatically. It seems easier to erase the small areas where my layer overlaps the car, than rotoscope the whole shape of the car. This is probably still Photoshop thinking, but I’m pretty new at After Effects and only use it when I have to to get by on jobs that can’t afford a pro, so any help here is greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

I assume the answer to my main question about viewing layers beneath the one on which I’m painting is a “no.” That seems odd, but I probably just have the wrong mindset about this.