Participant

Open for Voting

Please bring back the self-contained behavior of the old CC Composite

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
May 4, 2025
10 replies
265 views

The current CC Composite (v2.0) requires manually specifying a “Top Layer”, but I’d like to request the option to use the previous version (v1.10)’s behavior, where the effect automatically composites the layer’s own original image.

The old version worked fully self-contained, which made it much more practical for effect presets, templating, and layer duplication workflows.

While the new version is more flexible, needing to reassign the Top Layer every time is a real bottleneck for reusability and efficiency.

If possible, please consider:
- Keeping or making the legacy CC Composite behavior selectable
- Or allowing expressions like `thisLayer` in the Top Layer selector

Thank you for your time and consideration.

O

Oleh BetterMe

Known Participant

Yes! Adobe, please, hear us 🙏

Kyle Hamrick

Community Expert

It would've been nice to have retained a "Legacy" version of CC Composite for this exact purpose. It sounds like one technically exists, but isn't directly accessible.

Y

yukio16918776Author

Participant

If you have any project files that used the legacy CC Composite, opening them in the current version of After Effects should bring up the old CC Composite as well. If you don’t have any, then unfortunately you might just have to hope for an official fix.

TheMatia

Inspiring

Sadly, I don't think I can install an old enough version for it!

TheMatia

Inspiring

Very helpful, thank you for this.

Y

yukio16918776Author

Participant

In my environment, this method works. You can see that the top one is the new CC Composite and the bottom one is the old version. Don’t mind that part of the UI is in Japanese—I’m Japanese and had ChatGPT help me with the translation. Haha.

TheMatia

Inspiring

Oh, that's a great idea for a workaround, thanks @yukio16918776 I'll give it a go.

Y

yukio16918776Author

Participant

I personally use a workaround for this. I launch an older version of After Effects, apply the legacy CC Composite to any layer, and save it as an animation preset. This lets me use the old CC Composite in the latest version of After Effects. That said, I am not sure how long this method will continue to work.

TheMatia

Inspiring

Apart from changing each CC Composite top layer individually, has anyone found a workaround?

A

Amos33168197vtfq

Participant

YES PLEASE. This issue has been driving me batty ever since the change. It's so frustrating.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded