Skip to main content
Known Participant
March 16, 2023
Open for Voting

Single Track Editing

  • March 16, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 228 views

I noticed in a tutorial, in the Photoshop timeline, that layers are also tracks for editing.  That you can move different footage to a single track if not needed for compositing (ala Premier).  That feature would greatly simplify everyone of my After Effects projects even if just editing assembled precomps without having to link to a Premiere project. Of course that opens a separate thead re caching/playback.  

 

 

1 reply

Community Expert
March 16, 2023

Putting everything on one track in an effects and compositing app does not make any sense. AE is not an NLE, and even NLE's use multiple tracks. If you need a bunch of layers moved to a single layer (because compositing is layers not tracks), pre-compose. 3D layers in a nested comp (pre-comp) maintain their 3D relationship to all of the lights and cameras in the main comp. It is as useful as combining nodes used in Node Based compositing systems, and in some ways, it is even more efficient and far easier to visualize for me. 

 

I don't see any reason at all to have more than one source on a layer in any compositing or animation app because every component needs adjustment, animation, masking, tracking, or some other function.