Participant

Question

After effects selecting whole workspace area by default

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
June 21, 2021
3 replies
794 views

Hi Guys,

I am going crazy trying to solve this problem but may be somebody can help me. I am new to After effects. My problem is that when I click in workspace area whole composition is selected. If I add an image that image cannot be selected and I cannot resize it. If I open a new empty project then everything works fine but my existing project has somehow stopped working. I am attaching an image, may be that will help explain my issue better. As it can be seen in the image that whole workarea is selected and not the image itself.

any guidance in this regard will be appreciated.

Thanks

SM

Error or problem

This topic has been closed for replies.

R

Rick Gerard

Community Expert

The first and biggest problem with your workflow is that Comp 1 is twenty-four minutes and thirty seconds long and I see lots and lots of short layers. This tells me that you are trying to edit a movie that is almost a half-hour long using After Effects. After Effects is not a video editing app. Your comps should only be one-shot long unless you need to transition between shots or images and you can't do it in an NLE like Premiere Pro. If you are trying to create animated sequences then those sequences should not be any longer than a sentence or phrase. More than 90% of my comps are under 7 seconds and one shot. More than 90% of the animated sequences I create in AE are never longer than about 10 or 12 seconds and no longer than a sentence of narration or a musical phrase.

The second problem I see in the first screenshot is that Layer 1 is selected but there are no handles. This tells me that you have turned off Show Layer Controls in the View menu. This can happen accidentally if you press Shift + Ctrl/Cmnd + h. You can try turning layer controls back on using the keyboard shortcut or the View menu.

It might also be a good idea to select the Learn workspace and spend ten or fifteen minutes learning about the UI and basic workflows.

S

SMS9919Author

Participant

Thanks a lot Rick for your detailed Reply. You are right, I recently started learning After effects and still trying to do the video in AE.

I know I need to learn Premier Pro for editing. Once I get comfortable with AE then will switch to premier pro.

thanks for your feedback (Y)

R

Rick Gerard

Community Expert

Editing a video in After Effects is insanely tedious, inefficient, and ineffective. Both apps require a little training, but AE is a lot more complicated.

You can keep both of them in the air by simply following a few instructions, but if things get complicated, you are a lot less likely to be safely talked through a landing in After Effects.

S

SMS9919Author

Participant

Thanks for your reply. It is resolved now. It was not the locks.

I just had to turn on "toggle Mask and Shape Path Visibility" option given on the toolbar of workplace area.

Mylenium

Legend

Start by zooming out of the timeline and scroll through the layers. You may simply have a layer somewhere outside your current limited time range that "blocks" access to the other layers. also of course simple layer order considerations need to be taken into account - your PNG on top is always going to block access to the shape layers underneath until you hide it or reorder the stack.

Mylenium

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SMS9919Author

Participant

Thanks Mylenium. I zoomed out and selected the very first layer and still I cannot select any image.

I see only Active Camera at top so I thought may be some 3D view is active by mistake and tried everything under the sun to resolve it but still cannot seem to do it.

I have attached a new image with first very layer.

Thanks

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