Un-precompose?

Hey everyone,

Wanted to share something I built and get honest feedback from this community.

A few weeks ago I was working on a really messy After Effects project — dozens of nested precomps, broken expressions, mystery effects buried 5 layers deep. The kind of timeline that makes you want to start over.

I downloaded one of those free unprecompose scripts you can find online. It could batch un-nest, which was great, but that's about it. It dropped some of my effects, didn't preserve everything cleanly, and worst of all — every expression that referenced layers inside the precomps just broke. I spent hours afterward manually fixing thisComp.layer() references one by one.

So I decided to take that simple script and turn it into something that actually does the full job.

What I built — Carpenter's Un-Nester Pro:

• Batch un-precompose with proper preservation of effects, masks, blending modes, 3D properties, time remap, track mattes, audio with level keyframes, and parent relationships
• Recursive mode — collapses deeply nested precomp trees in one operation, with a depth limit so you stay in control
• Smart Expression Fixer — automatically rewrites thisComp.layer() references that normally break after un-nesting. Originals are saved as comments so you can roll back any change
• Premiere Dynamic Link safe mode — auto-detects and skips linked comps so your Premiere roundtrips don't break

I also bundled cleanup tools I kept wishing AE had — batch rename with prefix/suffix/numbering, find & replace, name layers from source files, color label tagging, and layer timing offsets for cascading animation.

Comes with a 26-page PDF manual with tutorials, workflow recipes, and troubleshooting.

What I'd love to know from you:

1. For those who've inherited messy projects — what's the workflow pain point I might still be missing?
2. Any feature suggestions for v1.1?

If you want to try it, here it is on Gumroad: https://selucreh.gumroad.com/l/un-nester-pro

Thanks for reading. Always grateful for honest feedback from this community.