Dynamic link between After Effects and Premiere Pro - an absolute mess?

Hi Jannick,

Thanks for the details! As I mentioned before, "Replace with After Effects Composition" for Team Projects will be available in the next release of Premiere Pro (due soon). In the mean time, there are a couple of options that involve a few more steps:

1. Fully manual - note the in and out points of the trimmed clip in Premiere; switch to AE and find the footage item; apply the in and out points in AE and insert the trimmed footage into a new comp; apply tracking. That AE comp should render correctly in Premiere, since it does not contain a Premiere sequence.

2. Slightly more automated option (but actually more steps) - in Premiere, select the clip to track; double-click to reveal the trimmed clip in the Source monitor; right-click and choose "Make subclip" to create a properly-trimmed copy of the clip; with the subclip selected in the Team Project window, choose File/Export/Media... and check the "Import into project" option. This will render a new piece of footage with only the desired frames. In AE, add the trimmed footage to a comp and track as above.

There's no question that "Replace with After Effects Composition" will make this process easier. I'm sorry for the inconvenience in the mean time.

-Peter

Hi Jannick,

What you are seeing is a current limitation of Team Projects in After Effects and Premiere. Nesting of Premiere sequences in AE compositions and vice/versa is limited to one level only, and only the "containing" application can render the outer sequence or comp. There is a similar limitation to cross-application nesting between standalone Premiere and After Effects projects, though it's slightly looser.

For example, if you place an AE comp into a Pr sequence in a Team Project, the sequence will render in Pr, but will appear as a placeholder in AE. Similarly, if you place a Pr sequence into an AE comp, AE will be able to render that comp, but it will appear as a placeholder in Pr. This limitation avoids circular references where each application might be waiting for the other to render a different part of the same Team Project.

Only one level of cross-application nesting is allowed between standalone Premiere and AE project files, too. The difference is that, in a standalone project, Premiere will render an AE comp containing a Pr sequence via DynamicLink instead of showing a placeholder, and vice-versa. You still can't insert such a comp into a Pr sequence, though, so there's not much you can do with it beyond seeing what it looks like.

Can you tell me more about the workflow that you are trying to accomplish? What would you do in AE with a Pr sequence that contained an AE comp, given the limitations that already exist outside of a Team Project?

Thanks,

-Peter

1. "Replace With After Effects Composition" will be enabled for Team Projects in the just-announced version of Premiere Pro (the feature was delayed because it needed to be re-engineered to work with Team Projects).

2. Although the asset type in the Team Project panel is listed as "footage" in AE, Premiere Sequences are rendered via DynamicLink in a Team Project, just as in standalone. I'm not sure why they aren't listed with a different asset type, TBH. I've never noticed it before, but I'll file a bug.

3. If you're moving between AE and Pr on the same machine, you do not need to share your changes each time (though it doesn't hurt). The other application should update itself shortly after you switch to it. When you create a new composition in AE, then switch to Premiere, the composition will initially appear in Premiere as "pending" while it makes a DynamicLink connection in the background. Once the connection is made, the AE composition will appear online in Premiere. Not sure if you were running into this in your example, but there is a limit to the amount of cross-application nesting that's possible. You can put an AE comp into a Pr sequence, for example, but only if the AE comp does not already contain a Pr sequence.