Animation in precomp not showing up in main composition

[Emily23178875zrez]

Hello,

So I'm animating a character with expression controls on a guide layer in a composition. So far so good, animation looks alright. But when I nest this animated composition into another one, the animation is not happening/showing up. Is there anything I have to enable in my main comp? I'm going crazy not knowing why this is happening. 

[Emily23178875zrez]

Not sure how to edit my original post, so here's an additional detail: anytime I turn a layer on or off, that will show in the main composition, for some reason. The animation that I do in the precomp does not show up.

[Emily23178875zrez · Accepted solution]

Answered my own question, lol. My controllers were set as guide layers, which only render in the original composition. This is why the animation wasn't showing in nested comps. Just talking to myself in case someone has the same issue. 

[ShiveringCactus]

Thank you for coming back and posting the resolution.  You've probably saved someone in the future struggling with the same issue.  At least it's a new thing for them to check.

[Rebeca 5F84]

Hey, I think I'm having the same problem. I made a moving diamond in a pre-comp, and I can see the the movement when I'm in it, but when I play it in my main comp, there is no movement. I don't understand the solution you provide. Could you explain it?

[Emily23178875zrez]

In my case, I'd had certain movements of layers parented to controllers on Null layers. I had those Null layers set as guide layers, so there was a bright blue hashtag next to the null layer name. 

I solved it by removing guide layer status from the nulls and everything worked peachy, hope that helps. 

[Dan Ebberts]

Another possibility is if the animation in your pre-comp is controlled by something animated in the main comp and the pre-comp layer in the main comp doesn't start at time = 0. If that's the case, you just need to adjust the expression in the pre-comp to compensate. If you post the expression we can fix it.