Converting a render to keyframes

[Bouchaib Charioui]

Hello , I want to ask if I can convert a render like in this picture

to keyframes like in this picture

Because I have an animation in this render who takes a long time to do it again and I don't wanna waste my time to doing the same animation again ( I hope that you can understand my Question)

Thank you

[Roei Tzoref]

Do you mean you wish to read the keyframes from a rendered video? Not really. Perhaps there's a workaround if you better explain what you have there and why do you need to do this. you can play with time to some degree with a rendered footage If that's what you are after But this recommendation all depends on your exact workflow .

[Bouchaib Charioui]

I will explain to you with details , ok ?

So , I worked an animation of character (First animation) Then I rendred that animation and they gave me like in the first picture , but I want to do another animation for the character so I removed the keyframes of the first animation then I closed the project , after I opened the project again but in this Time I want to do the animation of the character like the first animation But it takes a lot of time to do it , so I am asking How I can convert the render of my first animation to keyframes without repeating the same work because it takes a lot of time , I hope that you can understand this explanation , and thank you

[P.M.B · Accepted solution]

bouchaib  wrote

How I can convert the render of my first animation to keyframes without repeating the same work because it takes a lot of time

Unfortunately there's no way to do this.  However in the location where your project is saved there should be a folder called: Adobe After Effects Auto-Save   If you have a version of the project in there that saved before you deleted the animation and saved then you can open that and have your animation back (or at least maybe some of it).  As soon as you open this project (if you find it) you should rename it and save it outside the auto-save folder.

For future reference when doing something like what you did, rather than deleting the animation and then saving.  First save the project under a new name (like "animation version02")  then make the new animation in that project.  That way you'll have a separate project for each version of the animation.

By the way the settings for auto-save are under Preferences > Auto-Save.  There you set the frequency and location of your auto saves.

[Bouchaib Charioui]

Thank you so Much for this Great and helpful Answer , I hope that someone talks with Adobe company to add the feature of converting the render to keyframes in After Effects , it will help people a lot , thank you again andf  have a Nice Day

[Bouchaib Charioui]

I work in Adobe After Effects CS4 , I changed the location of saving and saved my project in the Desktop , I want to Know where I can fin the location of the Auto-Save File because I can't find it , Thank you

[P.M.B]

You should probably save your projects in a dedicated folder preferably on a secondary drive.

Having said that if you open your preferences in AFter Effects and navigate to the save or auto save preferences you should see

the path where your auto save files are being saved.  I think by default it's as a subfolder of where your save location is.

Assuming you immediately save your project as soon as you start it (good idea)

If by chance you work for long periods of time in an "Untitled Project" (very bad idea)  then i think your auto saves would be saved as Untitled Project in a folder named as I mentioned earlier probably in your user documents folder or the mac equivalent if you're on a mac.

I've never worked in Cs4 so there may some differences as to what I'm saying but generally it's probably pretty easy to fill in the blamks (maybe).

BTW your idea for Adobe to make it possible to convert rendered video to key frames would be a pretty fancy feature indeed but rendered video is pixel data.  Basically tiny points of color information.

A crucial part of workflow is understanding how to save and organize your projects and assets.  You should set a goal to learn how to that in a professional manner.

Know where all related files for any given project are.  No desktop saves.  No working in untitled projects.