Hot to Add A Whole Pre-comped "Nest" to the Layer Panel to Clone Paint On?

[S.Clements]

Hi, Everyone.

     I want to load a precomped layer, that I’ve already clone painted on before, back into the layer panel to continue the work on it, but I am stuck. Double clicking doesn’t work, as I need to paint on the original footage AND the transparent surrounding space of a pre comp, which has larger frame dimensions than the main sequence.

    Please know that I am not a continuous After Effects user and only dip into it a few times a year, so there are some gaps in my knowledge.

    This issue of having to load stuff into the layer panel to paint on it has always been a problem for me, as I mostly want to paint not just on the original video footage layer, but often beyond its borders too.

    After Effects seems to have a mind of its own about what it allows me to load in there through double click. As I said, at one point I was able to get into the precomp and paint on it, but I seem to be locked out and now it only seems to want me to be able to paint on the highest "nest" level of the composition, which is not what I need.

Does anyone know what I am talking about and how to load what I want into the layer panel to paint on it? Thanks!

[Mylenium]

You can open layers by clicking on the menu and name tab in the layer viewer itself. Other than that AE honors Alt+double-click which depending on the layer type acts differently as well. Agree that it's all a big mess, though...

Mylenium 

[S.Clements]

Hmmm.... Thanks for your reply.  However, I still can't get into the layer I want to to paint on it. I basically can't finish the shot I'm working on, unless I can step into a nest/precomp to extend the borders and paint on the transparent area and then apply a mask to the outer nested precomp. The mask won't apply to any paint put on the outtermost nest (I think because it comes before the effects?). After Effects just won't let me chose to load the inner nested precomp to load into the layer menu to paint on. So maddening. They've really got to change this. We should just be allowed to paint on whatever we want.