How do I rotate a layer (not in the composition)

[kk5790341]

Hello,

Using After Effects CC 2018 I came across an issue using cell phone footage. Sometimes the phone either doesn't register a video as landscape - or sometimes I start the video vertically before moving it to landscape. This normally isn't a problem as I just rotate the footage in Premiere and be done with it - however today I wanted to try painting/hand writing directly on a clip. However, when importing it into After Effects I have an issue:

After opening it up in the layer panel I find that it's vertical (the original orientation). The composition looks fine, it's rotated and scaled appropriately, but the layer panel isn't.

I'm trying to find a solution that lets me rotate the layer panel so I can work on these files easily. The only solution I've thought of so far is rendering all the videos in the correct orientation and then bringing that into AE. That however just adds another step to my workflow and I'd much rather avoid that.

Thank you!

[Jose Panadero · Accepted solution]

You need to precompose this layer once you have rotated the clip. Then you must select any of the paint tools and double-clicking in the Precomposition for painting. If you don’t select any of the paint tools before the double-click you will enter into the precomposition. You should be able to paint directly in the rotated version.

[kk5790341]

Excellent! Thank you.

[AmberUG]

I know this answer is a couple of years old, but I've got the same issue as the OP and I can't get this solution to work. I right-click the layer, click pre-compose. I double-click the precomposition and it's rotated. No matter where I correct the rotation (at top level or precomp level), if I double click the layer within the precomposition to start using the brush tool it ends up rotated. Am I doing something wrong?

[Actually.Average]

Go into the newly created pre-comp and rotate the footage. (you might also have to change your composition settings to get the correct width and height). Now back at the top level, your footage should be rotated since you just rotated it in the pre-comp, so now you can un-rotate your footage at the top level so it is viewed correctly. Next to open up the layer and not the pre-comp, make sure you have a brush SELECTED and then double click the pre-comp layer and it should open in the layer panel in the correct orientation.

[AmberUG]

Thank you so much, I finally got it to work! I was probably still double-clicking on the layer instead of the precomp. Footage is right side up at last!