How to duplicate a composition in after effects and make it independent from the original

[NESTOR_FEIJOO]

Hi, im trying to duplicate a composition in after effects and make it independent from the original but it seems to be imposible.. im working on CS5.

Can somebody help me PLEASE??

Thanks

[NESTOR_FEIJOO]

(I want to make it independent for change the items and effects...)

[Klaus_Brandenburg]

Have you tried this script yet: http://aescripts.com/true-comp-duplicator/

[Edubal]

The best script EVER!

Thanks

[Vellair]

It works!

[ANTONIO35883006vr51]

Awesome! Just the simple solution I was looking for. Thanks a bunch 🙂

[Andrew Yoole]

What processing are you using to duplicate your composition? 

If you select a comp in the project window and then duplicate, you will create a duplicate comp that is independent of the first.  HOWEVER, if there are nested compositions within your comp, then these will remain true to their original source compositions.  You may need to duplicate and replace those precomps within your duplicate comp.  Or, as shown above, there's a script to automate the process.

[NESTOR_FEIJOO]

Yeah, but i was trying not to spend money on it.. just for another way to do it

[Klaus_Brandenburg]

If you look closer this script is "name your own price" so you could even enter 0$, download and try the script and if you like it and feel that the author really deserved it and feel like motivating him to spend some more time writing other useful scripts donate a fair amount later on.

If you don't feel like buying or trying you can do this the classic way and duplicate your comps and precomps and change the precomps inside to new comps with the new precomps by selecting your old precomp and alt-drag your new precomp over it. Sounds boring? It is

[Dave_LaRonde]

This is easy to do:  duplicate the nested composition in the project window and give it a new name.  Use the Replace Footage command to put the renamed comp into your main comp. 

You can now make changes to the renamed duplicate nested comp, and they will affect only those comps where it has been placed.

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

As Andrew said, select a comp in the Project Panel, not in the timeline, and press Ctrl/Cmnd + D. You'll get a new comp with a number or copy added to the name. This comp is completely independent of the original one but it contains all of the same footage.

If the comp you duplicated contains other comps nested in the timeline then these nested comps must also be duplicated and their duplicates used to replace the original nested compositions in the duplicate comp. The script referred to makes this easy. Most projects created by new users do not have a lot of nested comps so it's not usually a big deal to do this step by hand.

If you post a screenshot of the timeline for the comp you need duplicated or better yet the flow chart we can point out exactly what needs to be duplicated in the Project panel to give you an independent duplicate composition. Duplicating a composition nested in a timeline does not give you a unique copy.

One more thing. Any time you select layers in your timeline and Pre-compose them you create a new composition that is now nested in your original. It's a good practice to arrange all pre-comps in the Project Panel into a folder with a name that lets you know where these pre-comps go. This will make the job of duplicating main comps much easier.

[expfarm]

Rick - Thank you for posting the Ctrl/Cmnd + D key command. That saved me a ton of time!

[inuyashafan]

this has probably changed, because i tried both ways and neither works anymore

[Szalam]

I promise copying a composition in the project panel still works. The problem comes if the composition contains other compositions, you need to copy them too...

Often, this kind of task doesn't need to be done with making new compositions though. The new-ish feature of Master Properties in AE makes duplicating precomps obsolete for many cases. Especially when it comes to incorporating changes down the line. I've had projects in the past where Master Properties would have saved me HOURS of work doing all this duplication.

[aliciam17238515]

Same here.

[Barbara27270980qwhb]

Thank you do much! It saved me a lot of time!

[Suri Fox]

Thanks this helped! 👍

[Wahab346021407w5l]

• I tried alot . Duplicated in the project panel . No nesting . Only a single simple comp. But when I change a picture or text but the comps (old and new) are updated 

[angie_taylor]

Can you tell me what you are trying to achieve by du-locating them and what steps you are trying that aren’t working? Please describe in as much detail the steps you have taken. Thanks

[sebdos]

this is insanely too complicated and time consuming, how come they never thought EVERYBODY wants this to be done easily in just one step ?!

[Rick Gerard]

There is a script called True Comp Duplicator - aescripts.com that does this automatically. Somebody did think of it. 

[sebdos]

thx !

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Depending on which property and the depth of the hierarchy of Comps you want to ammend, to create a different version, AE's Master Properties feature is one way to help you out.

[Igor de Castro]

I thought all the answers here are possible ways to solve your problem.

I will offer one more.

You can save the precomposition as an Ae. project and then import it into your home project.

Use the following steps:
- Identify the precomposition you want to duplicate and then save your project under a different name. Something that is easy to identify.

- In the original project, import the saved project - as if you were importing a common file such as an image or video - file/import - I think you'll need to create an organization folder for these imports.

- Then just repeat the process and import the Ae project every time you want to duplicate it independently.

As you are importing a project, you can make it easy by consolidating duplicate files in file/dependencies/consolidate all footage.

This helped me with more complex projects where I had a lot of precompositions within other precompositions. But this's a short cut until there was a native After Effects way to allow independent duplication of precompositions.

[Tferguson73]

This is a clean and simple way to deal with this clumsy process, I agree. This video has a great process for saving the composition cleanly, as well. It makes it easy to import only the comp you want. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dQXFAtzZXQ