how to put two videos next to eachother in aftereffects

[lylahd22439315]

I'm trying to make a gif where it loops back to the beginning of the video so i thought if i duplicated it and reversed the second video it would work, but when i tried to put them next to each other they ended up getting cut off instead of elongating the time. The original video is a quicktime that's 4:13 minutes long, and in the end i hoped it would be 8:26 minutes long.

Also second question, how do you preview it during the process? I watched a tutorial on youtube that said you could do it in the display to the right on the bottom but i can't seem to get it to work unless i pull the little tab across myself, if that makes any sense.

[imeilfx · Accepted solution]

Long story short: You have to learn some basics on setting up your composition and previewing.
Some usefull basic stuff you will find f.eg. here:
After Effects tutorials

After Effects Basic Training

After that - everything (almost) should be clear as a day for you.

[Rick Gerard]

Making an animated gif that is more than eight minutes long is completely insane. You have to take some time to learn about compositing and the UI. If an smart phone app that automatically makes animated gifs is like walking and using a non linear editor is like driving a car, then After Effects is like landing an F-18 on the deck of an aircraft carrier at night in a hurricane. Yes, there are really that many things that you might be called on to think about. You are going to need some training to be successful. You can probably get buy with a few hours to start but without any training you are going to crash and burn. Part of that truing would include studying up on the effective way to render and distribute video and the proper and sane use of an animated gif.