how to swap out image for another but maintain keyframes

[defaultc5q6deuik4g6]

Dear community,

I have a short project in after effects - where I have many copies of the same bottle with different keyframes. I need the same animation video, just with a different bottle. How to go about this quick & easy?

[johnf26153648]

There are two ways that I can think of. If your new bottle image is the same pixel dimensions and alignment as the one you want to replace you can use the ALT-replace feature.  Import your new bottle image, select each bottle layer in the comp that you want to replace so they are all selected at the same time, then hold down ALT and click-hold-drag the new image from the Project window and drop it on top of one of the bottle layers.  They will all be updated with the new bottle image. Example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5jKcBkEhN0

OR you can pre-compose one of your bottle images in the existing comp (MENU>LAYER>PRE-COMPOSE>Leave All Atributes>OK).  Replace all the existing bottles in the animation with this pre-comp (using the method above).  Then in the pre-comp you made, you can bring in the new bottle image, align it's position and scale to the original bottle, then turn off the visiblitity on the original bottle.  When you got back to your animated comp all the bottles will be the new one now.

[Rick Gerard]

The bottle images must be the same size. If they are, all you have to do is go to the Project Panel, right-click on a bottle image, and select Replace Footage.

If you select the original bottle in the Project Panel and create a new comp from that image, you will get an image-sized composition that you can use as the source in your main comp. Name that comp something like Master Bottle, and create your animation using the nested comp (pre-comp). When you want to change the bottle, just open the Master Bottle comp and drop in a new image and size it to fit. You are ready to go with a new comp.

If the bottle images are all different sizes, it would be a great idea to resize them all to one standard size and make sure that they all have transparent backgrounds.