Make objects visible outside canvas

[Marieke2d]

Is there a way to see objects which are placed outside the canvas? (Outside the dimensions of the composition) Off stage. Like in Animate or Illustrator.

That would be so handy for me, animating stuff which come sliding in/out of view.

[Mylenium]

Nope. You only ever get to see the layer bounding box. everything else will have tzo be handled by structuring your project suitably using nested compositions etc..

Mylenium

[Kyle Hamrick]

If you'd like to see this as a feature in future versions, you can request it here.
After Effects: Hot (902 ideas) – Adobe video & audio apps

[Rick Gerard]

You can always go to the front view or any custom view and use the camera tool to pull back and see elements outside the Active Camera view. I do it all the time.

[Yi Zhe33742632r419]

how exactly do you do this?? i dont understand

[ShiveringCactus]

The Front view is only visible when using 3D layers, if you are, then in the bottom right of the comp's panel, you'll see an option saying "Active Camera" and you can find the different views, including Front in there.

If you are in 2D and really need to see what is outside the comp's stage, then the only think I can think of is to nest your comp in a much larger composition and use the Collapse Transformations option to see everything outside the regular comp.  You won't be able to move things from that larger comp though.

[Hassan_Abdullah1673]

You can simply expand the composition size (width or height) and do your animation. After finishing your animation, set the composition size back to original.