Make the background viewable in pre-composition?

[john27771726ut1h]

How do I see what I'm working with? When I enter a pre-composition the background turns black. Is there a way to see the background because I'm working in the dark (figuratively and literally)? It's hard to know when I should place the keyframe or not.

[john27771726ut1h]

Edit: I think I found a solution by having two preview video panels. One is on my main timeline (which we'll call MT) while the other is on the pre-composition. The problem is that the MT preview panel is dominant and I can't enter the pre-composition timeline without the MT preview panel also showing the contents of it.

[ShiveringCactus]

When you have the first comp open, use the padlock in the top left corner, then from the project panel, double-click on your second comp to open a new panel for that.  Then you can just grab hold at the top of the second panel, and drag it over.  Now, with one comp window locked, you should be able to view both together.

Alternatively, if it's just the background, it might be easier to copy the layer into the precomp, but right-click on it and choose Guide Layer.  This will show up in edit, but not when you render.

[Mylenium]

You may want to brush up on the basics:

https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/workspaces-panels-viewers.html

As the cactus man already said, locking viewers is way to go. For reference it's called ETLAT (Edit this, look at that) if you need to look it up on the web.

Mylenium