Question about 'Trim Comp to Work Area'

Question

I'm learning about After Effects, and I got to wonder about using the 'Trim comp to work area' function.

I suppose the main purpose of this function is to easily set the composition length by using the preview panel and the timebar, instead of memorizing the exact timecode and writing it down at the composition settings.

But rather than this kind of purpose, I tried to use it as an other way.

I found that the composition panel can be easily messed up, and can be confusing while editing. So I tried to devide a single clip into parts and work by order.

For example lets say I'm working on a video clip named 'A' which is 10 seconds, and I'm going to use all 10 seconds without trimming it.

I would like to give 3 effects for this single clip, so I devided the clip into 3 parts(3sec, 3sec, 4sec) in my head. To work by parts, I would like to use the shortcut key B,N to edit the work area and used the 'Trim comp to work area' at the 0~3sec part.

After finishing editing the 0~3sec part, I would like to recover the 3~10sec part(while preserving the 0~3sec edit) and repeat the progress at the 3~6sec, 6~10sec part.

My question occures here.

1. Is is possible to work like the example situation I said earlier without undoing the edit?

2. Should I use the pre-compose function for the purpose I tried to meant?

3. I searched the community with this problem, and found some answers saying that the 'Trim comp to work area' function is a destructive function. Which means, I cant recover the work area I trimmed unless I undo it. But, when I tried this at my After Effects, I found that I could recover the back part I trimmed. Lets say I edited a clip like the earlier example named 'A'. And if I set the work area at the 3~6sec, and use the 'Trim comp to work area', the 0~3sec, 6~10sec part would be deleted. But, if I go to 'Composition Settings(Command+K)' and edit the start code time(00;00;00;00) and the duration time(00;00;10;00) as same as the original clip, the video would be recovered by half.

Which means, the 0~3sec would be deleted and not be recovered, and the 6~10sec would be recovered. So I thought that this function may not be a destructive function. But I failed to recover the front part, even though I tried multiple times. Does anybody know the answer for this?

Rick Gerard · Accepted Answer

Trimming a comp to the work area also trims the in and out points of the layers. Generally, a comp should only include one shot. After Effects is not an editing app. Sometimes you have to create short sequences, but those sequences should not be longer than a sentence or phrase. You use AE to create effects and animations that you cannot do in an NLE like Premiere Pro.

The work area is the default rendering setting used by both the Adobe Media Encoder and the Render Queue. The work area determines the length of a preview if the Preview Panel is set to use the work area. There is an option to "Play Around Current Time". I use that most of the time and have it set for a pre-roll of 0 and a post-roll of 4 seconds. I don't do very many full resolution, full effects previews with motion blur turned on. I use what I call the "Pencil Sketch / Ink and Paint" workflow just like the big effects and animation houses like Disney and Pixar use. Previews are used to check motion, blocking, and staging and those don't require a lot of effects, lighting, or motion blur. The "Ink and Paint" part is done by checking critical or hero frames at full resolution with everything turned on that you are going to have turned on when you render. On rare occasions, I'll run a 2 or 3-second ram preview with everything on just to check a few important frames in the project. As soon as the critical frames have been checked I move on to the next project because I can't meet deadlines or make a profit if I spend my life waiting for full resolution ram previews. Nobody at Pixar sends anything to final render by running full resolution 30-second previews of their work, but they spend a lot of time running line drawing and low poly previews of the action to make sure that the scene works before sending the project out for Ink and Paint.

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