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A
Adli
Participant
November 8, 2019
Question

Replace layers on after effects and preserve size

  • November 8, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 7677 views

Hi,

So basicly I am animating 2 characters on AE.I have finished my animation but now I need to replace the 2 characters with two others similar but improved.I have organized the new layers the same way I organized the old ones and now I am trying to replace them one by one, but what happens is that the scale changes drastically and the characters lose their shape.

 

Is there a way to replace the layers and keep the previous scale and shape without losing the animation and without having to do a ton of scaling and positioning,basically the whole thing from the beggining? 

 

Cheers

 

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1 reply

R
Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 8, 2019

If the footage is exactly the same size and the anchor points (center of the image) is in the same place, then you can select the replacement layers one at a time in the Timeline, then hold down the Alt/Option key and select the replacement asset in the Project Panel and Drag to the timeline to replace the layers. 

 

If you use the same naming conventions for every layer when you originally created the drawings, and each character is in their own folder, then you could just do a save as for your AE project, open up your file browser and move the first characters folder into a new place, then move the second character into the original position and AE would automatically re-link all of the footage in the comp. I've used this technique many times.

 

For example, the project folder structure is like this:

  • Project folder
    Character.AEP (your project file)
  • Character2.AEP (the copy of the first aep file)
    • ARTWORK
      • Character 1
        • Body Parts.AI (your layered AI or PSD file name)
      • Character 2
        • Body Parts.AI  (your layered AI or PSD file name)
    • ACTIVE ARTWORK
      • (move the current Body Parts AI or PSD file here)

 All you would have to do is move the AI or PSD file into the Active Artwork folder.

 

I hope that makes sense.

 

The other option is to save all of the rigging and animation as animation presets then just start a new comp from your new artwork and apply the animation presets to the new layers. 

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