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L
leather.bird
Inspiring
April 18, 2017
Answered

Whats the best workflow for key-framing to audio when down inside nested compositions?

  • April 18, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 3436 views

Hello all,

Relatively new to After Effects. Working on a project for school, and something has been bugging me.

I like to cut and keyframe animations to audio tracks. So i have a main composition with a song file (for example) in my layers, and i set keyframes in my animations and position them so they fall exactly on a beat.

As far as i know, this way of working makes sense.

The problem arises when i precompose or have smaller compositions inside this main one. When i dive into these compositions to edit the animations, i can no longer hear or see the audio track, because i'm inside the smaller compositions.

I may not be using the right terminology, but does that make sense?

What is the strategy to synching animations inside those nested compositions with the audio sitting in the larger main composition?

"Ok, so i want this movement to start right on the beat. Oh no! That movement is inside a nested composition. Ok, i'll double click on that composition and adjust the keyframe to the beat… wait. Now where's the beat?"

I currently operate with a lot of trial and error, but it just feels like there must be a better way to approach this.

How do you people (who know what you're doing) work with audio?

Again, i'm learning my away around AE, and any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

— Scott

      This topic has been closed for replies.
      Correct answer Mylenium

      the audio sitting in the larger main composition?

      You simply don't do that. You put the audio in its separate pre-comp and then re-use that pre-comp in any other comp you may need it. That way any comp markers will translate to layer markers and give you cues. Same for any other elements - simply create full-length comps and work based off the audio's timing, then only trim those pre-comps in the main comp where you only add the audio for final rendering, removing/ muting it in the pre-comps.

      Mylenium

      1 reply

      Mylenium
      MyleniumCorrect answer
      Legend
      April 18, 2017

      the audio sitting in the larger main composition?

      You simply don't do that. You put the audio in its separate pre-comp and then re-use that pre-comp in any other comp you may need it. That way any comp markers will translate to layer markers and give you cues. Same for any other elements - simply create full-length comps and work based off the audio's timing, then only trim those pre-comps in the main comp where you only add the audio for final rendering, removing/ muting it in the pre-comps.

      Mylenium

        L
        leather.birdAuthor
        Inspiring
        April 18, 2017

        Oh, interesting…


        So any smaller piece i'm working on, i make it the same length as the whole, and just trim it in the main comp.
        That never would have occurred to me. (mind blown)


        As far as the audio goes… does that ever cause problems as you work? Say if i forget to mute the audio in a nested comp, now i'll have it playing in the main comp as well as the nested comp. Or am I over-thinking this? I haven't tried using comp markers or layer markers yet. I've just been listening and looking at the waveforms. I'll have to look into those.

        Thank you so much for your response, Mylenium​. It's totally the kind of info I was looking or. I truly appreciate it.

        I'm just scratching the surface at this point but I still want to get more nimble in the way i approach AE.

        This totally helps! Going to try it right now.

        brian704
        brian704
        Inspiring
        April 18, 2017

        When you create the sub-comps just right-click the audio layer and select "Guide Layer" that will allow you to use that layer to align things, but it won't render - works on video layers as well.

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