'Freeze' PreComps

[jaydude-wb]

For complex situations, I work a lot with PreComps that I prerender to make a final composite.

How great would it be when Ae could help in a modern way to manage this.

I think of adding a 'Freeze' switch to each layer, as already kind of exists for RotoScoped footage layers..

Another great example of this workflow it how Logic Pro does this: simple click a freeze button, and the track / layer is rendered. Unfreeze brings it back to an editable version.

This would streamline these kind of workflows, without a lot of hazzle.

[Rick Gerard]

That is not a bad idea, but there would be some problems with implementation. Where would you store those rendered pixels?

If you use the Composition/Pre-render menu, edit the original comp you pre-rendered, and then use Composition/Pre-render again, ensuring you set the same file name, AE will automatically replace the original render. I do this all the time.

I know you can freeze Rotobrush, but if it takes longer than a few seconds to analyze and render a Rotobrushed layer, I always Pre-compose and then pre-render the nested comp. Even frozen Rotobrush layers can cause problems with the final render, bloating the AEP project size. Locking a nested comp (pre-comp) would also have to bloat the project size as much as using Pre-render because those pixels need to be stored somewhere. 

[Roland Kahlenberg]

There is a Command for Freeze Frame and another for Freeze on Last Frame and these can be set to their respective shortcuts. Will this work for you?

Perhaps there is a better/alternate way too –
After a pre-render, the rendered asset is brought into AE and it goes into the Comp that was used to render this asset. The rendered asset is then placed at the top of the timeline hierarchy and set to Solo. 

These steps ensures your original timeline structure retains its original structure and this is a good thing should you have to re-render the pre-render comp again. What's important is to retain your main/render comp structure even as you commit to pre-renders and begin using these pre-rendered assets in place of their originating comps.

HTH