looping precomp

[marjimsha]

Greetings Support Community, newbie question..

I am trying to loop a precomp of this bat's wings flapping where i have transformed rotation and applied puppet pins.   I found the below answer, but the keyframes I hope to loop are in precomps, so it seems the first line is n/a.  As for the second piece of this advice, I have used time remapping after sequencing layers, but in this instance, I do not have the 3 different positions as seperate layers.  

"You can tell footage to loop (Right-click > Interpret Footage), but not with comps.    Time Remapping is the easiest way to do it. Enable it, ensure the keyframes are what you want, and then you can add an expression by alt/opt-clicking on the stopwatch. Type loopout()."

I have never used expressions before, but I tried the second part of the advice and it did not work.  

A second part of this question:  The bat's body has its own precomp.  We are learning about precomps in class, so that is why my comp is set up like this.  I would like to sync the body's motion to the flapping wings, but am only able to view the body independant of the rest of the main comp, so I am guessing about placement.  If i apply position transformation in the main comp window, I cannot see precomp keyframes for the wings which are my reference.  

Thank you in advance!

[Rick Gerard]

You are making things way more difficult than they need to be. 

Your Photoshop file should be set up with all of the body parts in the right position, each on a separate layer. You should import the PSD as a composition retaining layer size. If the bat is the only thing in the PSD file and you want to use Puppet Pin to make the wings flap you should animate puppet pin on the wing(s) layer so that the first and last frame of the animation is identical, trim the wing's layers to the last keyframe for puppet pin, and Pre-compose the wings. The flapping wings are now done. If you want to make the wings make the body move, parent the wings pre-comp to the body pre-comp and set up an animation for the body moving that has the first and last frame of the animation identical, then set the out point for that layer on the last keyframe. The wings should now move through one cycle and the body should move with the wings. When that is done, set them out point for every other layer to the last frame of the body and wings pre-comp, pre-compose, adjusting the new comp length to the layer length, then apply time remapping to the nested comp (the pre-comp). Use the K key to move to the last keyframe for time remapping, move back one frame using Ctrl/Cmnd + left arrow, set a new keyframe for time remapping, move forward one frame and delete the original time remapping the last keyframe, then add the loopOut() expression to time remapping. 

You can then Pre-compose the time-remapped comp and apply time remapping again, and simply adjust and set keyframes to make the bat flap its wings, stop, then flap again, then stop and glide. Here's what that would look like:

In the future, please use the toolbar to embed your screenshots.

[marjimsha]

Thank you for explaining all those details.  Very much appreciated.