Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual page 125

Note: Apply your final output settings when you pre-render the nested composition.
1 Select the composition in the Project or Composition panel.
Choose Composition > Pre-render.
2
The Pre-render command adds the composition to the render queue and sets the Import & Replace Usage post-
render action to replace the composition with the rendered movie.
3 In the Render Queue panel, adjust settings as necessary, and click the Render button to render the composition.
Note: An alternative to replacing the composition with the movie is to use the rendered movie as a proxy for the nested
composition.
See also
"Use a post-render action" on page 596
"Work with placeholders and proxies" on page 70
"Basics of rendering and exporting" on page 582
Render order and collapsing transformations
A composition consists of layers stacked on top of one another in the Timeline panel. When the composition is
rendered—either for previewing or for final output—the bottom layer is rendered first. Within each raster (non-
vector) layer, elements are applied in the following order: masks, effects, transformations, and layer styles. For
continuously rasterized vector layers, transformations occur before masks and effects.
Transformations are changes to those properties grouped under the Transform category in the Timeline panel,
including Anchor Point, Position, Scale, Rotation, and Opacity. What you see in the Layer panel is the result of the
rendering before transformations are performed.
Note: For additional control over when transformations are performed, you can apply the Transform effect and reorder
it with respect to other effects.
In a group of effects or masks, items are processed from top to bottom. For example, if you apply the Circle effect
and then apply the Magnify effect, the circle is magnified. However, if you drag the Magnify effect above (before) the
Circle effect in the Effect Controls or Timeline panel, the circle is drawn after the magnification and isn't magnified.
After a layer has been rendered, rendering begins for the next layer. The rendered layer below may be used as input
to the rendering of the layer above—for example, for determining the result of a blending mode.
If a composition contains other compositions nested within it, the nested composition is rendered before other
layers.
If the Collapse Transformations switch
nested composition are not performed until after the masks and effects for the containing composition are rendered.
This allows the transformations for the nested composition and the containing composition to be combined—or
collapsed—and performed together. The same is true for vector layers that are not continuously rasterized.
Note: Instead of a Collapse Transformations switch, vector layers have a Continuously Rasterize switch in the same
location. Vector layers include shape layers, text layers, and layers with vector graphic files as the source footage. Text
layers and shape layers are always continuously rasterized.
is selected for a nested composition, then the transformations for the
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