Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 5.5 Help Manual page 266

Adobe After Effects Help
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Apply complex changes to an entire composition. For example, you can create a
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composition containing multiple still images, nest the composition within the overall
composition, and animate the nested composition so that all the still images change in
the same ways over the same time period.
Reuse anything you build. For example, you can build an animation in its own compo-
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sition and then drag that composition into other compositions as many times as you
want. This can save large amounts of space, especially for complicated effects, such as
3D layers.
Update many composition copies in one step by editing the original animated compo-
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sition.
Alter the default rendering order of a layer. For example, you can render a transform
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change (such as rotation) before rendering effects.
Note: Parenting is another way to apply complex changes to an entire composition. For
information, see "Understanding parent layers" on page 113.
Understanding default rendering order
The order in which After Effects renders the various parts of a composition can affect the
look of some visual effects in a rendered movie. An understanding of how After Effects
renders a composition will help you get the effects you want.
In rendering a composition, After Effects processes 2D layers in the order in which they are
listed in the Timeline window, starting at the bottom of the list. (However, After Effects
processes 3D layers in Z order within their 3D bins. For more information, see "3D
rendering" on page 242.) In processing each layer, After Effects processes changes from
the top down, as these three categories appear in the Timeline window: first the masks,
then effects, and finally the transformations. The transfer modes and track mattes are
processed after that. For elements with multiple effects, After Effects processes these in
the order in which they are listed in the Effect Controls and the Timeline windows.
Changing the rendering order
Sometimes, projects require a visual effect that cannot be achieved using the default
rendering order. For example, you may be constructing an animation in which you want a
rotated object to have a drop shadow effect. By default, After Effects renders an effect
before rotation, which would create shadows with different orientations.
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A. Original layer B. Drop shadow applied at effect stage C. Rotation applied at transform stage
results in the shadow rotating with the layer
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