Nesting Options; To Synchronize Time Displays For Nested Compositions; To Collapse Transformations In A Nested Composition; Preserve Resolution When Nested - Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 Manual

ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 131
User Guide
You nest compositions by dragging a composition icon from the Project panel into another composition in the
Timeline panel. If the target composition is currently active in the Composition panel, drag the composition icon
you want to nest directly into the Composition panel.

Nesting options

The Advanced tab of the Composition Settings dialog box includes two nesting options:
Retains the resolution setting of the nested composition. If this option is not

Preserve Resolution When Nested

selected, the containing composition's resolution overrides the nested composition's resolution. You can use the
Preserve Resolution option, for example, to retain a low resolution for a nested composition and improve its preview
time.
Locks a composition to a specific frame rate, which should
Preserve Frame Rate When Nested Or In Render Queue
improve performance in many cases as well as eliminate the need to use Posterize Time in creating reduced frame
rate effects. If this option is not selected, the containing composition's frame rate overrides the nested composition's
frame rate.

To synchronize time displays for nested compositions

When you open panels associated with a composition, such as the Timeline panel, the Layer panel, and Effect
Controls, changing the current time in one panel updates the other panels associated with that composition.
However, changing the current time in one composition does not change the current time in panels belonging to
other compositions, unless you are working with nested compositions.
You can synchronize the current-time indicators in open panels belonging to a nested composition. After Effects
provides a preference that updates all panels of nested compositions when you move the current-time indicator in
any nested composition.
❖
Choose Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > General (Mac OS), click the
Synchronize Time of All Related Items option to add a check mark, and click OK.

To collapse transformations in a nested composition

There are two methods of calculating changes to transform properties (such as rotation or scale) while rendering a
nested composition. The default method is to apply transform properties and rasterize at every level of nested
compositions. The alternative method is to collapse transformations, which postpones the calculation of transform
properties and the rasterization of nested compositions until the rendering process reaches a layer you select. You
can increase image quality and significantly reduce rendering time by collapsing transformations.
Collapsing transformations can preserve resolution when a nested composition is scaled down and then scaled back
up in successive compositions. Without collapsed transformations, a nested composition that is scaled down loses
the resolution of its original larger size. When you collapse transformations, the original resolution of a nested
composition is preserved; its final resolution is determined by its size within the composition that uses collapsed
transformations.
When you collapse the transform properties of a layer, all compositions nested inside it combine their opacity setting
with the opacity setting of the layer that uses collapsed transform properties.
When a layer contains an Adobe Illustrator file instead of a nested composition, the Collapse Transformations switch
for that layer becomes the Continuously Rasterize switch, which you can use to improve the image quality of footage.