More Ways to Manage Many Comps

More Ways to Manage Many Comps

Minifl ow makes it even more possible to close all the Timelines
when you’re done with a set of changes (Ctrl+Alt+W/
Command+Option+W) and reopen only the ones you
need, starting with the master comp.
The Lock icon at the upper left of the Composition
viewer lets you keep that Composition viewer forward while
you open another Timeline. Typically, you would lock the
master comp and double-click a nested comp to open its
Timeline; as you make adjustments in that Timeline, you
see their effect on the overall comp.
The Always Preview this View toggle lets you instead
work entirely in a precomp, but preview the result automatically
in the master comp (if this is toggled in that
comp) without having to switch to it. Use it if you’re only
interested in how changes look in your fi nal.
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N (Cmd+Option+Shift+N) creates two
Composition viewers side-by-side, and locks one of them,
for any artist with ample screen real estate who wants the
best of both worlds.
To locate comps in the Project panel, you can
. Select an item in the Project panel; adjacent to its name
by the thumbnail at the top of the panel is a small pulldown
caret, along with the number of times, if any, the
item is used in a comp.

. Context-click an item in the Project panel and choose
Reveal in Composition; choose a composition and that
comp is opened with the item selected

. Context-click a layer in the Timeline and choose Reveal
Layer Source in Project to highlight the item in the
Project panel



. Context-click in the empty area of a Timeline and
choose Reveal Composition in Project to highlight the
comp in the Project panel