AfterEffects

Pre-render a nested composition

A complex nested composition can take a long time to preview and render. If you have a nested composition that you do not expect to work on further, you can save time during each previewing and rendering operation by pre-rendering the nested composition into a movie and replacing the composition with the rendered movie. You can still make changes to the original nested composition, because it remains in the project list. If you make a significant change to the original nested composition, just render it again.

Pre-rendering a nested composition is particularly beneficial when you will use it multiple times in a project. Using a pre-rendered movie in place of a nested composition also saves time and memory when you render the final version of the main composition.
Note: Apply your final output settings when you pre-render the nested composition.
  1. Select the composition in the Project or Composition panel.
  2. Choose Composition > Pre-render.

    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.