After Effects Quick Tip - Loop a Pre-comp

A question that comes up quite a lot is 'how do you loop a precomp?' And the answer is pretty simple - though there is a small catch that you need to fix if you want this technique to work.

[@dakotas.6092]

Adobe had the most complected and confusing instructions for this! Your explanation was perfect, thank you!

[@MrBobash]

Enable Time Remat - that is the key!!! I watched about 20 youtubes and only you menshioned it. THANK YOU!!!

[@mazex7299]

Best tutorial video I've watched! love that you don't talk about random stuff but get straight to the point clearly. Thank you!

[@TheShleebs]

I know this is an older post but thank god it was still here!! Life saver, and concise. Excellent. Thanks and subscribed.

[@VladthePainter]

Just wanted to once more, drop you a line and say how appreciative I am in your very well done and quite educational tutorials... Thanks very much... I'm coming along much better with your help!

[@EISAMMOORERBLKSAPPER]

Now that is the way you teach. Straight to the point. Awesome! Your are a Scholar and Gentlemen.

[@amarissimus29]

HUGE deal. Amazing, after using AE for years and years and just duping the layer... the simple expression was always right there.

[@ThomasWeakley]

I hadn't done this in a while and wanted to get a quick refresh. This was succinct and to the point. Thank you.

[@suziecray]

would love the comp to break it down Lawrence. Ive just found your vids and am enjoying watching and learnign. Its refreshing to have quicktips on youtube!

[@Shadow77999]

Thank you, the only one who explained it good enough for my smoothbrain to understand

[@shortboypinoy]

Perfect. No extra nonsense. Just straight to the point.

[@canhetv]

For those who couldn't find a solution, on top of that said in the video, activate the "continuously rasterize" icon, (the little star next to the "shy" icon). That might do it!

[@nasa1722]

Thank you this one work for me

[@WitherandFronst]

The answer I'm looking for in a short, to-the-point format. Thank you!

[@atawns]

Short, sweet, and exactly what I required. Thank you for your concise expertise and assistance.

[@guilhermesalles2624]

Who still has the problem with the empty frame, a possible solution is: enter in the pre-comp you want to loop and change the last layer to a level up. It worked for me. Thank you +Diogo Félix, but it doesn't need to be random, just doing what I said will solve the problem.

[@VladthePainter]

Got it!! My mistake... I did as u suggested and it's perfect. Rather a very simplistic way of looping... at least, with your instruction! Thank you for your timely replies... Many Thanks!!!

[@dumnguy]

Very useful. This will definitely come in handy; it's simple and easy to do, yet very effective.

[@AnimatedASMR]

Working on another animation and you just saved me a ton of time. Didn't feel like copying key frames over 6 minutes.

[@stacywhitmer233]

Wow! What a great east fix. Just getting started in After Effects and you made this quite comprehensive!

[@crocodileEddie]

As others have said, straight to the point and clear. Thanks a million!

[@gcinthevalley]

Appreciate your tuts man. Your channel is on the top of my go-to list when I'm in AE.

[@V.Z.69]

1:43 This wasn't explained in a video I just watched. I thought my version of AE (CS) didn't have this; ALT+Click stopwatch to enter "loopOut()". Fantastic!

[@WMAProductionSingapore]

You save a lot of my time.. thats what i am looking at.. i used to duplicate many many many clips.. now problem solved.. thanks

[@EdEditz]

The loopOut() expression is in my top 5 of most used. Very useful.

[@reubendsilva5099]

Well paced! The zoom viewer is the best!

[@shortformvideos]

@ANUSHiPRODUCTIONz123 You can. SHIFT+0 just activates an alternative RAM preview profile (lower resolution, skipped frames, audio on/off). Which is handy if you want a faster/longer preview.

[@daniaabudawood6844]

The best video for teaching how to loop in AE! Thank YOU SO MUCH!

[@kawabungadad8945]

Amazing instructional video - quick, concise and to the point.

[@EdaliaDayCreative]

I concur with the other commenters who like your lack of rambling - subscribed

[@gamerzonebrunini]

thx, man. Now my time line it's clean and I saved ton of time!

[@D2Kprime]

Again, straight to the point. Clear and concise. Great stuff here. [*subbed*]

[@Myfairgamer]

short, concise, exactly what i needed to know. thanks!

[@MarekConnellEnglish]

Hi There, Thanks for the vid. The best of it's kind so far. I have a problem. I have 2 precomps. In one this method works but in the other I'm still ending up with a blank frame. It's like creating the new keyframe simply shifts the blank frame to and earlier point. Can't figure this out. Please advise. Warm regards MArek

[@bluestudios9590]

Thanks for the quick info! you are the best, just to add to this, if the above expression is not working, try this loopOut(type = "cycle", numKeyframes = 0)

[@AxelOil]

Thanks! that black frame had been driving me insane for like a year now. I was always finding weird wways around it. Also. the video is short and to the point. THANKS

[@cleverevans]

Thanks for this short, specific, helpful tutorial.

[@shortformvideos]

Hmm. That would suggest that you're dragging the keyframes out to the new length as well (which would slow things down enormously). Once you've applied the loopOut() expression and trimmed the single black frame, all you should be doing is dragging the clip handle to extend it to the new length. The existing keyframes need to stay exactly where they are.

[@kaspern93]

Cool made .. I love your tutorials i hope you will create more videos. Can you made a video where you show who to create the ball jumping effect. Thanks by the way.

[@Reapertje95]

Thank you so much! This is my first year I'm majoring in motion graphics and this helps alot :)

[@JavierMercedes]

you are the best. thank you. short and sweet, Wish my tutorial game was that good.

[@gajescreations2857]

whenever i select enable time remapping I have the keyframe set in the start and end of the timeline and not at the exact animation time.. so this is not working for me... any advice..?

[@marcuskihn]

Hi. When I create that keyframe to get rid of the missing frame thing that happens at the end of the pre comp, the missing frame just jumps to my new key frame.

[@VmanTheMind]

I have like a 6 frame animation of an 8bit fire blazing. I want this to loop indefinitely however after applying your technique, its as if after effects took each frame and stretched them out into different sections. So each frame blinks into existence and then there's nothing there. And this is the precomp before anything has been rendered out.

[@rjtkoh]

Thanks heaps, exactly what I wanted. On a side note, not sure if this is something that was fixed in After Effects CC, but I didn't have to do the last step as I didn't get the black frame, not complaining :)

[@vaughngaminghd]

You just saved my bacon… thanks so much!

[@AnggeP.Novela]

this was very helpful! thanks! I used to render out the video and use the main loop options, thanks again!

[@MarekConnellEnglish]

When I delete the original end keyframe the new one I have just created becomes the blank one!

[@RaquelFantasia]

Thanks for sharing this useful tip! :D Better do this than coping and pasting keyframes again and again.

[@kalenamackiewicz93]

Thank you so much. Very clear and easy instructions!

[@saralovessonny11]

EXACTLY what I needed

[@alexd.3127]

Thank you!! Just what I needed.

[@VladthePainter]

But I'm also wondering... I've done everything as stated in the tutorial. My original comp (or precomp) I designed (a bicyclist) is 2 seconds long at perfect speed. One revolution. When I do as your tut suggests, and if I say stretch the bar and change my comp setiings from that 2 secs to one minute, the speed of my bicycle movement is now very very slow. How come yours remains at the same speed?

[@zanzoid8975]

Thank you for the great tip. Exactly what I was looking for.

[@storypaths6]

Great concise tutorial. I have a question, if you'd oblige. Do you know how I could loop a precomp and fade the two ends together each time it cycles? Thanks.

[@mellow_]

Thanks for the tutorial... one thing though, mine has an audio inside the composition where the loop is. and the audio kind of stops for a second and back on again. help?

[@scatterbrainart]

Great video! Do you always have to make a pre-comp? I've tried this by making a new composition, animating my objects, and then dragging that comp into a top-level comp. I've followed all the steps in here and I still got a blank frame after I delete the last keyframe. However, I went into my animation, copied all the layers, pasted them into the top-level comp, pre-composed that, trimmed the pre-comp to my out-points, then repeated your process. Bingo. It worked, and I have no idea why.

[@eladbari]

the main issue with looping is how to create a Seamless loop. of a returning\endless action of, lets say, a ball bounce, or going in circles.. theres something about making the first frame be also the last of the whole animation, but its something to explore. tried using an AEscripts plugin for looping animations yet it doesnt work that well. i get that weird jump in animation and sometimes it goes out of sync..so you have to do it manually somehow. didnt find a good workflow for that yet.. :\

[@zhuanghong]

It works very well, thanks mate!

[@quangdinhs]

Thank you so much! It's very helpful for me :) Have a nice day!!!

[@01lovemusic01]

Do you know how to do the ball go backward and forward repeatedly like this loop this video ?

[@manginnit1822]

thanks man. i was stuck on something!!!

[@wtmftproductions]

This doesn't work in AE CC 2015. Each loop starts at frame 1 instead of 0, and the last keyframe is always blank, even if you create one before it and delete the blank one, the new one becomes blank. Any ideas?

[@valcoholic]

I just tried this out once again with After Effects CC 2014 and it seems the black frame-issue doesn't happen anymore. At least not with the project I'm currently working on. Kinda strange, they still haven't added a simple checkbox for looping precomps though, but at least it seems to have gotten one step easier.

[@chilakiller0369]

Thank you! I've been struggling with that annoying frame during 1 hour. :D

[@marcosufelipe]

You saved my life thank you.

[@WorshipSoftware]

The black clip was stumping me. Thanks!!

[@mathsup]

This is gold, thanks!

[@jaydekaytv]

Both of these tips were helpful. Thank you. Will sub.

[@DeathByDurians]

Thanks Lawrence! Great tip!

[@poulgadving7628]

Wow thanks :) I just optimised my projects like 50% :) Nice straight to the point also ;)

[@KieranJB]

Thanks for cutting to the chase :D

[@philipperohrbach]

Thank you ! That was very useful :)

[@remsyatassi2156]

Still doesn't work for me? Doing a precomp of alternating text total of 10 frames. When I do your steps there is still a missing frame...

[@moisesgonzalez651]

Super Helpful, thanks a lot bro!

[@MooncubedesignAu]

Yeah both tips are great! Thank you!!! :)

[@mattsefton]

Very helpful - thanks!

[@Cherubi28]

I can't seem too loop my character animation. When I insert the expression nothing happens! Help?

[@gavacho131313]

Super helpful, thanks so much for making this video :)

[@daniel_keen]

thanks man :)

[@azarelazarel]

thanks man. it helped me a lot. ;)

[@AwesomeGirl86]

Thanks for the tutorial! It was very helpful. :)

[@thomasbrush]

Thanks this was helpful!

[@VascoElbrecht]

that was really useful! Thank you for this excellent tutorial = )

[@IcemanClay]

For some reason, even when I go a frame backward and create a keyframe... delete the other one... I still get the black frame. I am going crazy here, any ideas?

[@JRVideoChannel]

+IcemanClay Same thing. This is driving me fucking nuts :@

[@elainebenson9835]

+Jérémie Reusser did you ever figure out a solution? I still get a blank frame too.

[@elainebenson9835]

+Elaine Benson I just figured something out: the above tut works for most types of animation (thank you short-form video!), but for some types of animation, the blank frame keeps happening. Here's a patch that seems to be working for me... In the pre-comp, split the layer of the first object into 2 halves (say A and B). Move B to the very end of the comp, and then scoot the other layers forward to abut A (get rid of the gap). The overall pre-comp length doesn't change. Then follow the tutorial above... it worked for me!

[@dannieru]

+IcemanClay same problem :(

[@uncoiledfish2561]

+IcemanClay I had a blank frame as apposed to a black one. Well I had a whole section of them. It might take moving that keyframe back a lot more. And then deleting that one at the end. This worked for me.

[@thomashenry3014]

I did this with a precomp with animating shapes & it messed up my motion blur for the one frame where it loops (the one you created as a fix). The transparent frame was gone though. I had to copy the keyframes and do it that way, I don't know if there's an easier way.

[@shortformvideos]

Interesting, but not surprising - AE's motion blur appears to need adjacent frames to work. If it was me, I'd try disabling motion blur on your layers, create a new adjustment layer on top of the comp and then add the CC Force Motion Blur effect to your adjustment layer. I haven't tried this, but I'm pretty sure it'll fix your problem. Be warned, it's a little processor-hungry.

[@thomashenry3014]

Thanks for the tip!

[@jaydekaytv]

I've been a UI designer for over a decade and am new to AE (which I dig), but I hope they sort out some of these weird and unexpected results such as the one mentioned in this video and the comment I'm replying to.

[@M0Gify]

This would, indeed, annoy the crap out of me. Well noted.

[@calvincrane]

Thanks nice tutorial!

[@arkinoksuzoglu159]

thank you for that... was really helpful. By the way you have one of those 'presenter' voices lol

[@diegohdz]

Great tip! Thanks :)

[@kaleblybecker9770]

super video thanks for sharing!

[@JiminyHCriquet]

IF YOU GET A BLANK FRAME, MAYBE ITS BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T TURNED ON CONTINUOSLY RASTERIZE (the little star icon just next to the source name. second icon from the left.)

[@Murphington]

Thanks, worked great.

[@shortformvideos]

@sobek1993 You're welcome :) I could probably do a walkthrough on the ball animation, but I did most of it manually, so it wouldn't be of much use (there are plug-ins and scripts for ball animations, though). Would it be helpful if I posted the project file on my site so you could download it?

[@webbiexl]

Hey there! I love the tutorial on this, spend ages looking for such! It all makes sense to me 'bout the first frame being the last in a loop so you hop one back in order to not having that glitch. But after following every step again and again it still glitches (like hell! that is on a 1080p .mov render). I've created an animation of a ghost hovering, a straight forward up and down motion of a character, so no pre-rendered asset used here. I'm working with AE CC (12.1) and i'm about to pull my hair out if you know what i mean :S Little help here! EDIT: i'm using the RGB + ALPHA option

[@takozzocallozzo]

thank you a lot dude!

[@rooban1987]

thanks man...Helpful

[@Johnnywilsonforever]

I've got a few problems about the black frame: I did this process with the same version of AE (CS6) a few days ago and it worked fine, but yesterday I tried once again for another animation and now, when I set the last frame to 0 and delete it, the previous frame gets blank. So no mather what I do, I end up with tle as frame being a blank or no loop at all. As if After Effects is revolting against me. Do you know any way I can solve this weird problem?

[@parudy88]

I'm having the same problem...this is annoying the crap out of me. I swear to god I followed this video before on my other projects and it worked out fine...

[@andonnitsolingkas7898]

Jisu Kim Same problem here, does anyone have a solution? Really desperate over here :(

[@Martynjs]

When I tried it I was having the same problem. But once I added a background it was ok. Maybe this helps someone.

[@Johnnywilsonforever]

Martynjs Allright I added a background and it solved my problem, Many thanks!

[@diogocfelix]

+Andonni Tsolingkas Do you know how to solve it?? seems like a really strange bug :(

[@guilhermelima121]

Life saver, cheers!

[@TheBiggervern]

Very helpful, thanks

[@NikhitaPrabhudesai]

wow, thank-you so much!