Using Collapse Transformations and Continuously Rasterize in After Effects

In this tutorial we're going to talk about the Collapse Transformations and Continuously Rasterize switch in After Effects.
Download the Project File: www.schoolofmotion.com/tutori...
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Auto-Generated Transcript Below 👇
Music (00:02): [intro music]
Caleb Ward (00:11): Hey, what's up. This is Caleb Ward with school of motion. And in this after effects tutorial, we're going to be talking about one of the most exciting features in all of after-effects. Now I'm not talking about 3d text and I'm not talking about how to create an explosion in after effects. No, I'm talking about the collapsed transformations tool. Now this tool may not fall on your radar very often, but it has the power to completely change your entire aftereffects workflow. So if you're ready to learn something very important and something slightly technical let's hop in. Now, I want you to know that you can download the free project file included in this tutorial, by clicking the link and heading over to school of motion.com. There'll be a link in the description of this video. So before we get going here, I want to talk to you about what the switch actually does.
Caleb Ward (01:01): Yes. You know that it may de pixelate your vector layers, and yes, it may do some weird stuff to your 3d layers whenever you pre compose them. But let's talk about the practical implications of what this which actually does to your layers in the timeline. And to do that, we're going to talk a little bit about the rendering order. So in a typical after-effects, uh, composition, the render order goes like this. After effects, renders out your mass and then moves on to effects. It moves onto transformation, data, blending modes, and then layer styles. Now, you don't have to think about this most of the time, because it pretty much comes second nature, because you know, you would expect that you'd be able to scale up your layer, a plier mask, add your effects at your blending modes and then your layer styles. That's just the typical order that you use whenever you're working in after effects.
Caleb Ward (01:55): But whenever you select this little star button right here, something new happens. And I think you may know what I'm talking about. So I'm going to go ahead and click play here and preview what happens here. So I'm gonna play this back. And as you can see, whenever you select this box, this continuously rasterize or collapse transformation box here after effects, we'll take the transformation data and it will actually compute it before it computes anything else. And sometimes, especially in the case of continuously Rasta rising, it will actually add in a new step in the process called Rasta rising. And let me stop and talk a little bit about what RAs arising means. So after effects is a Rasor base software, which means it uses pixel information to calculate data inside of after effects. It's not a vector software, which means it would use a mathematical formula to create the shape layers and different objects inside.
Caleb Ward (02:53): So because after effects is of Rasor bay software, any asset that gets imported into after effects must be rasterized or turned into a bitmap file, a pixel based file before aftereffects can actually use it. So, so that's not a problem. The majority of the time when you're importing video or JPEGs or PNGs, they're already pixelated and Rasta rising doesn't even need to occur in order for them to be usable to after effects. Now, the problem is whenever you're working with Adobe illustrator files or any other vector format that doesn't include pixel information after effects will actually rasterize it, as soon as you import it into the software, now that's a problem because whenever you drag and drop it into your composition, you'll notice that it typically gets pixelated. So this is where rasterizing comes into play. Rasta rising is the process of recomputing, that vector layers information so that it will get rid of the pixelation.
For the full transcript visit: www.schoolofmotion.com/tutori...

[@davidseper1725]

6 years later, still changing lives!!!!!!!!!!! I should send you 50% of my commissions for upping my game this much! 3D work was way too difficult to do without being able to use file folders for ALL the layers. So many layers. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! And ridonkulously clear. Bravo!

[@cenkozmercan]

A nice tip is when you turn this on and your nested precomp starts to do weird stuff in 3D, go into that precomp and make those layers 3D individually.

[@mcbulldozer2669]

was searching all over the internet for what to do and finally found it in this comment thank you dude

[@Henrique2801xbox]

@@cenkozmercan Hi man! I turned my layers of my comp ( a head comp for an animation) into 3D. However, even then the head gets weird when I turn the collapse on. Do you know what can it be? thanks!

[@Henrique2801xbox]

There are layers with Set Matte effect in the comp, I believe it can be because of that

[@cenkozmercan]

@@Henrique2801xbox have you tried making all the layers 3d within the precomp? Toggle the 3d and collapse on and off for both the main comp and the precomp in it.

[@cenkozmercan]

@@Henrique2801xbox could be. You can try doing your matte stuff in individual precomps.

[@johnleeclair]

I've been dealing with my precomps getting cut off at the edges for the past 8 years. You've literally changed my life.

[@BLUESCREAMPRODUCTIONS]

you mean you find a solution ?

[@RoadCaster]

Thank you! Knowledge never expired

[@aliendesign2023]

Excellent tutorial, very clear. Thank you for breaking down the components and explaining the features and drawbacks in detail.

[@MrPada143]

Best 17 min video tutorial by far

[@tomasrindelmino]

Thanks from Argentina! I was looking for information on that Switch, very helpful

[@gaston.]

excellent, thank you!... working with AE for over 20 years, and was one of those things that remained unclear. Especially the issue of not interacting in 3d space properly with an effect plus Continuous Rasterize. A quirky part of the program.

So useful!!... thank so much for sharing :)

[@CrypticBTR]

thank you so much! super helpful and well explained

[@chr1st0pher]

dang i knew about continuous rasterization but no idea about collapse transformations. SUPER handy. Thanks!

[@lucasvisionvjbitar]

Awesome explanation dude!!! I was cracking my head trying to understand why some comps were getting distorced when rendered. i got a clue from someone in a AE fb group, and now I can see clearly!!! Big Up From Brazil!!

[@schoolofmotion]

Glad I could help you. Take it easy - Caleb

[@leonardolu6132]

can't be more useful, and best tut ever.

[@arturrossi5144]

Great, bro. Super didatic. Thank you so much.

[@EclipseMall]

Very informative and useful! Thanks!

[@prashantacademy5057]

Real educating stuff. Started explaining right from the core of the software and the fundamentals of after effects explained. Very good subscribed your channel immediately.,,😁

[@Yeshua_Will_Arrive_Soon]

Great information. Thank you, and praise God always.

[@Subtitled_Deutsch]

thank you so much, really clear and precise

[@DANIELDOMINC]

Great, very useful thanks

[@cristobalbolanoslopez8873]

Soooo useful! Thanks a lot! I wish I had learnt this before, I'd have used it for tons of projects. Again, thanks :)

[@schoolofmotion]

I'm the exact same way when I learn something online. Think of all the hours that could have been saved! lol Cheers - Caleb

[@cellacyben101]

This was very informative.

[@rajeemshrestha632]

Great tutorial

[@jams2blues]

Thank you so much! you just saved me several hours of work!

[@ManHead-wb8dw]

thanks a lot!

[@MatthieuFremeaux]

Extremely well explained ! Thanks for these useful informations :)

[@francescoauguad6029]

wow very accurate explained

[@avalonnuovo]

It's kind of like Collapse Transformations is the secret sometimes-evil doppelgänger of Continuously Rasterize. I was ready to jump out the window trying to figure out why all the carefully hand-roto'd path animations in my precomps were getting destroyed by transforming in the main comp. So simple!

[@Winamp_]

Bro thank you so much, lmfao. I've been an idiot for forever, this helped me.

[@shimronnetia]

wow thanks

[@bush9686]

thanks)

[@NikiWims]

wow :D just wow

[@akashmehra9159]

This guy is dope

[@craveleaks8102]

Thank you very informative video. Just watched how to create a volcano on +Caleb Ward's Channel. Had a problem with rasterisation. This video cleared my problem. Thanks, +Caleb Ward and +School of Motion Graphics.

[@schoolofmotion]

Here to help! Let us know if you ever have any questions. Best of luck on your MoGraph projects.

[@MagicniWrtuljaK]

Hi. Thanks for great tutorial! Any idea how to use Rasterize option with DUIK?

[@manganawan]

I know this voice, the winky cat i guess.thx for the tutor, especially the ae shortcut.

[@syncprism6283]

Very informative! I just want to know, does it mean if I still want effects to be applied in 3D, I must go into the pre-composition and apply effects to each contained composition?

[@instamodis7728]

Thanks for this tut. Can you explain how to fix that problem when 3ds objects can't interact with applied FXs?

[@CiscoZero]

Never judge a book by its cover. I thought this guy's video was going to be the way he looks. It's much better than I expected!

[@WanderingWithZhuizhui]

Thank you for answering my doubts about this switch. But when I checked the rendering order ,I found a mistake in this tutorial, the switch just changed transform's oder, masks is still in the first order. Because when I turn on this switch and rotate the layer with mask, the mask will change accordingly, indicating that the mask is rendered first .

[@RobsonOliveiraDesign]

Você é um bebêzão, adoro você. Muito obrigado pela explicação. Abraços from Brazil.

[@gaston.]

yes, this is a difficult one to fully understand. My character would get screwed up when I scaled it up using the collapse transform. However I found using the Distort, Transform scale gave me a clean scale.

[@tenniset]

I guess it's better to add effects inside the precomp?

[@Kashyap__]

Dude thankyou so much. This is really helpful. Can you help me know why is the start icon disabled when I import a png file. I am unable to apply the star to make the image more clear. Any leads, please help. Thanks

[@ArisMelachroinos]

Why dont you have 1M + subs already?

[@noxfior]

Problem: I animated a project from Illustrator in AE but I couldn't scale it up when finished bc an error kept popping up: "cached preview needs 2 or more frames to playback". I couldn't even turn off the continuous rasterize option bc it's grayed out.

[@ehsan_shardum]

all i wanted to know why my vector layers are being cut off when they are outside the canvas, even after i use that continousely rastarize button, and then i got this, is there any short video how to solve this?

[@yofi2614]

Whats the song in the end of the video?

[@ekbergpeter6987]

Will You be my private teacher? So good!!

[@PJ_Ponders]

My friend, is there a way around that Effect part where you apply the glow effect, but it still overlaps the camera work? as opposed to completely removing the effect and having to work around that? Just wondering

[@schoolofmotion]

There are two work arounds that I can think of: 1) apply the effect to the layers inside of the pre-comp. 2) Don't collapse transformations. Collapse Transformations is a luxury but not a necessity in After Effects. lol hope this helps.

[@marcgreaves4354]

I'm stuggling with an effect/continuous rasterize. I'm using a cc page fx to turn an ai flower petal. Applying the Continuous Rasterise just throws the positions way off. Any ideas?

[@xl9119]

mhh i am wrong? i have never experienced this issue of loosing 3d information when applying any effect onto it. even when i try to rebuild a scene like yours and apply the glow effect, it works.

[@schoolofmotion]

Hmmmm. That is very strange, not sure why that would be happening, but hooray!

[@vorval96]

My shapes and strokes get pixel-y if I scale them up even though the continuously rasterize box is checked. I thought shapes created inside after effects would by default be vector. Anyone know a fix to this?

[@_sage99]

I can't click the continuously rasterize button. There's no box underneath it for me to check off. Does anyone know why??

[@brainsoldmedia4930]

when i enable Continuously Rasterize after using camara not working properly displaced?

[@brainsoldmedia4930]

also i see you enabled Continuously Rasterize in main comp also still not working in mine properly ?

[@dwgpicllc3705]

Hi all I imported my ai file to AE by selecting "Composition with retain layers" mode then I clicked Continuously rasterize, but still, my vector file is pixelated, please, anyone, advise how to vectorize

[@AmritSingh-sc7fr]

But in my case, I clicked this icon and my vector artwork doesn't change, it is still showing raster (pixelated). Could you please help me out with this problem?

[@sanazdehghani8131]

rasterize doesn't work for me. can you help me? Does it have special settings????

[@toxenofficial1849]

Hey can anyone help me, my continuously rasterize is not appearing

[@dublinphotoart]

I just puppet-pinned a pre-comp of hand drawn character layers... the precomp looks lower res than the actual layers... hitting this switch brings the resolution back but tears up the animation 😫 i havent a clue whats happening 😫 im thinking of exporting the precomp as a hi res video and bringing that back in in its place 🤷🏼‍♂️😫

[@1WillyDAVID]

maybe you've to create you characters in a higher resolution, because the puppet pin tool creates a lot of polygons, in fact when one uses the duik plugin to rig characters you've to create characters in illustrator on 5000px to 8000px width artboards in order to avoid a big amount of pixelization

[@scoatbeats2379]

my image is still pixelated when I hit it how do I fix that?

[@schoolofmotion]

You're using a vector image right?

[@bend3451]

@@schoolofmotion same problem, yes vector

[@smokingbianco85]

@@schoolofmotion yeah I'm having the same issue as other guys.. any ideas?

[@mariare1162]

@@schoolofmotion the same problem, can`t find the answer anywhere ://

[@luizacristina2370]

@@schoolofmotion me too!! Please, help!!

[@Evie_Ruby]

8:12

[@jonmayes3262]

6:56

[@BLUESCREAMPRODUCTIONS]

there are much more problems than solutions !!!! so we can't use 3D layers with vector files wich we want to increase the size !!? So bad...

[@connorhalleck2895]

breh i just dont have time to watch a 17 minute video for a simple "what does this term mean" question