Precomposing

Let’s give our website a different background.

  • Turn on visibility for the WebsiteBackground layer.
  • In the timeline, move the layer just below the Beemo layer.

Here’s the problem: I want WebsiteBackground to also be matted by Screen 2. However, I can only matte one layer to another. Basically, I want After Effects to treat both Beemo and the website background as a single layer. In other words, in this composition, I want a single layer for the website, even though it’s made of multiple assets. We do that with precomposing.

Set Up the Precomp

  • Select the Beemo.jpeg layer in the timeline.
  • Hold down shift and select the WebsiteBackground ...

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