NEW TUTORIAL: Trim Compose Script

May 2nd, 2011

Today we have a new After Effects script to help you work with shots on a large VFX project like a Commercial or a music video that has many edits. One of the nice things about doing VFX inside of AE is seeing your shots in sequence to make sure they flow together, but it can get tricky if you start adding hundreds of layers into a single composition as we all know.

A more organized solution is to Pre-Compose each shot into individual compositions and do the work inside. The Trim Compose Script helps make that job fast and easy but wait there's more. The script automatically takes selected layers and then pre-composes each one into time accurate pre-comps, based on the length of each edit.

Benefits:

Create edit accurate pre-comps based on final cut
Keeps projects organized and VFX inside individual comps
Create proxies for specific range based on the edit
Batch process shots to work with multiple artists
Adds frame handles automatically

This probably doesn't make any sense, check out the video for a full demonstration.

Watch Tutorial

Andrew Kramer

POSTED:

14 years ago

93 Comments

hadi

11 years ago

hi
thank you for your tutorial.
but i can not find the trim_compose.jsx
help me plz

Oliver

13 years ago

Great one and a big time saver, thanx alot!

I got an question regarding this workflow. Say I cut my video in premiere and do the post in AE like you shown in this tut. As far as the cut doesn't change your fine and render the final movie out of AE.

But what happens if you have to change some things in the cut after you did the post? I find no solution, cause the dynamic link only works in one direction:-/

The only thing you could do is copy the new cut out of premiere to AE and copy/paste the adjustments from the post before, which is annoying.

Does anyone has a good solution for that?

3ds Max

14 years ago

I consider myself found a treasure by finding this website.
The tutorials here are really amazing and so profesional.
Keep up the good work Andrew, greetings from Egypt.

Awolalu Chrysolite Ayodele

14 years ago

Hi can anyone help me? I cant get audio again in AE even when I RAM preview. Also how do I get the best out of 111gb hard disk & 2gb RAM, I keep getting error msgs now:
'not enough memory to create image buffer' etc. Andrew pls help!

Tom

14 years ago

hey andrew,
dont think this tutorial was very good, I was rather disappointed most of your other tutorials are good.

jem

14 years ago

hay, this totally got me through my project !!

http://vimeo.com/24503687

with this script i was able to do the Afghanistan scene really quickly !!

Van Krix

14 years ago

whos that girl? so beautiful

Wes James

14 years ago

Best workflow scrip ever. This makes me what to use Premiere Pro more than before.

Anna

14 years ago

Thank you again.
I'm sorry I cannot be more creative with my words, but if you could read Spanish things would be easier for me.
Anna

Alexandros

14 years ago

Awesome tutorial!! Thanks A. Kramer

))

Bruno

14 years ago

Hahahha she looks like Rebecca Black!

(No Offence)

Gabriel

14 years ago

Esta chida tu tuotrial

es grandioso

simplekhent

14 years ago

i would like to invite all of you to my channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/khentrocks?feature=mhee

Jhon M.

14 years ago

relly all there is in this page is amazing, Iam university and would like to knw the career that made ??????Andrew Kramer. please
anybody knw?
I want follow in his footsteps !!!

St4t!k

14 years ago

AWESOME tutorial AK ^^ Thx Man ur the BESt as Alawys
here's my work for some insperation : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvogkH0uyE0

Best Regards.... and srry 4 my Engish :p

Morris

14 years ago

Can you maybe do a freezing text effect like the disintegration but in reverse? Kinda like this one at 0:04:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7uP3rAepY8

masum

14 years ago

Oh andrew you give us another golden egg. I am just downloading it and later I will watch it

Alter

14 years ago

Hey what's up andrew! hey I have a question, what kind of green color is the correct to use for the green screen and what kind of material is the best?

Danny G

14 years ago

Great tutorial and script! Thank you. I use FCP almost exclusively and don't have a ton of experience with premiere and dynamic link but will pull my FCP timeline into Premiere just to get it into AE w/o using Automatic Duck. However, it would be nice to be able to go back and forth seamlessly. I was always wondering what the best approach was for organizing everything with a longer video. I guess I was doing it right but definitely learned some new tips. Anyways, thanks agin.

edmond

14 years ago

Hi andrew, I send you Music on your Facebook page did you hear it ? and if you like it let know please.

Neil

14 years ago

Mr kramer thanks a lot for all your tutorials.They are great.Can you PLEASE UPLOAD A FEW TUTORIALS ON USING THE TRAPCODE PLUGINS mainly FORM and PARTICULAR..I know you have given a few but a few more would always be immensely helpful!!Thanks...

sampo

14 years ago

This seems like a strange workflow. Dynamic link is built-in and does exactly this without the hassle. Just finished a color timing job using pr+ae no problem.

bozai

14 years ago

Thanks a lot for all wonderful tutorial!

Joe F.

14 years ago

Yea, this is awesome. One of those to who did this manually for an extremely complex scene. I wonder though, is there a reason you did NOT use Dynamic linking? I have not tried using the script with it but just curious to know. Best!

Jens Lundgren

14 years ago

Thanks alot for this useful tutorial! Always a time saver to learn new techniques and workflows.

Sebastian

14 years ago

Awesome!
I can watch it on the iPad now.

khentrocks

14 years ago

awesome..........!!!!!! come and drop by on my channel ..

illd

14 years ago

very smart and helpfull script, Thanks VCP. No offense, but this script existed a long time ago. Checkout aescripts.com . they have a lot of great other scripts

MehranCG

14 years ago

oh!
it's HELP me a lot,
...
Thanks Andrew.

Scott

14 years ago

This is very interesting I was just doing a project a little while back and was wondering how I could kind of clean it up a bit and this kind of simple tutorial reminds someone how to bring it back around for cleaner comps.

Thanks

Sup3RNova

14 years ago

He! Kramer, grettings from Cuba!!, my english is not good, i want to tell you that i am a great fan you, even i dont have internet at home, in work i open you page everyday, hoping the new tutorial, although im posting this comment for request some tutorial for the future, like this:

http://blip.tv/file/get/Aetutsplus-FlamingArmTutorial707.flv

http://blip.tv/file/get/Aetutsplus-CreateAnAudienceTutorial307.mp4

i whish to have the posibility to buy all you stuff, but unfortunately i don't..well this is all for now..sorry the bad writing, as i tell you my english suck!! & i get off of the topic.

jakson

14 years ago

for me this is not a tutorial..
but thx 4 this its usefull

Valantis Skoufris

14 years ago

Finally a new tutorial...
My wife yesterday told me: Hey what's up, Andrew Kramer here for a video Copilot....etc i had a long time to hear these words

. Thank you Andrew you are the best. Keep us updated

Ben Kramer

14 years ago

Wow im very impressed Andrew, so much information in just 15 minutes. Keep up the good work and keep posting great vids like this one!

Saeid KamKar

14 years ago

it's very nice

krisq

14 years ago

Oh man! You have no idea how much work you just saved me

. Thank you, the script is brilliant!

Stranger92

14 years ago

you are best... i never miss checking your site

Anil

14 years ago

I wish VC is as active as it used to be...

Fred Cavender

14 years ago

I really wish you'd invented this a month ago! I have a complex scene from a film I'm making, and this would have saved me a lot of time in keeping nice and organised!

However, this is a great tool for just the everyday stuff. Even for just one shot. A couple of clicks instead of resizing and replacing. Great script, thanks a lot for keeping a lot of these great tools free and creating them from and actual need you've come across rather than to just create something.

This and the copy/paste frame are HUGE time savers.

nick

14 years ago

pre comp leave attributes does this but only one comp at a time. handy to have multiple layers simultaneously doing this

anil

14 years ago

that was usefull

EDrisCG

14 years ago

Wow! new Tutorial, Very useful.
Thanks Andrew!

itay

14 years ago

thanks man, very useful....
say...whats the name of the software you use for the tutorials ??

wish you all the best...

Piotrek

14 years ago

Hey Andrew. I was wondering what camera do you use for your movie. Love your tutorial. Thanks. Nice work

Silver_Dance

14 years ago

ya man that what i wanted.....for music videos.thanks andrew

Joraph

14 years ago

Many Thanks From Nigeria

Manuel Garcia

14 years ago

Early Birds. Thanks for this.

Hope there is more tutorials in the future..

zeemalik

14 years ago

Hi Andrew ,
your all tutorials are great,plz work some matt painting
projects. and some boujou traking.
thank u.

Malik from Pak,

Erick

14 years ago

Thanks a lot, as always awesome techniques. Video Copilot best site ever.

Nico Hirsch

14 years ago

WOW thank you! Just need it now!

F.C.

14 years ago

Thank you Andrew for another helpful tutorial. We can learn lots of cool stuff from VIDEO COPILOT. I am here almost every day. Please keep up great work. Thanks again.

Bob_KZ

14 years ago

Chek out my short video. There is a lot of vanishing point stuff and optical flares

Bob_KZ

14 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NF8g7_gbJ0&feature=related

Cbap

14 years ago

Hey,

I'm a Canadian producer and am starting to do all of my editing in After Effects. I CANNOT EXPLAIN HOW AWESOME THIS IS. Premiere is a disaster, but this solves more or less everything.

Can't thank you enough. Bought a bunch of random videocopilot stuff to put an emphasis on it.

Michael Wentworth-Bell

14 years ago

Awesome, Working on a job now with over 200 layers, one comp. this is going to help a lot!

pr@dipta

14 years ago

Thanks VC for this advanced & ammazing Tutorial ..

Evan Abrams

14 years ago

This is absolutely great. I was cutting an action shot manually to FX it. It may have been light sabers, maybe not... yes it was. And it was terrible. Ironically I would have been done faster had I just waited till this came out. :S

eMendez

14 years ago

Gonna give it a try in production. Thanks dude!

sanju

14 years ago

U R so.....oooooooooo amezing.....Andrew....
I really Like UR Intro Style "Hey Wat's up...this is andrew kramer here for video co-pilot..." heheeheheheheheheh
nice man keep on going on.....

ah shang

14 years ago

you tutorial make my day so high ~~~wow~~~~~

David

14 years ago

oooooooooo andrew. WHY !!!!!!!! must you put a hot girl in you tutorial its distracting me from learning!!!!

Brad

14 years ago

wow, wish I had this a month ago... spent half a day doing exactly what this script does! There will always be a "next-time"...

Thanks!

Ben Wotton

14 years ago

I can't watch the tut yet Andrew, but I'm pretty sure you just made my day!

Aykut Bozkurt

14 years ago

Sometimes you have to give her candy...
Organizing things is always great,tnx Andrew,one of the best host ever.Keep it going

anxs220

14 years ago

Very very useful,

thx a lot!!!

Brandon Sirota

14 years ago

Awesome, this will help alot!
Thanks!!

Ryan Steel

14 years ago

Jeez, come away from the blog for 2 days and return to this? I should do this more often!

Matthew Sabia

14 years ago

This will literally save me hours of time! Thanks!!!

Jonatas Brazil

14 years ago

Yahooo one more tute for us THAKs GOD lol
http://www.youtube.com/user/andygibson

Adam F

14 years ago

For all FCP users you can use the free script here to use just like the copy and paste feature in Premiere. All you have to do is save your XML file and then open that XML final using the script.

It\'s great

http://www.popcornisland.com/2009/03/final-cut-2-after-effects

No need for automatic duck

Mark Mastropaolo

14 years ago

Can't tell you how badly I could have used this a month ago. Really useful way to stay organized. Great work!

Mustapha

14 years ago

??? Thanks for all tutorial, you are the best!

Inspire

14 years ago

yep, the link still ends in "database error"

Maui

14 years ago

Are there any reasons why you didn't use the actual Dynamic Link function via right click replace with afx composition?

filipe3x

14 years ago

That's exactly what I though when I first saw the tutorial! I think you can do exactly the same thing Dynamic Link function in the Premier Pro.

Magic

14 years ago

I was also thinking why not...

14 years ago

i tried the dynamic method well too much. but it always slowed down my computer. so i tried one day to go the same way as andrew, only difference i import my prproj file direct in aex. i got all my clips in one composition and not one composition per clip. and work at full performance.

Magic

14 years ago

Hey Andrew Im getting this error:
An Error Was Encountered
I cant see the tutorial

(

Nenad Zivanovic

14 years ago

That would save me countless hours of work in the past

Hopefully it will in the future!

Thanks A. this script is simply amazing!

Mitch Milner

14 years ago

This is amazing and couldn't come at a better time! I just wrapped production on a music video with heavy amounts of green screen. Perfect!

samson

14 years ago

thanks andrew, you have saved me an incredible amount of time,

the samson

Rick Joaquim

14 years ago

Awesome

Glad VC is doing some cool stuff again... Was worried the interweb was becoming a boring place....

Kert Gartner

14 years ago

Wow, thanks Andrew! This is incredibly useful! I was doing this by hand for YEARS! The ability to add handles is the icing the on the cake! A real script that I can actually use in production every day! Thanks!!

Toonsta

14 years ago

YES. YESSSSSSSS!!! EXACTLY what i was waiting for

Andrew you are a million dollar man as always!

tylerenake

14 years ago

Its so freaking awesome the variety of tutorials that you make. Now all we need is too see some of that medieval stuff. I'm sure this has never been said here before, but Andrew...you da man.

Motion Graphics

14 years ago

Looks very interesting!

Sam

14 years ago

Beautiful... The tutorial was nice too.

bwoogie

14 years ago

awesome! i've done a couple music videos and got more coming so this should come handy

Seba

14 years ago

Andrew is the best tutor in the industry for sure

Toonsta

14 years ago

Frikkin sweet! I always got headaches from precomposing footage which ended up being the total timeline length of the final render comp... maybe those days are over! Watching now

chemsou production

14 years ago

ohhhhhhhhhhhh thank's I watch this Now and i really like it

hey andrew check one of my vidéos
i Hope you Like it <3

http://www.youtube.com/ChemsouProduction

sunil thapa

14 years ago

too nice mr. andrew , it's awesome to watch ur tuts and to heard ur voice

John paul

14 years ago

Its Just Awesome, Watching Thanks for Another Great Tutorial

R-CANE

14 years ago