Mastering Duplication: 3 Efficient Ways to Duplicate in After Effects

There are many ways to duplicate in After Effects.

1. Select a layer and press Ctrl+D (Cmd+D).

This method will duplicate a layer either it is a pre-comp or a camera.

If you duplicate a pre-comp, it will be the same pre-comp. If you make changes inside one changes will be reflected in another one.

There is a way to prevent it.

2. Select a composition in the project window and press Ctrl+D (Cmd+D).

This method will create a copy of a composition so you can edit it separately.

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However, if there are any nested compositions inside it, they still will be not unique.

3. We wrote a free script to duplicate composition with nested pre-comps so you could have a completely unique copy.

Go to Window-AEJuice Pack Manager, and click on the lightning icon – Duplicate.

If you don’t have Pack Manager installed here are direct links for the latest plugin version (both After Effects and Premiere Pro):
Windows / macOS