Keep audio and video layers linked in AE

[A***@adobeforums.com]

Hi!

Is there any way to keep the audio layers linked to the corresponding video layers in AE so that the audio will automatically follow when ever I move a video layer?

Thank you in advance!

[A***@adobeforums.com]

Nest the layers together in a comp, and use that comp as a layer. The simplest way to do this is to precompose your video layer, and drop the audio layer into the newly-created comp.

[A***@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for your reply!

That's a bit disappointing though, since precomping individually tens of videolayers pasted from premiere will take a lot of time. It would be anice feature for AE if you could tell audio layers to follow videolayers automatically. Actually when you think of it, it would be a great feature for any kind of layer: to be able to link two layers together so that moving the other in time will move the other also! Ah, and this brings me to another thing that I have been missing for a long time: the ability to group layers on a timeline in to folders for easy management (my comps have sometimes hundreds of layers and it would be very nice if I could organize them with folders, just like in Photoshop)!

What do you guys think? Is there any other way to accomplish these things? Could there be any expressions that might come to rescue?

[A***@adobeforums.com]

Expressions would be a much bigger pain than simply nesting the video and audio together. The other option I can think of is to embed your audio in your video before importing it into AE. I'm not sure that's what you're looking for, though.

[A***@adobeforums.com]

So is there actually expressions that can be used to do this? It would be cool to know about such!

Here is what I'm doing:

1. I do my basic editing with Premiere and place all sorts of audio effects and sounds on the audio track.

2. I open the Premiere project in AE to do color correction, masking and other stuff like that.

3. At some point I usually notice small things (in timing etc) that I want to change in the rough cut and this is where things get tricky: It's very hard to find and select all the small audio stabs and effects so that they move along when I move or trim my video layers. It would be grat if I could somehow attach the audio files to the video clips, just like in Premiere (link audio and video).

You kindly suggested embedding audio in the video. How would that happen in the workflow that I just described?

[T***@adobeforums.com]

it's also called "baking".

[M***@adobeforums.com]

Audio embedding is dependent on the file format and if it didn't happen this way during capture, it entails an elaborate export procedure. therefore I don't think it's an option for you. regarding the expression stuff: You could possibly use time remapping and nail down the time based on the in-point of the video as reference. The problem here is however, that expressions cannot change the in- and out-points themselves, so you'd have to place the audio as an untrimmed clip and do it all inside the expression, which is just as confusing as your current workflow. The most practical workflow I can think of would be to import the Premiere timeline as a DynamicLink item, then you can trim and move it around with everything retaining its relative position. that works in CS4 only, though.

Mylenium