Layer comps and presets
A scene often needs to exist in more than one state: a day version and a night version, a clothed pass and an alternate, a working view full of guides and a clean view for readers. Comps (layer comps) let you save which rows are visible as a named preset and snap back to it in one click. This tutorial covers saving, applying, and deleting comps, the situations they save you in, and the real limits of the feature.
1What a layer comp is
A comp, short for layer comp, is a saved snapshot of which rows are showing and which are hidden. It does not touch your keyframes, your art, or your timing; it only remembers visibility. It is a saved on/off pattern for your rows: this row on, that row off, saved under a name you can return to instantly. One scene, many looks, no duplication.
2Why visibility presets matter
The moment a scene has alternates, manually toggling rows on and off gets tedious and error-prone; forget one row and your night scene has a daytime sky. A saved comp toggles the whole pattern at once, correctly, every time. It turns a fiddly, mistake-prone chore into a single click, which matters most when you are switching back and forth to compare two versions.
3Set your visibility first
A comp captures whatever is showing right now, so get the scene looking exactly how you want the preset to look before you save. Toggle each row's visibility until only the rows for this version are on, guide and reference rows hidden if they should not be part of it. Take a moment to check the stage matches the look you intend. What you see is precisely what the comp will remember.
4Save a named comp
Open the Comps panel and save the current visibility as a new comp, giving it a clear name like Day, Night, or Clean. The panel records exactly which rows are on and off at that moment and stores it under your name. That name is now a one-click shortcut back to this exact look, however much you fiddle with visibility afterward.
5Apply a comp in one click
This is the payoff. Click a saved comp in the Comps panel and the scene's row visibility snaps to that saved pattern instantly, every row set exactly as it was when you saved. Switch between two comps and you flip between two whole versions of the scene with a click each, perfect for comparing a day and a night pass side by side without touching a single row by hand.
6Delete a comp
When a preset is no longer useful, remove it. In the Comps panel, delete the comp you no longer need and it is gone from the list. Deleting a comp only forgets that saved visibility pattern; it does not hide or remove any rows, and your current view stays exactly as it is. It is pure housekeeping, so prune freely to keep the list readable.
7Use case: alternate versions
The classic use is holding two versions of a scene in one project. Build a fully clothed pass on one set of rows and an alternate pass on another, then save each visibility state as its own comp. Now a single click swaps the entire look. You keep both versions in the same file instead of maintaining two separate scenes that drift out of sync.
8Use case: day and night
Comps make lighting variants painless. Put your daytime sky, warm light, and short shadows on one group of rows, and a night sky, cool light, and lit windows on another. Save a Day comp and a Night comp, and the same street can flip from noon to midnight in one click. It is the tidiest way to reuse a whole set for two times of day without rebuilding it.
9Use case: hide guides before you publish
While you work, your scene is full of helpers: reference rows, tracing images, blocking guides, notes to yourself. None of that belongs in what readers see. Save a Clean comp with every guide and reference row hidden and only the finished artwork showing, then apply it right before you Publish. One click guarantees no stray guide sneaks into the version your readers watch.
10Comps are non-destructive
It bears repeating because it changes how boldly you use the feature: comps only ever touch visibility. Hiding a row with a comp is nothing like deleting it, the row, its art, and its keyframes are all still there, just not shown. This is why comps are the safe way to try a version. Nothing you do with them can lose work, so experiment as freely as you like.
11Comps and your rigs
Comps work alongside rigged characters and live instances. A comp simply remembers whether a character's row is shown, so you can hide an entire instance in one comp and reveal it in another, staging who is present in a scene without deleting anyone. Combine that with alternate prop or wardrobe rows and a single scene can present several quite different casts and looks.
12Name comps carefully
Because a comp keeps the name you give it at save time, spend a second on that name. Descriptive, look-based names, Day, Night, Clean, Outfit B, pay off every time you scan the list. A vague name is a small tax you pay on every future click. Getting the name right up front is the cheapest way to keep the panel usable as your project grows.
13The limits to know
Three limits to know so nothing surprises you. There is no rename, to relabel a comp, save a new one with the right name and delete the old. There is no expose-on-timeline, a comp is a manual click, not something you key to switch mid-scene, so animate visibility on the rows themselves if you need it to change during playback. And there is no export-split, the studio will not publish each comp as its own output automatically, so apply a comp, publish, then apply the next and publish again.
14Good comp hygiene
Comps reward a little discipline. Keep a small, well-named set, Day, Night, Clean, and the alternates you actually use, rather than a graveyard of Comp 4 through Comp 12. Set each version's visibility carefully before you save it, always apply your Clean comp before you Publish, and delete presets the moment they stop earning their place. Kept tidy, the Comps panel is one of the quiet time-savers of the whole studio.
Comp questions
Only which rows are visible and which are hidden at the moment you save it. It does not store keyframes, art, or timing. Applying a comp restores that visibility pattern and changes nothing else about your scene.
Save each version's visibility as its own comp, for example Day and Night, then click a comp in the Comps panel to apply it. The scene's rows snap to that pattern instantly, so you flip between whole versions with one click each.
No. Comps are non-destructive. A hidden row keeps its art and its keyframes and simply is not shown. That is why comps are the safe way to try alternate versions without any risk of losing work.
Save a Clean comp with every guide and reference row hidden and only the finished artwork visible, then apply it right before you Publish. One click ensures no stray guide row slips into the version your readers watch.
Not currently. There is no rename. To relabel a comp, set the same visibility, save a new comp with the correct name, and delete the old one. Because of this, it pays to name comps clearly the first time.
No. There is no expose-on-timeline, so a comp is a manual click rather than something you key mid-scene. If you need visibility to change during playback, animate it on the individual rows themselves instead of relying on a comp.
No. There is no export-split, so the studio will not publish every comp as its own output automatically. Apply one comp and Publish, then apply the next comp and Publish again. It is a couple of extra clicks for two clean outputs.
No. Deleting a comp only forgets that saved visibility pattern. Your rows, their art, and their keyframes are untouched, and your current view stays exactly as it is. Prune the comp list freely to keep it readable.
One scene, every look
You can now save row visibility as named comps, flip between day and night or alternate passes in a click, hide your guides before you publish, and work around the few edges cleanly. That is the finishing kit, and it is the last stop on the animation course. Head back to the index and pick what to learn next.