Can I swap out compositions, or control a composition's layer visibility via the timeline?

Question

Is there anyway to swap a composition with another via the timeline, so the new one still has all the same properties as the old one? (rather than just putting them on separate layers and ending one and starting a new one).

Or maybe hide/show the layers within the comp via the timeline? (trying to animate a character with a few preset animations)

Right now I have the animations on separate layers, but it's annoying to keep adding a layer every time i want to swap the animation, because it makes lots of layers, and i have to manually line them up every single time.

This is what I currently have, but I'd like it to all be on a single layer:

Answer 1

You can replace a comp in the timeline with a comp from your project tab:

1. Select a comp in the project tab
2. Select the layer in your timeline that you want to replace
3. Hold down alt
4. Drag and drop the new comp from the project window

It will replace the layer in the timeline, maintaining all the settings on that layer.

You can show or hide a layer using the Opacity control on each layer. Select the layer and press T to reveal them (remember it as "opaci-T").

Then you can make a keyframe on that layer to animate it on or off (hold keyframes are useful for this).

You could also pre-comp all your layers onto a single layer, then use Time remap to select which frames appear when (and use the Loop expression on the time remapping to loop sections if necessary).