This tutorial explains how Increment and Save works in Adobe After Effects. It’s a simple method for backing up your projects as you work without having to quit out of AE.
Keyboard shortcut:
Mac – Cmd+Opt+Shift+S
PC – Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S
Increment and Save Tutorial Recap
Increment and Save in After Effects takes your AE project file and adds a number to it. Let’s say your project is titled Sample Project 01. When you use Increment and Save the project file becomes Sample Project 02. Do it again and it becomes Sample Project 03.
This is super useful whenever you’re doing something complex or anything you aren’t completely sure if it’ll work. It allows you to iterate without fear of having to do too many undos.
You can repeat this as often as needed. I typically do this every 30-40 minutes. When I was first getting started with After Effects I was doing it like every 5 minutes lol. AE project files are typically pretty small so I don’t ever find file sizes becoming an issue. In a worst-case scenario you can always delete some of the really old iterations of the project.
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– Josh