Best Practice

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://nexrender.com/docs/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Creating reliable, scalable templates for Nexrender Cloud isn’t just about making them render — it’s about making them repeatable, debuggable, and collaboration-friendly. Here are the key principles we recommend.

​

Name Layers and Compositions Intelligently

Clear naming of layers and compositions directly improves automation accuracy, debuggability, and developer handoff. Treat your .aep or .mogrt like a codebase — the structure matters.

​

Layer Naming Rules

Nexrender requires exact layerName matches during job execution. Ambiguity or typos will cause silent render errors or broken outputs.

​

Composition Naming Rules

This ensures the compositions list returned by the API is clean, predictable, and renderable.

​

Nested Compositions: Best Practices

Nested comps are a powerful After Effects feature, but you must use them carefully for cloud automation: Use Nested Comps To:

• Group logic-heavy modules (e.g. transitions, intro bumpers)
• Encapsulate reusable visual elements (e.g. buttons, tickers)
• Reduce clutter in the main timeline

Avoid Nested Comps If:

• They rely on hard-coded paths or relative asset placement
• They contain dynamic layers you intend to override
• You have deeply nested timelines (>3 levels) — this can increase AE processing time and complicate debugging

Keep nested comps clean, flattened when possible, and treat the top-level comp as your automation interface.

​

Preview Rendering With Dummy Data

Before deploying a template at scale:

• Create a test job with fake but realistic values
• Set "preview": true to get a fast low-res render
• Check for missing fonts, broken text, or incorrect layout sizing

This helps catch structural and naming bugs early, especially with deeply nested templates.

​

Think Like a Developer + Designer

Design with automation-first principles:

• Expose only what needs to be dynamic
• Use naming conventions for predictability
• Keep timelines shallow, modular, and reusable
• Organize assets logically inside the project and .zip

This makes your After Effects templates act like parameterized functions, not fragile, one-off assets.

​

Expose Only What You Need (Especially in .mogrt)

If using .mogrt, keep the Essential Graphics panel lean and intentional:

• Don’t expose unused controls
• Rename each property for clarity
• Avoid overly nested structures

​

Reuse Templates with Job-Level Overrides

Instead of creating dozens of near-identical templates:

• Design modular templates that accept asset input
• Use job payloads to swap:
  • Text
  • Images
  • Colors
  • Voiceover / audio
  • Fonts

One clean template can power hundreds of job variants via automation.

​

Clean Up Before Export

Before finalizing your .aep or .mogrt:

• Remove unused compositions and precomps
• Purge unreferenced assets (File → Dependencies → Remove Unused Footage)
• Reduce media to only what is needed
• Name all dynamic layers clearly
• Preview render in After Effects to catch broken expressions or fonts

​

Version Your Templates

Use displayName consistently across template versions: This helps your team stay organized and avoid breaking changes.

​

Validate Before Launching Jobs at Scale

Before integrating a template into production automation:

• Manually render with test data
• Validate composition names
• Validate all layer overrides using GET /templates/{id}
• Try preview rendering (preview: true) in jobs if needed

Following these practices helps ensure your renders are:

• Repeatable
• Scalable
• Debuggable
• Designer- and dev-friendly

---