Precomps & Z Depth

[skippyfx]

Hey guys,

I'm trying to create a mass of icons in z space. What I've done so far is set multiple "icons" at different depths then precomped and duplicated it multiple times.

Now some icons at a lower z depth are appearing on top of ones that are suppose to be closer to the camera.

http://skippyfx.com/files/people.PNG

I realize it's because I'm stacking precomps but is there anyway to tell after effects to order the layers by depth not how they are stacked?

This was probably a noob attempt on my part but it's my first time attempting mass objects in AE so I appreciate any help.

Thanks.

[tcindie]

Why not do it with particles? You can set a custom particle with particular, not sure if any of the built in particle tools allow that or not, but with particular this would be pretty straight forward.

Otherwise, I'd imagine you could write some kind of an expression or script that orders layers by z-depth.

This might help: http://www.redefinery.com/ae/view.php?item=rd_KindaSorta

[oneinfiniteloop]

try turning on collapse transformations for the precomps.