There is always a need for speed in this fast-paced motion design world. It’s definitely something we can all agree on. Every day I look for ways to speed up my workflow, and there are so many ways to save time in After Effects. In this post, I will show you 60 useful After Effects tips that will help you speed up your workflow in After Effects.
It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or an expert, I know you will find at least one or two tips you have never heard of before. Let me know which one you liked best in the comments below!
Also, make sure to download the project file at the bottom of this post and follow along!
So let us dive in!
Outline
Tip 01: Select Label Group
Tip 02: Invert Selection
Tip 03: Select Children
Tip 04: Hide Property or Group
Tip 05: Solo Selected Properties
Tip 06: Timeline Search Bar
Tip 07: Maximize Frame
Tip 08: Splitting Layers
Tip 09: Paste at Current Time
Tip 10: Set Work Area to Selection
Tip 11: Comp Mini-Flowchart
Tip 12: Edit Guide Position Numerically
Tip 13: Switching Between Time & Frames
Tip 14: Reset Scale & Rotation
Tip 15: Copy with Property Links
Tip 16: Convert to Bezier Path
Tip 17: Open Shape & Mask Paths
Tip 18: Switching Between RotoBezier & Bezier Path
Tip 19: Center Anchor Point
Tip 20: Center Anchor Point in New Shape Layers
Tip 21: Scaling Multiple Keyframes
Tip 22: Time-Reverse Keyframes
Tip 23: Duration Between Keyframes
Tip 24: Roving Keyframes
Tip 25: Motion Path From Mask & Shape Paths
Tip 26: Locate Project Files
Tip 27: Shift+Parenting Behavior
Tip 28: Delete All Effects from Selected Layers
Tip 29: Look at Selected 3D Layers (Project File is Available)
Tip 30: Custom Blurred Vignette (Project File is Available)
Tip 31: Faking 3D Extrusion (Project File is Available)
Tip 32: Slide Transition (Project File is Available)
Tip 33: Set Matte Effect (Project File is Available)
Tip 34: Fake Reflection (Project File is Available)
Tip 35: Post-Expression Graph
Tip 36: Disable All Expressions
Tip 37: Checkbox Control (Project File is Available)
Tip 38: Dropdown Menu Control (Project File is Available)
Tip 39: Layer Control (Project File is Available)
Tip 40: Adding Automatic Commas to Numbers (Project File is Available)
Tip 41: Convert Expression to Keyframes
Tip 42: Invisible 3D Layer Backface (Project File is Available)
Tip 43: Offsetting Animation with Markers (Project File is Available)
Tip 44: Keyframe-less Animation (Project File is Available)
Tip 45: Hover-Over Effect (Project File is Available)
Tip 46: Edit Text with Comp Name (Project File is Available)
Tip 47: Mouse Cursor Rig (Project File is Available)
Tip 48: Cursor Change on Hover (Project File is Available)
Tip 49: Hover Button Effect (Project File is Available)
Tip 50: Auto-Resize to Comp Size (Project File is Available)
Tip 51: Math.min & Math.Max (Project File is Available)
Tip 52: Auto-Resize to the Longest Text (Project File is Available)
Tip 53: Repeat Text Horizontally (Project File is Available)
Tip 54: Repeat Text Vertically (Project File is Available)
Tip 55: Repeat Text Vertically & Horizontally (Project File is Available)
Tip 56: Vertical Text Array (Project File is Available)
Tip 57: Creating & Using CSV Files (Project File is Available)
Tip 58: Edit Colors from a Text File (Project File is Available)
Tip 59: Viewing Data Properties (Project File is Available)
Tip 60: Loop In & Out (Project File is Available)
Tip 01: Select Label Group
The first tip is Select Label Group. This feature allows you to select multiple layers that are the same color. To do that, RIGHT-CLICK on the color and then Select Label Group. That simple!
It will look something like this.
Tip 02: Invert Selection
Invert Selection does what it says. It inverts selected layers. First, select all the layers you want in After Effects.
Then when you are ready, RIGHT-CLICK on your selection and choose Invert Selection.
Tip 03: Select Children
For this example, I have our Ukramedia logo that has different children parented to it.
If I move one of the logos, you can see all the children move with it.
To select them, RIGHT-CLICK on the logo inside of your canvas and choose Select Children.
It should look like this:
Tip 04: Hide Property or Group
The Hide Property or Group tip in After Effects is one of my favorites. I use it every day. It allows us to get rid of groups and properties quickly we do not want by holding down CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+LMB on a PC or CMD+OPT+SHIFT+LMB on a Mac on the properties or groups you do not want to see. It is simple but useful!
Tip 05: Solo Selected Properties
For this example, select all the properties you want to keep in After Effects. Then press the S key twice on your keyboard to solo them.
It should look like this:
To bring back any hidden or soloed properties, go up to the top and CTRL+LMB on a PC or CMD+LMB on a Mac on the arrow in the left corner to hide the properties.
Then CTRL+LMB again on a PC or CMD+LMB on a Mac to unhide them.
Tip 06: Timeline Search Bar
The Timeline Search Bar feature allows you to search for properties within selected layers in After Effects. First, select the layers you want to search and then press CTRL+F on a PC or CMD+F on a Mac to reveal the search bar. In this example, we selected two layers: Text Layer 1 & Text Layer 4. We are looking for text properties within the selected layers by typing text inside the search bar. By doing so, it will bring up all the text properties in the selected layers.
Let’s choose different layers for our second example and search for a different property something like the size property. So, let’s elect Shape Layer 4 and Shape Layer 1. Then go to the top search bar and search for the size property. Now we have size properties visible for both of our selected layers.
We can take it a step further by searching for multiple properties in our search bar. To do that, select the same layers again, add a comma after size, and then type in an additional property that you want to see. In this example, we are looking for roundness.
We can search for as many properties as we want. For example, let’s select Shape Layer 1, Shape Layer 4, Text Layer 4, and search for three properties this time.
Tip 07: Maximize Frame
Maximize Frame keyboard shortcut allows us to force a desired After Effects panel into a full-screen mode. To do that, hover over the desired After Effects panel then hit the tilt key (~) on your keyboard. Press the tilt key again to go back to the regular view. That simple!
Tip 08: Splitting Layers
Splitting Layers allows you to split any selected layers in After Effects. To do that, we have to move our time indicator forward a few frames.
Then go to Edit – Split Layers. You can also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+D on a PC or CMD+SHIFT+D on a Mac.
It should look like this:
Tip 09: Paste at Current Time
Select the Ukramedia.com layer in After Effects. Go to Edit – Copy or press CTRL+C on a PC or CMD+C on a Mac.
Then move your time indicator and press CTRL+ALT+V on a PC or CMD+OPT+V on a Mac to paste it at the current time.
It should look like this after you press CTRL+ALT+V on a PC or CMD+OPT+V on a Mac.
Tip 10: Set Work Area to Selection
Select all of the layers in our After Effects project and press CTRL+ALT+B on a PC or CMD+OPT+B on a Mac to set the work area.
Then I am going to trim it by going to the very top, RIGHT-CLICK – Trim Comp to Work Area.
It should look like this:
Tip 11: Comp Mini-Flowchart
Comp Mini-Flowchart comes in handy when working with multiple Composition in After Effects. Some projects have too many compositions and Comp Mini-Flowchart help us back to where we started.
There are two ways of navigating with Comp Mini-Flowchart. There is a keyboard shortcut we can use or a button we can press.
The Comp Mini-Flowchart button is located in the After Effects timeline just above our layers.
The Comp Mini-Flowchart keyboard shortcut is the TAB key.
Tip 12: Edit Guide Position Numerically
Drag out a guide inside After Effects canvas like so.
The RIGHT-CLICK on the guide.
Next, click on Edit Position.
Type 300 inside the white box and then click OK.
The guide will automatically snap to 300.
You can do the same thing horizontally. Drag out your horizontal guideline, RIGHT-CLICK on it, and click Edit Position.
The guide will snap to 400 horizontally.
Tip 13: Switching Between Time & Frames
Switching Between Time and Frame in After Effects is simple. Hold down CTRL on a PC or CMD on a Mac and click on the timecode in After Effects.
Tip 14: Reset Scale & Rotation
To reset the scale and rotation of multiple layers in your composition is simple. First, select the layers you want to reset and then double click on the move tool in the top left corner of your screen to reset the scale back to 100.
To reset the rotation back to 100, select the layers you want to reset and then double click on the rotation tool at the top left corner of your screen.
Tip 15: Copy with Property Links
Let’s say I have four layers and I want to control the rotation property of all four layers, all at once. How do I do it?
First, select one ration property.
Then go to Edit – Copy with Property Link. You can also use the keyboard shortcut CTL+ALT+C on a PC or CMD+ALT+C on a Mac.
Then select all the other rotation properties.
Go to Edit – Paste. You can also use the paste keyboard shortcut CTRL+V on a PC or CMD+V on a Mac.
Now one rotation property can control all the other rotation properties.
Tip 16: Convert to Bezier Path
Let’s draw a star on our canvas by clicking on the Star Tool in the top menu bar.
How can we move each point on the star? We can add more points by going to Contents – Polystar 1 – Polystar Path 1 – Type and Points.
But how do we make our star editable? Good question! To do that RIGHT-CLICK on the Polystar Path 1 – Convert To Bezier Path.
Now you can individually select the points and move them around.
Tip 17: Open Shape & Mask Paths
Take a pen tool, draw a path on your canvas, and close it.
If you want to open shape and mask path, select the two points you want to open and then RIGHT-CLICK on one of the points, go to Mask and Shape Path, and make sure to uncheck Closed.
Then you can select one of the points and keep drawing. You can close it off by connecting the points again.
Tip 18: Switching Between RotoBezier & Bezier Path
Let’s select a Pen tool, then check RotoBezier, and start drawing a shape on the canvas like so:
If you notice, your points above do not have handles to adjust. To do that, hover over any of the four points, RIGHT-CLICK – Mask and Shape Path – Uncheck RotoBezier.
You will see handles appear.
If you want to reverse this process, hover again over any of the four points, RIGHT-CLICK – Mask and Shape Path – check RotoBezier.
Tip 19: Center Anchor Point
In this example, we have a simple rectangle shape in our canvas with an Anchor Point slightly off.
To center our Anchor Point, RIGHT-CLICK on the rectangle – Transform – Center Anchor Point in Layer Content or press CTLR+ALT+Home on a PC/CMD+ALT+Home on a Mac.
It will center our Anchor Point in the middle of the rectangle tool.
Let’s take it a step further. Select Tool Creates Mask. 
Then draw a rectangle mask on top of our rectangle.
To drop the Anchor in the center of our orange shape, RIGHT-CLICK on the orange rectangle – select Transform – Center Anchor Point in Layer Content.
The Anchor Point will be in the center of our shape.
Tip 20: Center Anchor Point in New Shape Layers
If we click on the rectangle tool and create a shape in our canvas, you will notice that the Anchor Point is in the center of our canvas by default.
To make it in the center of our shape, go to Edit – Preferences – and select General or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+ALT+; on a PC or CMD+ALT+; on a Mac.
Then check Center Anchor Point in New Shape Layers and click OK.
Now the Anchor Point will automatically be centered on all new shapes by default.
Tip 21: Scaling Multiple Keyframes
In After Effect, we can scale multiple keyframes proportionally by selecting them, then pressing ALT KEY on a PC or OPT KEY on a Mac and CLICK HOLD on the last keyframe in our timeline.
Let’s make another selection and this time select only the five middle keyframes. Then press ALT KEY on a PC or OPT KEY on a Mac and CLICK HOLD on the last or the first keyframe.
Tip 22: Time-Reverse Keyframes
For this example, I have a basic logo animation moving from left to right.
To reverse the movement of my logo, we first have to select our keyframes in our timeline.
Then RIGHT-CLICK, select Keyframe Assistant – Time-Reverse Keyframes. This will reverse your animation in no time!
Tip 23: Duration Between Keyframes
In After Effects, we can quickly find out the duration between two keyframes by ALT KEY+LMB on a first keyframe on a PC or OPT KEY+LMB on a Mac. Then do the same thing on the second keyframe. The duration between keyframes will be listed in the Info Panel. We can also do the same thing for the markers.
Tip 24: Motion Paths from Mask & Shape Paths
For this example, I have a simple 5 key animation of our Ukramedia logo.
You can see from the image above that some parts of our animation are faster than others. To make them all the same, select all 5 keyframes, RIGHT-CLICK, and choose Rove Across Time. This will make our animation consistent.
We also do more than just making our animation consistently the same. Select the last keyframe in our timeline, RIGHT-CLICK, and choose Keyframe Velocity.
Then change the Speed to 0 pixels/sec and Influence to 75 inside the Incoming Velocity settings.
Now you can see our keyframes have shifted.
Let’s also do the same thing for the first keyframe in our animation. RIGHT-CLICK on it and choose Keyframe Velocity.
Then adjust the Speed to 0 pixels/sec and the Influence to 35 inside the Outgoing Velocity settings.
As you can see, our keyframes have shifted.
Now, all we have to do is select all of our keyframes, RIGHT-CLICK, and uncheck Rove Across Time.
And now we’ve created something very smooth in no time!
Tip 25: Motion Path From Mask & Shape Paths
Select the Pen Tool from the top menu and draw a basic shape. You can see it created a new shape layer in our timeline.
Select the Path Property inside of our Shape Layer 1.
Copy the Path Property by either going to Edit – Copy at the top or using the copy keyboard shortcut CTRL+C on a PC/CMD+C on a Mac.
Select the Position Property of our logo and paste the Path Property we just copied by going to Edit – Paste at the top menu or using a simple paste keyboard shortcut CTRL+V on a PC/CMD+V on a Mac.
Just like that, it converted a Shape Path into a Motion Path with Roving Keyframes.
Tip 26: Locate Project Files
For this example, I have a simple project open in my After Effects.
We are going to render this project by going to Composition – Add to Render Queue on the top menu or use the Add to Render Queue keyboard shortcut CTRL+M on a PC/CMD+M on a Mac.
Next, we are going to click on the Output Module Settings.
Make sure the Include Project Link checkbox is checked.
Go ahead and render the file.
Next, go to File – New Project or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+ALT+N on a PC/CMD+ALT+N on a Mac.
Save the file.
Now let’s bring in the file we just saved by going to Import – File or using a keyboard shortcut CTRL+I on a PC/CMD+I on a Mac.
Select the file and Import it.
Select the file Slide Transition.mov file.
Go to Edit – Edit Original in the top menu bar or by using a keyboard shortcut CTRL+E on a PC/CMD+E on a Mac.
When you do that, it is going to open up the project file that it was created in. This saved my life many times!
Tip 27: Shift+Parenting Behavior
Shift+Parenting Behavior tip is simple. Hold down on SHIFT on your keyboard and Parent Pick-Whip from the logo to any of the nulls. When you do that, it will automatically move your logo to whatever layer you are parenting it to.
Tip 28: Delete All Effects from Selected Layers
For this example, I am going to select three layers in my project that have the Hue/Saturation and the Fast Box Blur effect.
Next, go to Effect at the menu bar and choose Remove All. You can also do the same thing with the Remove All keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+E on a PC/CMD+SHIFT+E on a Mac. Remove All will delete all of our effects.
Tip 29: Look at Selected 3D Layers (Project File is Available)
We have 3D text layers in this project file.
Let’s bring in a new camera in After Effect. Go to New and choose Camera.
Press OK
Select our first 3D text.
Go to View and select Look at Selected Layers or use keyboard shortcut CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+\ on a PC/CMD+ALT+SHIFT+\ on a Mac.
Next, click on the Orbit Camera Tool on the top menu bar or by pressing C on the keyboard.
Let’s center out text like so:
Set your keyframes and move and move the time indicator.
Select the next text.
Go to View from the top menu bar, and select Look at Selected Layers or use keyboard shortcut CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+\ on a PC/CMD+ALT+SHIFT+\ on a Mac.
Use the Orbit tool to position your text.
Move your time indicator again.
Select all of your layers and go to View – Look at All Layers.
Use the Orbit tool to position your text.
Select and move your keyframes.
Let’s set the first keyframes to go past our text as a starting point. It will go through every single text.
Select all of our keyframes – RIGHT-CLICK – Keyframe Assistant, and select Easy Ease or use the keyboard shortcut F9.
Now we created an advanced camera animation using a simple feature.
Tip 30: Custom Blurred Vignette (Project File is Available)
For this example, I am going to show you how to make a custom blurred vignette. First, we’re going to double click on the Rectangle Tool on the top menu bar.
Select the Pen Tool and click on the Mask icon.
And draw a custom mask on top of our shape layer that looks like a vignette.
Then we are going to change the color of our mask to something like light blue #00A8FF.
Next, we are going to set the mask to none.
Then we are going to generate effect called Fill.
31. 10:35 Faking 3D Extrusion (Project File is Available)
32. 11:55 Slide Transition (Project File is Available)
33. 13:11 Set Matte Effect (Project File is Available)
34. 13:45 Fake Reflection (Project File is Available)
35. 14:39 Post-Expression Graph
36. 15:15 Disable All Expressions
37. 15:42 Checkbox Control (Project File is Available)
38. 16:44 Dropdown Menu Control (Project File is Available)
39. 17:40 Layer Control (Project File is Available)
40. 18:17 Adding Automatic Commas to Numbers (Project File is Available)
41. 18:51 Convert Expression to Keyframes
42. 19:14 Invisible 3D Layer Backface (Project File is Available)
43. 20:07 Offsetting Animation with Markers (Project File is Available)
44. 21:01 Keyframe-less Animation (Project File is Available)
45. 22:23 Hover-Over Effect (Project File is Available)
46. 23:39 Edit Text with Comp Name (Project File is Available)
47. 24:48 Mouse Cursor Rig (Project File is Available)
48. 26:09 Cursor Change on Hover (Project File is Available)
49. 26:51 Hover Button Effect (Project File is Available)
50. 27:48 Auto-Resize to Comp Size (Project File is Available)
51. 28:50 Math.min & Math.Max (Project File is Available)
52. 29:52 Auto-Resize to the Longest Text (Project File is Available)
53. 30:57 Repeat Text Horizontally (Project File is Available)
54. 31:38 Repeat Text Vertically (Project File is Available)
55. 32:26 Repeat Text Vertically & Horizontally (Project File is Available)
56. 33:17 Vertical Text Array (Project File is Available)
57. 35:01 Creating & Using CSV Files (Project File is Available)
58. 35:58 Edit Colors from a Text File (Project File is Available)
59. 37:07 Viewing Data Properties (Project File is Available)
