In this post, I will show you how to quickly and effortlessly parent to a new layer in Adobe After Effects is the topic of this post. So let’s dive right in!
Parenting To a New Layer
We are in After Effects and for this example, as always I have a very simple setup here. I have six text layers, six circular shape layers, and a striped background still.
At the moment my UKRAMEDIA text layer in my composition is parented to the A layer.
For example, if you select the A layer and press R on the keyboard to reveal the Rotation Property, you can see that everything is pivoting around this layer.
That is great and all, but what if let’s say I wanted to switch from layer A to layer B?
In other words, I want all of my text layers in my composition parented to the B layer instead of A layer. How can I do it quickly without manually having to select every single text layer in my composition and then pick-whipping to the A layer? That is just one too many steps.
So let me show you a much quicker way.
Step 1
First, I am going to undo everything I just did with the undo keyboard shortcut CTRL+Z on a PC/CMD+Z on a Mac.
Step 2
Right now everything is pointing to layer A. So I am going to parent my layer A to layer B with the pick-whip icon.
Obviously nothing visible happened just yet.
Step 3
However, when I select layer A and hit delete on my keyboard, you can see that everything switched to layer B. So Layer B is now the new parent.
Step 4
Let’s select layer B and press R on my keyboard to reveal the Rotation Property.
Step 5
Move the rotation property settings and you can see that everything is working just fine.
I hope you found this After Effects tip useful. You can check out all of our Tips on our website and make sure to subscribe to our email list.
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