With Layer Groups you can create Photoshop style groups right in the After Effects Composition Timeline. Check out Zorro- The Layer Tagger page for more information.Īlan Eddie’s Layer Groups script for After Effects tackles layer management head on. Zorro-The Layer Tagger, from Lloyd Alvarez can be found on aescripts + aeplugins under the name your own price platform. You can tag layers in your comps and then select or isolate those layers in groups by using the tags.

This way you can effectively see group of layers in Ae to match what you are working on at the moment. It works on the principle of “tagging” layers so they can be filtered through one or more of those tags. Zorro was one of the first tools developed to give you some semblance of layer management in After Effects. Here are 5 tools that can help you with Layer Management in After Effects, in no particular order. There are some great choices from third party script-makers and developers that try to tackle the problem head on. In recent years the addition of the search area to the layer comp panel is a welcome addition… but it is no replacement for better layer management tools. Setting the idea of layer folders or groups aside, for an application that relies so much on layers, After Effects has surprising little in the way of fast and easy methods for layer management though filtering – The “shy” button in Ae is a cumbersome dinosaurs to use. The timeline in After Effects also double-times as the layer panel, and as such small features that are evident in Adobe’s other products are sadly missed.īoth Photoshop and Illustrator’s layer panel offers better organization through layer management with great ways to group either group or create sub-layers.Īfter Effects is strangely devoid of any layer management tools.

For being a layer based compositor, After Effects is strangely devoid of any layer management tools.

Group layers after effects