Top 10 Semi-Underground After Effects Hotkeys
I’m a hotkey fanatic, in case you haven’t noticed. Yesterday Aaron Knapp dropped a shifty unknown-to-me photoshop hotkey right on my head, so in honor of that, here are my top 10 favorite underground* After Effects hotkey combos.
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cmd+up / cmd+downwith layer selected in timelineWhat it does: Selects the layer above/below
I use this hotkey a lot when I am in tight, nudging layers around with page-up and page-down and don’t want to go back and grab my mouse to select another layer. Bonus Tip: if you hold down
shiftyou can select multiple layers like this. -
shift+scrollwheelwhile cursor is in timelineWhat it does: scrolls the timeline left and right
I like this one because if I’m in super-animator-mode, and I don’t want to be breaking my focus looking for that damn scollbar or zooming in and out of my timeline, I can just use this baby. Wacom users, sorry you’re out of luck unless you have a fancy pen with a scroller. Bonus Tip: Use option+scrollwheel to zoom in and out… best of both worlds!
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EE(tap twice)What it does: reveal any expressions on a layer
I’m a big expressions user, so it’s a pain in the ass to be tracking down expressions and having to twirl down the expressions window all the time. EE, and you’re ready to code.
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cmd+option+shift+EWhat it does: applies the last used effect
This one is just handy, there’s not any particular time I use it more often.
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cmd+option+zeroWhat it does: brings your render queue to the front
This one I love too, because I like a really clean work area and I don’t enjoy seeing my Render Queue all the time. Personal preference, but the render queue is for rendering times only, otherwise I don’t want to see it.
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shift+cmd+EWhat it does: removes all effects from selected layer
What do you mean the client doesn’t like my exorbitant use of Shine and Starglow‽ This is my creative vision we are talking about here!! FINE! I’ll just delete everything!
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cmd+option+shift+vWhat it does: toggles selected layer visibility
Couple this with the Bonus Tip from #1 and you’ve got yourself a pretty nifty workflow.
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shft+F9 / cmd+shift+F9What it does: toggles easy-ease keyframe in/out
I’m actually surprised at how few people I see use this hotkey. It was one of the first ones I learned in After Effects and I use it all the time. I’ve seen way to many people using the right-click menu to set their easing. Another way I know not many people use this, is everytime I sit down at a new studio running OS X, and I hit
cmd+shift+F9, Expose’ gives me the middle finger and I have to go to the OS X prefs and turn it off for the 5 millionth time. -
option+dbl-click any keyframeWhat it does: shows the keyframe velocity dialog
Maybe it’s the programmer in me, but thinking in numbers instead of battling the f-curve editor in After Effects is just faster for me. Over the years I’ve gotten pretty good at knowing exactly what numbers I need to use to get the visual I want, and this is the quickest way to get it. Also, this is GREAT when you are trying to smooth out keyframes with secondary motion, it’s much easier to pop this dialog open and set your speeds for in/out equal to each other, then it is to try to match your curves in the pseudo f-curve editor.
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cmd+j / cmd+shift+j / cmd+shift+option+jWhat it does: toggles resolution Full/Half/Quarter
Another one of my faves to finish off the list. I like to work at low resolutions whenever possible, but sometimes you need a quick hi-res preview to see how things are going… use this to go from quarter to full and back to quarter in the blink of an eye! Bonus Tip:
cmd+option+jwill throw you into your last used custom resolution mode.
So, there it is. 10 of my favorite After Effects hotkeys. I could go on for days, but I think there’s a Dunbar’s Number for learning hotkeys in one sitting, so I’ll leave it at this for now.
What did I miss? What are your favorites? Leave ‘em in the comments!
Free themographblog.com t-shirt** to anybody that can name a hotkey that I didn’t already know - I’ll be honest I swear.
*underground status is derived from the following equation: (FrequencyOfUse/NumberOfUsersThatKnowItOutOfOneHundred)*100…. ok not really
**I don’t have any TMB t-shirts, so you can’t actually win one. But I will bow down to your uber-hotkey authority.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
nice! Thanks CK
May 10th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Thanks pamunoz! Glad you like. Got a favorite hotkey?
May 11th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Um, dunno if this really counts but it’s my fav - Hold Shift and, in the Effect Controls window, click at the top on your comp name you’ll hear a sheep!
May 11th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
haha yeah that’s a good one, that “baaaa” sound is the sound of the devil… One of the guys I work with wanted to replace another guys “render finished” sound (brrrrrrring!) with the “baaaa” sound just to mess with him. Oh the tricks geeks play, gotta love it.
August 29th, 2008 at 10:51 am
on comps with lots and lots of layers i enjoy the ‘x’ command. if you’re jumping around a lot. ‘x’ pulls the layer that is selecting to the top of the timeline.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:11 am
great call Jake, that one is one of my favorites… Along the same idea, F2 will deselect all selected layers..
And Jake, great to hear from you!!
November 4th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
What about “b” and “n” I love that for previewing just a bit of my comp =0) works great as long as you remember to change the render options to length of comp, or set it back.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:17 am
Ah! Great article! Specially the scrollwheel ones, love to learn new AE shortcuts. Sorry I cant contribute with any though :p
January 22nd, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I like to highlight a layer in the timeline… then select and asset, and middle mouse drag to the selected layer… it swaps out the assets and keeps all the keyframes/effects/settings of the previous asset.
March 9th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Nice one, jed — mine is the same but different. Instead of dragging with the middle bttn, I hold down option/alt when dropping the new asset on the old. Does the same — keeps all settings, keyframes, etc intact. Pure gold.
March 13th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
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One of my favorite shortcuts is CTRL + left-click and drag on timeline. What it does: it previews audio in real-time.
I know AE is not the best for audio work, but this little hot-key helps a lot when you want to sync the visual effects to a certain beat in the music or if you are doing typography animations and want to sync the words with the music lyrics sounds. So, I love it…
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