5 Secret Tips of After Effects | Speed Up Your Workflow

Hi editor!😊

We have several uncommon tips that can dramatically change the way you work in After Effects. In case you need video tutorials, our YouTube channel is here too.

Replace layer on the Timeline

Firstly, we want to show you how to replace the existing layer of content with another one in case all effects are already saved. For example, we've put a content on Timeline and applied a Brightness&Contrast(or any other) effect to it; but shortly after we've changed our mind and decided to replace that content keeping the same effects.

Add effects

To do that, select the content on Timeline, go to the Project panel and select the content you want to replace it with. Press alt, drag it to the Timeline, and put on the layer that is there now. The content has been changed and the effects are still there.✅

Keep effects, replace the layer

It doesn't matter what you replace, it could be a photo, a video or even a pre-made Comp.

Hide unused layers

Secondly, we're going to show you how you can hide unnecessary layers of your project in the Timeline. Let's imagine, you have a complex project with many layers that you just don't need to display. To do that, select the desired layer and click the Shy icon. Shy icon can hide a layer from your layer list but still keep it in the composition. 

Shy icon

If you don't see this window, try clicking Toggle Swithces/Modes at the bottom - or right click on the panel and check the Switches checkbox. Replace the Shy icons with all the layers you want to hide; after that click Hide all layers for which the “Shy” switches are set.

Hidding the layers

The layers are now hidden and this will not affect the comp's display.

Crop comp to region

The next way is to trim your comps to fit your content without creating a new Comp or changing it's settings. It seems that you can go into the composition setings and try to adjust the size of composition to the size of your content.

Adjusting the size without the Region of Interest

 But everything is much simplier - you can use one of the most underrated tools of After Effects. Let's try to use the Region of Interest. As the matter of fact, this tool allows After Effects to focus on rendering out a small portion of the frame, so your computer speed will increase.

Apply the tool

 Clickit and create a conditional mask of the size you want. After that go to the Size Crop Comp to Region of Interest. Done! The composition is trimmed to the desired size.✅

Change FPS in all Comps

Now that's all about FPS(which stands for default rate is 30 frames per second). Let's suppose you have three Comps with different FPS and you don't want to go into each one and change them manually. For this case there is a script called CompSetter. Go to the File>Scripts>CompSetter after downloading it.

The path

Here you can change different parameters such as height and width of the composition, it's duration, as well as the FPS value. To do that simply select all comps in the Project panel and set the desired FPS value. Like that:

Setting the value

Done! As we can see the FPS of all Comps has changed to the desired value.

Change all fonts in the Comp

The last way is to replace text in Comps. If you have a lot of compositions with text and you don't want to go into each one and change the text manually, there is a pt_TextEdit Script. Scripts are also underrated thing in After Effects which can be used for dozens of purposes and created manualy by AE users themselves.TextEdit Script is a paid script with trial version. It allows to edit all the text of your composition in one panel. Select the Comp in Project panel and click Search. The panel will display all your text layers and parameters such as Font Size, Fill and Text content, which you can change. Change the text right in this window:

Change the text

You can select all of your text and change it's font in one click. Fonts you can add here:

Add a font

This script makes working with text much easier. Thanks for watching; hope our advises and links were useful and you will apply some of them in your everyday work in After Effects. Edit faster!🤩

More tutorials to speed up After Effects are here. Or are you trying to speed up Premiere Pro?