Essential After Effects keyboard shortcuts

In After Effects, knowing a handful of keyboard shortcuts completely transforms your working speed. Here are the ones we use every day in motion design. Shortcuts are given for Mac; on Windows, replace Cmd with Ctrl and Option with Alt.

Playback and preview

• Space: start or stop the preview.
• B / N: set the start / end of the work area to the current-time indicator.
• Home / End: go to the start / end of the composition.
• Cmd + Right / Left Arrow: go forward / back one frame.

Layers

• Cmd + D: duplicate the layer.
• Cmd + Shift + D: split the layer at the current-time indicator.
• Cmd + Shift + C: pre-compose the selected layers.
• Option + [ / Option + ]: trim the layer’s in / out point to the current-time indicator.
• [ / ]: move the layer’s in / out point to the current-time indicator.
• Cmd + Y: new solid; Cmd + Option + Y: new adjustment layer; Cmd + Option + Shift + Y: new null object.
• Cmd + Option + F: fit the layer to the composition size.
• Cmd + Shift + H: hide or show layer controls (outlines, handles) in the Composition panel.

Revealing properties

• A: anchor point.
• P: position.
• S: scale.
• R: rotation.
• T: opacity.
• M: masks.
• E: effects.
• U: all properties with keyframes; U U (twice): all modified properties.
• Shift + one of these letters: add a property to those already shown.

Keyframes and animation

• Option + P / S / R / T: add a position / scale / rotation / opacity keyframe.
• J / K: go to the previous / next keyframe.
• F9: apply Easy Ease to the selected keyframes.
• Cmd + click on a keyframe: toggle between linear and smoothed interpolation.

Composition and rendering

• Cmd + N: new composition; Cmd + K: composition settings.
• Cmd + M: add the composition to the Render Queue.
• Cmd + I: import a file.
• Cmd + /: add the item selected in the Project panel to the composition.

Our tip

Shortcuts can be customised under After Effects > Keyboard Shortcuts (Mac) or Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (Windows): a visual keyboard shows which keys are free and lets you assign your favourite commands. Print out the ten shortcuts you use most and keep them by your screen for the first week: they will soon become second nature.