Menu bar
The menu bar is a thin renderer. Labels, enabled state and shortcut hints
all come from the command registry, which means a greyed-out item is telling you
that command’s enabled() returned false right now — not that it is
unimplemented. Hovering between open groups switches menus, like a native menu
bar.
File
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| New Project | Ctrl/⌘ + N |
| Open… | Ctrl/⌘ + O |
| Open After Effects Project… | Opens an .aep or .aepx as a new untitled project. See Opening After Effects projects |
| Save · Save As… | Ctrl/⌘ + S · Ctrl/⌘ + Shift + S |
| Save Portable Copy… · Collect Files… | Desktop app only |
| Increment and Save | Ctrl/⌘ + Alt + Shift + S |
| Save Copy to Cloud… · Sync Project… · Version History… | Cloud items, with a server-edition account |
| Import ▸ | Files… · Folder… · 3D Model… · Template Package… |
| Export… | See Export formats |
| Close Project | — |
Edit
Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Select All, Deselect, Duplicate, Delete — plus Find and Replace Text…, Find and Replace Fonts…, and a Transcript submenu for text-based editing.
Cut and Copy act on selected keyframes if there are any, otherwise on selected layers. This is the single most useful thing to know about the Edit menu — it is how you move easing and timing between layers.
Composition
- New Composition…, and New From Footage ▸ — Multicam from selected assets, a composition from selected clips, Assemble from Footage.
- Composition Settings… — Ctrl/⌘ + K. Name, width and height, frame rate, duration, background colour, and the pasteboard (canvas surround) colour under Environment.
- Delete Composition · Open Previous Composition · Composition Mini-Flowchart.
- Auto-Reframe ▸ 9:16 · 1:1 · 4:5 · 16:9 · 4:3. See Auto-reframe.
- Captions ▸ and Transcript ▸ — import, generate from audio, export
.srtand.vtt. See Captions. - Transport ▸ — mark in and out, go to in and out, include video or audio in the preview, Preview Only Audio, audio scrubbing.
- Save Frame As PNG and Copy Frame to Clipboard.
Layer
- New ▸ Text · Solid… · Camera… · Light… · Null Object · Adjustment Layer · 3D Primitive ▸ (Cube, Sphere, Cylinder, Plane, Cone, Torus, Capsule, Box).
- Transform ▸ Reset, Anchor Point, Flip Horizontal / Vertical, Center In View, Fit to Comp (and width / height), Fill Comp, Set to Native Size, Auto-Orient….
- Layer Settings…
- Text ▸ paragraph / point / vertical text conversions, Swap Fill and Stroke, Source Text Expression….
- Mask and Shape Path ▸ Closed, Set First Vertex, RotoBezier, Reverse Path Direction, Free Transform Points, Set Mask / Path Keyframe, Convert Mask to Shape Layer.
- Guide Layer · Arrange ▸ · Pre-compose… (Ctrl/⌘ + Shift + C).
- Create ▸ Nulls From Path Points (and the live variant), Shapes From Text, Masks From Text, Auto-trace…. See Shapes & masks from text and SVG.
- Camera ▸ Create Orbit Null, Distribute Layers in Z, and the focus-distance links.
- Path Operations ▸ the boolean and Merge Paths (bake) commands.
- Scene Edit Detection ▸ Markers · Split Clips.
Effect
Generated from the effect registry: one submenu per Effects-browser folder (Blur & Sharpen, Color Correction, Stylize, and so on), each listing its effects by name. Choosing one applies it to every selected layer as a single undo step. The effect catalog lists every effect by folder.
Animation
- Easy Ease · Easy Ease In · Easy Ease Out (F9, Shift + F9, Ctrl + Shift + F9) and Keyframe Interpolation ▸ Linear · Hold.
- Keyframe Assistant ▸ Easy Ease All Keyframes, Time-Reverse Keyframes, Exponential Scale, The Smoother…, The Wiggler…, Sequence Layers…, Stagger Layers…, Stagger Animations….
- Animate ▸ Animate In · Animate Out, and Motion Feel ▸ Snappy · Smooth · Bouncy.
- Audio ▸ Fade In · Fade Out, Animate In on Beats, Markers on Beats, Remove Silence…, Noise Gate…, Duck Under Voice…, Convert Audio to Keyframes. See Audio.
- Time ▸ Enable Time Remapping, Time-Reverse Layer, Time Stretch…, Freeze Frame, Retime, Speed Ramp, and the Frame Blend modes.
- Bake ▸ Physics to Keyframes… · Particles to Layers….
- Convert Expression to Keyframes · Motion Sketch.
View
Toggle Scene Panel · Toggle Inspector · Toggle Timeline · Focus Mode · Guides & Grid (grid, snapping, rulers, safe areas, guides) · Use Proxies · Assets Panel options · Fit Selection in View · Timeline (fit, expand / collapse, snap) · Viewport ▸ display mode, Performance HUD, pixel aspect correction, Viewer LUT · Snapshot & Compare · Camera Bookmarks · 3D View · Timeline Tools (Selection, Razor, Slip, Slide, Roll) · Cache (cache work area, purge RAM, purge disk) · Switch Theme (Ctrl/⌘ + Shift + K).
Plugins
Present once a loaded native plugin offers a menu command or a panel, and placed before Window, where After Effects puts third-party menus. Each plugin’s commands sit in a submenu (named by the plugin, or by the menu name its manifest gives), its panels under Panels, and Manage Plugins… opens the Plugins panel. A plugin command works on the selected layers in the active composition, and one run is one undo step. The same commands are in the command palette as “Plugins: …”, and Customize can bind shortcuts to them.
Window
Command Palette · Present (Preview) · Audio · Paint · Brushes · History · Transcript · Effect Controls · Render Queue · Export · Graph Editor · a Panels submenu (Align, Animation Presets, Assistant, Character, Effects & Presets, Graph Panel, Info, Layers, Library, Paragraph, Plugins, Preview, Rigging, Scopes, Source Monitor, Swatches, Tracker, Content-Aware Fill) · Workspace · Customize…
This is where panels that are registered but not currently docked come back from.
Help
Take a Tour · Power-user Tour · Documentation · Search Documentation… · About Premation.