Selecting and arranging layers

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that creates a panel with controls for moving various combinations of items in time: layer In point, layer Out point, layer source frames, keyframes, and markers.

Trish and Chris Meyer provide an introduction to moving, trimming, reordering, and sequencing layers in a PDF excerpt from the “Layer Control” chapter of their book After Effects Apprentice: Real-World Skills for the Aspiring Motion Graphics Artist.

• Select layers
• Change the stacking order for selected layers
• Coordinate systems: composition space and layer space
• Move layers in space
• Separate dimensions of Position to animate components individually
• Align or distribute layers in 2D space
• Trim, extend, or slip-edit a layer
• Remove part of the duration of a layer
• Place or move a layer in time
• Arrange layers in time sequentially
• Copy or duplicate a layer
• Split a layer
• Auto-Orientation options