Figma "Auto-Layout" in After Effects

Forum|Forum|6 days ago
June 25, 2026
1 reply
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You may have noticed that Figma released Figma Motion and is gunning for animation software.

Can we get Figma’s Auto-Layout in After Effects?

How will the idea help your workflow?

It is hard to imagine what design would not benefit from an auto-layout system. Anything with text, shapes, and images smaller than the full video frame would benefit. The simple example of “text in a box” is the most basic, but this same idea is required for animating UX/UI animation, product videos, and templates.

Current workflows to mimic responsive design are to use complex expressions, 3rd party scripts, or manually create many variations.

Expressions are a bad workflow for layout because they require a coding skills which most motion designers don’t have; and for those with the skills, it is still tedious to set up and “rig”. Once rigged, AE’s limited performance is further bogged down by running those heavy expressions on every single frame.

Scripts and plugins are a bad workflow for layout because they must be sourced, installed, and then run per action by the user. Layouts should be manually built, procedurally calculated, and update without user intervention.

Parenting is not a suitable workflow because it is too limited. It does not take into account the variable size of a parent (ex. text, a masked image, vector shape), nor can you “parent” to multiple things.

Size and position layout constraints are a simple and intuitive feature already used across web dev and other design tools, and would help After Effects remain relevant in a competitive landscape of motion design tools.

Roland Kahlenberg

Legend

It’s hugely rude and unprofessional to tell another professional their work is slow without proof. I, and I am certain lots of other professionals who develop advanced MoGRTs and MoGraph Toolkits can and do work quickly or sufficiently quick to earn a living.

On the other hand, it is absolutely fine to tell someone else, even a professional or someone who thinks they are one, that they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about - you being the case at this point.

Your problem-description is awkward and shows a lack of nuanced understanding of the tools, processes and workflows involved with crafting advanced MoGRTs/MoGraph Toolkits.

In the future, do not stain the good work of professionals by calling them slow, inefficient or words carrying similar weight. It’s better/best you write on stuff you know - it’s good for you and everyone else.

Lots of clients love what Adobe Express provides as a viable solutions in this area and perhaps this is where you will be more comfortable.

On whether TeamAE provides a solution, if it comes then good and if it doesn’t then this is good too because if you want to develop really advanced MoGRTs/MoGraph Toolkits etc then you will want to look at Code - we’re looking at 3 possibilities - No Code, Low Code and Code; as it is with a lot of things these days when it comes to custom solutions.

Even if TeamAE provides a solution in this area, it will be in the No Code-Low Code segment(s). So, this will still mean there will be solutions that will be beyond what the feature can provide.

We’re also reaching a stage where AI can perform Auto Layout - in fact, it can do so now if you know the right people and myself and others have built tools to speed up development substantially and have even included Adaptive Features to complement Responsive Feature. This area isn’t going to be a huge solution for a wide market - it will continue to be a small niche for Clients that demand/require a custom solution.

And if TeamAE does actually provide such a feature/solution, there is a huge chance YOUR clients or potential clients may very well make use of it and your services won’t be required. :-D

Very Advanced After Effects Training | Adaptive & Responsive Toolkits | Intelligent Design Assets (IDAs) | MoGraph Design System DEV

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