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Known Participant
May 8, 2026
Question

Scaling two items as a group?

  • May 8, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 6 views

I have an image and a video that I positioned on the comp after scaling both down so they are positioned how I want them.  I now want to scale both items down so they are real small so I can keyframe them both scaling up together. I will use parenting to get them both to scale up together How do I scale both of them in proportion to a small size? Is there a way to group them both to do this? They are not yet keyframed

 

Thanks
 

 

    1 reply

    Nishu Kushwaha
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    May 8, 2026

    Thanks for your question! If you want to scale two or more items together as a group, the easiest and most common workflow in After Effects is to use a Null Object as a controller.

    Create a Null Object (Layer > New > Null Object), then parent both layers to that null using the Parent & Link pick whip. After that, when you scale the null, all child layers will scale together while keeping their relative spacing/layout intact.

    A quick tip: if you want them to scale from a specific point, position the Null's anchor point there before parenting.

    Let me know how it goes.


    Thanks,

    Nishu

    media katAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 8, 2026

    After using the Null Object to scale both layers together, do I now keyframe one of the images and then use it to parent with the other layer the same way that I would have done before using the Null Object? OR do I keyframe just the Null Object since they are “grouped”? I have not worked with Null Objects yet and I am not yet in front of my computer to try this.

    Thanks!