How Can One layer react to another - Sequencing

[Lucas Greek]

Hey,  How Can I program one layer to sequence itself right after another? 

I'd love to achieve the effect that the bottom layer would be right after the top one automatically, so whenever there's a different duration on the top one the bottom responds to it... Is there any script for it? I guess parenting those two won't help...

[Mylenium]

You can't do this interactively and that is that. You have to use scripts to do such things. Check AEScripts.com and pick one of the layer management script utilities that is to your taste.

Mylenium

[Arie Stavchansky]

Templater for After Effects does this with a suite of techniques that are called Time Sculpting.  See this documentation and visit the related links:

https://support.dataclay.com/templater/content/concepts/time/time_sculpting.htm

The specific method you are looking for would involve layer shifting and time cropping.  You can see the methods in these videos:

Layer Shifting: https://youtu.be/BXTbUoH7mJs

Time Cropping: https://youtu.be/isoToq9XrCU

You can download the extension here, which has a 30 day free trial:

https://dataclay.com/templater

[Lucas Greek]

Thank you, I tried it out and works like a charm, wish I knew more about this template as it feels powerful.

[Arie Stavchansky]

Glad it helped!  Yes, Templater is very powerful when it comes to re-versioning your compositions — it's a feature rich extension.

[ShiveringCactus]

Nothing built in and if you have the cash, Mylenium's suggestion makes sense, but I've got so used to the shortcut keys:

• o takes me to a layer's end
• select next layer then [ to bring its inpoint to the current time

[Lucas Greek]

Thank you for this solution 🙂