Is there a way to align multiple objects

[Calai]

I have brought a whole bunch of PNG. I can click each one individually and align them to center one buy one. But when I select them all the align buttom won't work. Is there a way around this?

[nishu_kush]

That's not ideal.

I just gave it a try, and it seems to be working great. What version of After Effects are you using? Are you on macOS or Windows? Would you mind sharing a screen recording that shows the problem?

Looking forward to your response. 

Thanks,
Nishu

[Calai]

That's a whole 'nother issue altogether. I have tried Geforce experiece to screen record but is not working. Do you have some screen recording software that you recomend that is easy to use and reliable?

[Calai]

There you go 
https://youtu.be/jdNlYnUxlRw

[Shebbe · Accepted solution]

When you have multiple layers selected the default method for alignment is "Selection" meaning it will algin or distribute the layers relative to eachother. This is why nothing happens because they're already exactly on top of eachother with their anchor points. On the Align Panel you can switch the mode back to Composition and then perform the desired alignment.

The reason the mode switches to Selection automatically is probably because in most cases aligning for multiple objects tends to be relative alignment rather than comp based, making it slightly faster to work with for most users.

From the looks of it you were trying to center the layers in x and y in the composition. If you haven't placed the layers in your timeline yet, the faster way to do it would be to drag your layers to the timeline window instead of your viewer. That way their positions will be center of the comp automatically.

You can also bind a keyboard shortcut to 'Transform -> Reset' which is really handy in a lot of cases but also resets rotation and scale of course.

[Calai]

yes! thank you!

[thepixelsmith]

That doesn't seem to be the way the Align layers panel is supposed to function.

Have you tried deleting/resetting Preferences?