Search for an effect within a project in order to reveal the layer it is on?

[briank44787896]

I've got a rather large project, literally thousands of layers and multiple projects that have been imported into one large single master project.

Within that project I have an instance of trapcode's particular and star glow somewhere that I am no longer using and would like to locate and remove completely from the project.

Is there a way to locate via a search option the effect or plugin I am looking for so I can locate the layer within the comp and turn it off? I don't think there is a way natively in AE ? I have heard of scripts or plugins that can do this.

thank you

[Szalam · Accepted solution]

I don't know of an easy way to do that natively.

You can see what effects are used in a Collect Files report, you can search for effects in a specific composition, and you can search across the whole project for your footage.

However, you can also search across your project for missing effects and here comes the way to do it natively: remove your Particular and Star Glow effects from your AE install, restart AE, open your project, and search for Missing Effects in your project panel. DONE!

It would be a lot easier to get the PT Effect Search script. Although, I would highly recommend getting the PT Search and Edit bundle because it has tools for dealing with text and expressions in addition to effects. And it's at a discount over buying them separately. I have found all three to be quite handy when dealing with large projects!

[Szalam]

Szalam  wrote

However, you can also search across your project for missing effects and here comes the way to do it natively: remove your Particular and Star Glow effects from your AE install, restart AE, open your project, and search for Missing Effects in your project panel. DONE!

Actually, not done, you'd also want to put the two plugin files back into your AE install once you've deleted the references to them from your project.

[SebbieJ]

For anyone else wanting to do this... You don't need to completely remove the effect. You can go to Effects > Manage Effects then turn off the effects in there, restart AE, search for Missing Effects, and then delete them from the project. Re-enable the effect and restart AE again.

[briank44787896]

Thank you, on machines ( i.e. my render farm ) that don't have those plugins installed I am able to search from missing effects in a number of the ways you mentioned. What I can't seem to do though is once I find out what is missing ( in this case particular and star glow  ). I want to be able to locate the layer within my project that that effect is on and delete it.

Not a huge problem, and I saw an paid plugin or script in the past that could do this, but I was wondering if natively there was a way. Luckily through the After Effects Deadline client I can choose it to "ignore missing effects references" so I don't error out on the render farm. But it would be nice to have a 'reveal in composition' like feature when trying to locate a specific effect as you can with footage.

I'll keep looking, thanks again.

[Shane27819331j0mq]

The tips from Szalam seems solid...but wondering if there's a way to search/find the effect in comps/layers that's built-in as part of subsequent CC updates?  Thx!

[anythingwilldo]

old reply, I know but there is a script by Paul Tuersely called pt_EffectSearch that does precisely this.