Skip to main content
Sterphy
Sterphy
Known Participant
September 28, 2022
Open for Voting

Folders in After Effects timeline

  • September 28, 2022
  • 115 replies
  • 16808 views
Timeline folders. We have them in Animate, Photoshop, Illustrator... precomps can utterly ruin your work and is NOT an alternatives to having a simple folder hierarchy - especially when dealing with shape layers or anything that requires continual rasterization.

    115 replies

    Show previous replies
    llealloo
    llealloo
    Known Participant
    March 14, 2025

    We are even pulling out the OG fonts (nice one @smanole with the Bank Gothic) to help get the point across. Let's keep it going folks!

      S
      smanole
      Participant
      March 14, 2025

      Hi Adobe Team,

      I wanted to bring up a life-saving feature that I believe would greatly improve the workflow in After Effects: layer grouping. Currently, the only way to organize multiple layers is by pre-composing them. However, once layers are pre-comped, all editing is confined to the precomp, making it difficult to adjust them later in the main composition. This is especially challenging for large, complex projects where you might want to maintain a higher level of flexibility.

      In comparison, other Adobe tools like Photoshop and Illustrator have implemented the ability to group layers, making it easier to manage elements without losing direct control over the layers themselves. After Effects could benefit from this functionality as well, providing a better way to organize and manipulate layers without resorting to cumbersome precompositions.

      I’m aware that this topic has been raised by multiple users in the past, but it’s still not available. I hope that Adobe will consider adding this feature in a future update, as it would significantly enhance the usability and efficiency of the software.

      Thank you for considering this suggestion!

      Best regards,

      Stefan

        melbendi
        melbendi
        Inspiring
        March 5, 2025

        Agreed!

          llealloo
          llealloo
          Known Participant
          March 5, 2025

          I, for one, would love to see Adobe take a break focusing on adding AI tools to their products and spend half as much effort on fixing these systemic UX issues that have been going on for decades. I would be a much happier loyal customer if this happened.

            llealloo
            llealloo
            Known Participant
            March 5, 2025

            Adobe, please listen to your userbase and implement this feature! None of the band-aid solutions in this thread come close to how effective and seamless it would be as native functionality. Also, please consider the outpouring from your userbase over the years (in this thread) and perhaps a decade (or longer) across all of the other feature request forums. This feature has been requested time and time again, at this point probably from thousands of people.

             

            Please add layer folders so we can better organize our composition layers!

              M
              meta-lingo
              Known Participant
              March 5, 2025

              Maybe you could have a way to highlight/reveal/select all children? Or, a flyout like the one that appears when you hit the tab-key on the top of a timeline?  Or, a view like Flowchart but with parenting?

               

              An indicator if a layer has children is a great idea.

              melbendi
              melbendi
              Inspiring
              March 1, 2025

              I know it's not quite the same, but I get around it by making use of color coding layers to group things together visually.

              M
              mr3746448219o4
              Known Participant
              January 23, 2025
              I heard that the entire AE dev team is like 15 people or less. It's not their fault, but it answers some questions as to why Adobe CC isn't a professional suite of tools any more. 

               

              Pleas dont try to excuse Adobe, Nothing excuses them, nothing! Their tools are so underdeveloped. One man could do what a billion dollars corporation couldn't. This is a joke.

                Sterphy
                SterphyAuthor
                Known Participant
                December 20, 2024

                Surely at some point they have to realise that gimmicky branding over features isn't helping them or their image. I just want stability and basic features that they should have introduced a long time ago

                  B
                  Brendan37882579hcid
                  Participant
                  December 16, 2024

                  Adding yet another voice to this! Please add a folder feature Adobe, it would be so useful because almost every single project I do in After Effects exceeds 15 layers and quickly become unnavigable

                    Show more replies
                    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
                    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices