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.
Credit to him, but I feel like with thousands I've paid to Adobe over the years, I shouldn't have to pay another $100 dollars to a third party to get basic functionality
Yes this would also be great for parenting. It is such a mess how parenting is right now - its like looking in the yellow pages for an phone number or address. Also you have no indication if a layer has a child.
Folders already exist in the project tab, so maybe someone could simply copy them into the timeline and create a basic hide UI? Technically, it would be an infinitely duplicated "shy button" feature with tagging ability.
/t5/after-effects-ideas/folders-in-after-effects-timeline/idc-p/14986109#M3928Nov 17, 2024
Nov 17, 2024
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
They can't even fix simple UI bugs and you wish they added something far more useful. They are either ignorant or lack of human resources. I can't find more explanations.
/t5/after-effects-ideas/folders-in-after-effects-timeline/idc-p/15010456#M3979Nov 29, 2024
Nov 29, 2024
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
+1 This has been suggested many times in the last 9-10 years. Hopefully that's long enough for someone to notice :).
Sander V. went so far as to make an entire microsite demonstrating ideas to make this tool meed the demands of modern users. Curiously many useful discussions from that time were lost when UserVoice was 'migrated'. 🙂
Those ideas emerged almost 10 years ago. The community's amazing ideas are all out there but of course we have to wait for someone internally to come up with a fun sounding "rebrand" to make modernizing performance into a 'new feature' that can be promoted to gain more subscribers.
Agree that basic enhancement to workflows and QoL updates should be standard not paid add-ons. Recent issues with Ray Dynamic Color in AE 2024 come to mind, Adobe blames the developer, developer blames Adobe, Adobe blames Windows devs...???...paid plugin not working, users stuck and no one can provide a solution except to "Try the Beta..." which is fine except using the BETA in production is terrible advice. Not all of us work on Adobe's glacial timelines so we make do.
But that's the cycle we get to live with. To be an AE user in 2024, eh?
/t5/after-effects-ideas/folders-in-after-effects-timeline/idc-p/15014611#M3996Dec 02, 2024
Dec 02, 2024
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
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.
/t5/after-effects-ideas/folders-in-after-effects-timeline/idc-p/15041718#M4040Dec 16, 2024
Dec 16, 2024
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
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
/t5/after-effects-ideas/folders-in-after-effects-timeline/idc-p/15050998#M4081Dec 20, 2024
Dec 20, 2024
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
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
/t5/after-effects-ideas/folders-in-after-effects-timeline/idc-p/15108895#M4135Jan 23, 2025
Jan 23, 2025
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
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.
/t5/after-effects-ideas/folders-in-after-effects-timeline/idc-p/15191866#M4289Mar 04, 2025
Mar 04, 2025
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
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.
/t5/after-effects-ideas/folders-in-after-effects-timeline/idc-p/15193017#M4293Mar 05, 2025
Mar 05, 2025
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
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!
/t5/after-effects-ideas/folders-in-after-effects-timeline/idc-p/15193036#M4294Mar 05, 2025
Mar 05, 2025
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
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.
/t5/after-effects-ideas/folders-in-after-effects-timeline/idc-p/15210395#M4316Mar 13, 2025
Mar 13, 2025
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
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.
/t5/after-effects-ideas/folders-in-after-effects-timeline/idc-p/15210447#M4318Mar 13, 2025
Mar 13, 2025
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
@JohnColombothanks for merging the topics together!
Any chance you could speak with your team about this feature request and let us know what they say? i.e. How feasible is this from a software engineering standpoint? I am curious to know, because if it is too hard I would like to stop asking about it. It would be nice to hear something/anything from the team at Adobe, because we have been asking for this for over 10 years with no response. Appreciate anything you can do to inform us of the vibe over there!
Warm regards,
Leah - 21 year AE expression & scripting expert, 18 years professional experience in motion graphics
/t5/after-effects-ideas/folders-in-after-effects-timeline/idc-p/15211011#M4320Mar 14, 2025
Mar 14, 2025
Copy link to clipboard
Copied
@llealloo it was @Sterphy simulation from 2022. We might not have groups for timeline layers but at least we have thread grouping in Adobe Community :))
117
Replies
AdChoices
