P: Ability to change the duration of multiple layers at once

[Isaac Smeele]

Hi I am animating an image in photoshop and all layers need to be the same length. I can't for the life of me figure out or find an answer for how to change the duration of multiple layers at the same time. When I have them all selected and drag it only change one layer. If I select them all move the play cursour to the frame i want to cut on and click the cut button it does this insanity for some reason:

why would anyone ever need to change the length of multiple clips in this way????

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Maybe you should post some more meaningful screenshots that include the pertinent Panels etc.

[Isaac Smeele]

Not sure what other panels you would want to see. this is the only pertinent  panel and it's where the issue is occurring.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Not sure what other panels you would want to see.

The Layers Panel for example.

What issue exactly?

In the absence of a »before«-screenshot

it does this insanity for some reason

seems like a less than fully meaningful statement.

[Isaac Smeele]

Oh wow sorry didn't realize I was being so unclear.

So basically I am creating a bunch of layers at once and they are all the wrong length like so:

This is just an example but in reality it would be 50 to 100 layers and I need them all to be the same length! so I select all of them and try to drag them to change the length but it only changes ONE layer like so:

Ok so now I try the the only other thing I can think of which is: to have all the layers I need to change selected, and then move the play cursor to the section I want to cut, and then click the little scissor button to cut them all to the same length. This is the result:

So here is the insanity I was mentioning before. As you can see instead of cutting all the layers it cuts every other layer to the right length and cuts every alternating layer the opposite way. I am still not sure what reason this functionality could possibly have. I don't know if this explains my situation. Please let me know! thanks for your time!

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I guess you could only move the »Set End of Work Area«-button at the top of the Timeline Panel to cut the whole animation, but maybe there is a reason I am not considering why you want to move all the individual end-of-clips?

[Isaac Smeele]

Following this tutorial to animate my painting:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/kw07wyP3qm4
Ya unfortunately they need to be actually cut as I am first creating a 1 second animation and then after duplicating the whole thing 6 times and overlapping it so it loops seamlessly.

[alotofalotte]

Hi there!

I had the same question but luckily I found a semi-solution for you!

- Either you just put all your layers in one group, then select the grey bar on the video timeline that represents this group OR you select all the separate purple video layers.

- Place your playhead at the point you want to end the videos.

- Click the three bars in the right corner to open the menu of the video timeline.

- Choose "Move & Trim"

- Then finally click on "Move end to playhead"

Voila! The selected layers should now all end at the point your little red line is at (which is way easier than needing to slide them one by one manually, am I right?) I hope this works for you too, if you have any more questions let me know! Up until today Photoshop still won't allow you to trim more than one layer at the same time, sadly enough.

Lotte (Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 user)

[romanj68412350]

Did you ever find a solution to this? I cant seem to find an answer and i dont think anyone seems to understand the problem. I have a bunch of layers and i want the duration for all of the layers to be 20 seconds. Is there any way to make all of them 20 seconds long at once? Or do i need to adjust each individual layer?

[jpaynter]

Dear Adobe, please allow us to drag the end of multiple layers (at once) in Timeline to a specified end point. Doing them one by one is leaving so much margin for error and is also very time consuming in heavier files, especially working in social media which is often a pressing need.

[jpaynter]

This unfortunately does not do what is asked for, it moves the layers to where the playhead, but doesn't let you extend the duration of multiple layers at once to a new end frame. The grey bar drag doesn't seem to do it either. So far only option is one by one, layer by layer. Adobe addressing this would be HUGE for peoples' workflows.

[kadez84]

Dear Adobe really dont care. They offer a great drawing program with the possibility of animation. However, the animation options lack basic functionality, specifying the frame length is one of them. Animation consists of many frames, so it is obvious that you need a function that allows you to edit them simultaneously. And that's not a complicated feature. They haven't done anything about it for years.

[Horshack]

I just created a Photoshop script that will let you resize multiple layers in a timeline and also reposition/stagger those layers. Here's a link to GitHub repository where you can download the script.

https://github.com/horshack-dpreview/Photoshop-Timeline-Layer-Resizer 

Screenshot:

[Teacup11]

Thank you!!!!

[arone76592789]

you are a god! can I give you 5 bucks for this? you've more then earned it.

hit me up at ehrlich.aron[at]gmail.com

[martinr69506375]

Great script - thank you.

[okank20]

Is there an easy way instead of doing these one by one?

I showed it with the video in the link below.

https://youtu.be/ChVMi16Gzow

[kadez84]

There is an incomparably better way. Check out Clip Studio Paint. The program has a normal, ergonomically designed timeline. In addition, in this program you can draw by hand with vector brushes that look like raster. the End result doesn't look like flash but like photoshop. Another solution is Krita or TVPaint. Unfortunately Photoshop is the worst program I have encountered when it comes to frame-by-frame animation. I wonder why they made this timeline so clunky and didn't even give buttons for basic functions like onion skin. Instead you have to dig through the menu. 

[michel23380734bj6v]

Really great work, thank you!

[Hordecall]

Hi,
Would it be possible to be able to set layer's length on the timeline several layers at a time ?
We can select them and move them, but the right-click menu on the timebar won't allow any actions, and extending and shortening a layer despite multiple selections only edits the one layer.
Am I the only one using Photoshop for animation projects ?
Thank you,
Hordecall

[Crimsonland1]

Thanks! This worked perfect.

[e-onn]

this is a wonderful script Horshack, ive been using it for ages. but it doesnt seem to run on the laterst version of photoshop.

can anyone suggest what code needs to change to make this work please

thanks

[Koti1]

Hi Horshack - awesome script - saved me a bunch of time.

Thanks so much!

[Juliana5EAA]

omg it is such a game changer! thank you!!

[Studiodeseve]

Oh!!! It's been 3h that I'm looking everywhere on the internet for THAT especially.

THANK YOU SO MUCH, it work very well. I was desperate to move timeline after timeline. You're a game changer. I'm gonna save so much time.

Bless you! 

I can't believe that the discussion is running since 2017... and Adobe is doing nothing. It's an important options in photoshop.

[DtD314]

Oh you have saved me from yet another infuriating gif creation session having to adjust a zillion layers and stagger them. Awesome. Thank you very much indeed for this, it is much appreciated.