The Quick and Easy Way to Duplicate Layers in After Effects
We have lots of reasons to duplicate layers in After Effects. I will show you how to duplicate layers in After Effects. If you want to manipulate some layers without losing the original layer or you want a matte to make a transparent area of the original layer.
You can also make shadows with a duplicate black layer after adding some gaussian blur. It can be used anywhere; it can be required anytime in your video editing work.
In our last Article, we have shown you How to cut clip, split, Trim, and Slip in After Effects 2022. You can also check out for more knowledge about After Effects.
How to Duplicate Layers in After Effects: Video Tutorial
How to Duplicate Layers in After Effects: Full Explained
How you can manually Duplicate a layer in After Effects
In After Effects Menu, you can duplicate a layer:
1. Go to your composition and select which layer you want to duplicate.
2. Drag your mouse to the top dropdown menu and click on the Edit menu.
3. Click on Duplicate. It will Duplicate your layer in composition.
You will see a new layer in your composition, which is the duplicate layer that you have made.
After Effects will make the second layer name as part 2 of whatever is your layers name. For Example, if your original layer was named “new layer” your duplicate layer will be named “new layer 2” it’s very convenient when duplicating lots of layers, which fills your composition panel with new layers.
How you can Duplicate the layer with Keyboard Shortcut in After Effects
If you are using the Edit menu every time to duplicate a layer is very old and not so quick, mostly when you want to make lots of duplicate layers.
Feel yourself lucky, The After Effects has a keyboard shortcut for most of the tasks and also has a keyboard shortcut for duplicating a layer in After Effects:
- CTRL + D on Windows
- CMD + D on Mac
When you quickly want to duplicate multiple layers with a keyboard shortcut, just hold down CTRL and press D continuously, it will make lots of duplicate layers of your single layer.
How you can Duplicate Multiple layers in After Effects
The duplicate multiple layers in the After Effects option is used in both the edit menu and keyboard shortcut, first, only one thing you have to do is select multiple layers in your composition that you want to duplicate.
It can be selected by stretching the lasso select or you can select multiple layers manually one by one.
Our contribution to the After Effects Community
The After Effects UI is a little bit complicated but it can do wonders in your projects. You can also use DaVinci Resolve to make some of your videos. Check out our Article for DaVinci Resolve.
We have also made a Comparison between After Effects Vs Premiere Pro. You can check it out. You should know about the Pricing of After Effects and how you can get it for free, read another article about How Much is After Effects in 2022? How to Download it?
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