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After Effects
Select Every Other Layer
Rapid, precise row‑based layer selection via freeform ranges or steps, animated UI, real‑time readouts & fully keyboard‑driven workflow.
Select Every Other Layer is layer selection engine for Adobe After Effects, delivering instant, highly-customisable layer targeting.
Every facet of the extension and underlying design has been meticulously created to facilitate keyboard-centric control for a rapid, pro-level workflow in selecting or deselecting layers based on row number.
The Control Suite Bundle
Select Every Other Layer is part of the Control Suite - a powerful trio of extensions designed to revolutionise your After Effects workflow. Each extension tackles a specific challenge, and together they form an unbeatable toolkit for project management, organisation, and navigation.
Control Groups
RTS-style control groups meet motion design. Group and re-select layers and locations, navigate at lightning speed, and control your project with keyboard shortcuts inspired by competitive gaming.
Select Every Other Layer
Instantly and precisely target layers for selection or deselection. Perfect for complex animations with many layers. Target odd/even layers, or define custom multi-stage ranges in seconds.
Compstronaut
After Effect's missing back button. Intelligent navigation of your composition and timeline history, and one-click commands that remember where you've been and where you need to go next.
Command Frame Integration
The Control Suite also includes Command Frame - the free command layer that ties the suite together. Search, chain, and shortcut actions from all three extensions directly inside After Effects from a single summonable surface.
Give the keyboard controls a spin...
Quick Selections
Quick Selections and Progressive Quick Selections are lightning-fast, keyboard-driven commands that transform how you work with layer selections in After Effects.
Directional Quick Select
When a single layer is selected, Quick Select operates in directional mode. Press a shortcut to instantly select alternating layers (or every layer) either upward or downward from your current selection.
Behaviours
- Begin on Selected Layer: Optionally include your starting layer in the first iteration, or begin alternating from the next layer.
- Select Every Layer: Toggle to select every layer in the direction rather than alternating, bypassing the 'N' setting.
Progressive Quick Select
When multiple layers are selected, Quick Select enters progressive mode. Each press refines your selection through incremental patterns (n=2, n=3, n=4...), progressively narrowing down to the most relevant layers through iterative refinement.
Behaviours
- Anchor to First Layer: When enabled, uses the first selected layer as a fixed anchor across all iterations. When disabled, the anchor shifts dynamically with each iteration, progressively excluding layers from the pattern.
- Use Shortcut Direction: When enabled, the UP/DOWN shortcut you press determines which boundary (top or bottom) to anchor from, ignoring selection order. When disabled, selection history determines the anchor. Works harmoniously with the anchoring setting above.
Together, these features enable most 'every other' selection tasks to be performed directly with keyboard shortcuts, without opening the main panel.
Command Frame Integration
Select Every Other Layer's selection commands are available directly inside Command Frame, the free search-and-command interface for After Effects. Every selection operation becomes searchable, shortcut-assignable, and chainable alongside any other action in After Effects and even other plugins.
Example actions available in Command Frame:
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quick select up -
quick select down -
select ranges 4-7,10 -
select nth 3 -
select add ranges 4-7,10 -
select add nth 3 -
deselect ranges 4-7,10 -
deselect nth 3 -
deselect minus ranges 4-7,10 -
deselect minus nth 3 -
select parent -
select children -
select track matte sources
SB Shortcut Manager Support
Our advanced, native companion plugin enables the extension's most robust and powerful shortcut handling. The bundled plugin allows extension control and use with definable global shortcuts, dramatically enhancing speed and convenience.
The development of this plugin was in service of creating a platform for faster, optimised workflows. Saving time is a serious value proposition in and of itself; every second saved enhances your value as a designer.
Key Features
Sleek, Animated User Interface
A smooth and intuitive UI designed for chaining precise and highly specific selection parameters, complete with subtle animations for visual feedback. Customisable options, controls and shortcuts ensure the interface fits your workflow.
Intelligent Readouts
Real-time feedback instantly informs you how many layers will be selected or deselected based on your current parameters, providing context as you define selection or deselection parameters.
Selection Modes
Selection Mode & Deselection Mode: Define whether your parameters will be used to select or deselect layers.
Configuration Methods
Every 'Nth' Layer
Effortlessly define layers to target for selection or deselection at regular intervals. For example:
2: Every other layer5: Every fifth layer-
N+S: Every Nth layer starting at layer S (e.g.3+5targets layers 5, 8, 11, ...) -
N-S: Every Nth layer with a negative offset (e.g.5-2targets layers 3, 8, 13, ...)
Define With Ranges
Precisely select or deselect layers by specifying exact numbers, ranges, or multiple ranges. For example:
1,2,3: target layers 1, 2, and 312-44: target layers 12 through 44-
4-7, 10, 18-20: target layers 4 through 7, layer 10, and layers 18 through 20
Use the up and down arrow keys to recall previous parameters instantly, making it effortless to iterate without retyping complex inputs.
Action Controls
The action buttons produce a contextual result based on the mode and configuration.
'Create' Action
Acts relative to the current active composition:
- Selection Mode: Creates a new selection of the defined target layers, replacing any existing selection.
-
Deselection Mode: Subtracts the defined target
layers from the existing selection (e.g. if layers 1-10 are selected
and you define
5, layer 5 is removed).
'Add / Minus' Action
This button switches dynamically:
- Selection Mode ('Add'): Adds the defined target layers to the current selection (or creates a new selection if none).
-
Deselection Mode ('Minus'): Subtracts the defined
target layers from the current selection (e.g. if layers 10-20 are
selected and you define
2, layer 11 is removed).
Preset History
The panel's history stores every executed action and the parameters used in a given session. Pressing the up and down arrow keys while the text field is active cycles through your recent presets, streamlining repeat tasks.
Keyboard-Driven Workflow
Harness the power of a custom-built, fully customisable shortcut management system unique to the After Effects plugin and extension marketplace. Minimise mouse reliance—even forgoing mouse input entirely—saving valuable time and enabling lightning-fast interaction with the extension and its functions.
- Main Panel Shortcuts: Quick switching between modes, configuration, text input, history cycling, and executing actions.
- Global Shortcut Support: Access essential functions at any moment, no matter where your focus is within After Effects, with custom shortcuts.
- Command Frame Access: With Command Frame installed, SEOL actions can be searched, typed, and triggered directly from a fast command palette alongside your other After Effects commands.
Customisable Settings
Tailor the extension's behaviour to your preferences:
- Compact Mode: Hide UI section titles for a more minimalist appearance.
- Show Readouts: Toggle the visibility of the main panel's real-time selection readouts.
- Disable Warnings: Silence invalid-action alerts (including the safeguard that prevents deselecting all layers).
- Quick Selection Behaviours: Fine-tune how Quick Selections and Progressive Quick Selections operate to best suit your workflow.
- Floating Notifications: Choose cursor-following or fixed placement confirmation windows so feedback lands exactly where you expect it. Toggle each individual notification type on or off.
-
Sound Effects: Enable or disable each sound cue
trigger, assign custom
.mp3files, and adjust the global SFX volume.
Compatibility
Adobe After Effects
Versions tested and supported:
- Apple macOS (Intel processors): 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 releases.
- Apple macOS (Apple Silicon processors): 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 releases.
- Microsoft Windows: 2024, 2025 and 2026 releases.
Note: Releases from calendar‑year 2022 may operate successfully but have not been validated. Versions from 2021 and older are not supported.
Operating System
Minimum required versions:
- Microsoft Windows 10 (64‑bit) or later.
- Apple macOS 13 Ventura or later.
Enhance Your Workflow
Select Every Other Layer is the definitive solution for selecting layers by row number — a seamless, fluid tool obsessively designed to let you select layers faster and more intuitively.
Discussions
Want to talk about it?
Head over to r/aescripts to chat with fellow users about this product.
Need Support?
Please open a support ticket to be connected directly with the author of this product
Version History
2.3.1 -
Jul 10, 2026
- Hotfix for a bug with invoking shortcuts on Windows.
2.3 -
Jun 21, 2026
- Added a new "Select Parents" shortcut. Selects the direct parent layers of the current layer selection.
- Added a new "Select Children" shortcut. Selects the direct child layers of the current layer selection
- Added a new "Select Track Matte Source Layers" shortcut. Selects the track matte source layers used by the current layer selection.
Changed
- Improved shortcut latency and responsiveness; global should feel faster to respond and less likely to be missed while After Effects is busy.
- Improved the reliability and consistency of shortcut-based actions.
- Fixed incorrect display names for shortcut conflicts with Command Frame.
2.2.1 -
May 14, 2026
- Safer and more performant initial connection logic for the SBShortcutManager.
2.2 -
May 12, 2026
- Simplified the UI surface back-end related to the now-retired Mini Panel to improve reliability and focus the product around its main panel and shortcuts.
Removed
- Retired the Mini Panel. Quick-access workflows are now handled through Quick Selections, Progressive Quick Selections, and integration with the new free Command Frame plugin. Command Frame also supersedes the MiniPanel as a summonable interface, providing similar SEOL controls via text-based input.
2.1 -
Apr 10, 2026
- Major new feature - Integrated Select Every Other Layer's layer-selection engine and actions as hooks in the upcoming product Command Frame.
Changed
- Expanded the wording of the warning text appears in the panel when the SBShortcutManager companion plugin is not connected as to provide instruction on how to fix the issue (i.e., reinstalling the extension).
- Improved the organisation of the settings page by grouping various settings into collapsible sections.
- Background architectural improvements.
- Updated license.
Fixed
- Fixed a bug that would cause the Mini Panel to incorrectly animate when appearing when opened for the first time in a given session.
- Fixed a bug that would distort the floating notification panel animations when closing.
2.0.2 -
Nov 8, 2025
- Updated the aescripts licensing framework to the latest version.
2.0.1 -
Nov 4, 2025
- Tweaked wording of various panel controls in the settings page.
Fixed
- Extended the temporary blocking of global shortcuts from other extensions using the SBShortcutManager when interacting with all input fields to prevent unintentional shortcut triggering.
2.0 -
Oct 29, 2025
Added
- Major new feature: Quick Selection. New global shortcuts that select every other layer upward or downward from the currently selected layer.
- Major new feature: Progressive Quick Selection. When a group of layers are selected, using the Quick Selection shortcuts will refine the selection within those bounds to n=2. Repeating the action will progressively refine the selection further (i.e., n=3, then n=4, and so on). Quick Selections can be used to circumvent the need to define selection parameters in most instances of needing to select by "every other" layer steps.
- Added four options to configure the behaviour of Quick Selections and Progressive Quick Selections.
- Major new feature: Extremely high-performance layer logic. The previous ExtendScript-based layer reading and selection logic has been replaced by a new high-performance algorithm. Options to periodically read the current composition data to query how many layers in a given composition exist, are selected, and can be targeted (auto-polling) have been removed; these are now provided in real time. The panel readouts now react to changes in selections of hundreds or thousands of layers instantly. Tests involving selection parameters targeting 5000+ layers completed in 1–2 seconds on version 2.0, whereas they previously took minutes on version 1.0.3 (or outright hung or crashed After Effects).
- Major new feature: floating mouse-linked notifications. Selection or deselection actions will produce floating notification windows linked to the mouse position with relevant feedback. These are configurable; each notification type can be individually toggled on or off. They can also be configured to appear at a fixed position on the primary display instead of following the mouse.
- Major new feature: sound effects. SEOL now comes bundled and pre-configured with nine complimentary sound effects—an extension of the Kalimba Bottle sound effect suite bundled with Control Groups. These sound cues play in response to various actions and shortcuts in the extension. Each can be manually toggled on or off, or replaced entirely with custom .mp3 files.
- The Mini Panel has been completely rewritten, fully transitioning away from the previous ExtendScript-based architecture. The new Mini Panel is fully animated and much closer to the main panel's UI in look and feel. Many quirks and platform-specific bugs have been fixed in the transition to a more modern UI framework.
- Added a new button to the main panel UI to launch a new help pop-up that serves as both a tutorial and a quick guide for the features and settings of SEOL. The new help button itself can be hidden using a new setting in the panel.
- Integrated the UI animation framework used as part of Control Groups into SEOL. Many more elements in the panel are animated and more gracefully react to mouse-over, mouse press, and keyboard key-presses.
- Added a utility to restore a backup of the After Effects shortcut file.
- Added a panel shortcut to open the settings page.
- Divided the settings page into three tabs: "General", "Panel Controls", and "Shortcuts".
- Initial implementation of styling per version of After Effects.
- Added a loading screen, which presents a clearly indicated warning message if the SBShortcutManager cannot be loaded.
Changed
- The SBShortcutManager is now required for SEOL to function.
- Updated the aescripts licensing framework.
- Updated third-party licensing information.
- Updated settings page styling for consistency with Control Groups and upcoming extensions.
- Updated the layout of the main UI and how it responds to panel resizing.
- Changed the positioning of the settings button in the panel.
Fixed
- Fixed the panel initially loading without a UI if no project was open.
- Fixed numerous bugs for the Mini Panel by transitioning away from ExtendScript.
- Fixed the Mini Panel not supporting cursor input for its text field on Windows.
- Ensured global shortcuts from Control Groups aren't mistakenly fired while assigning shortcuts or using the text fields of either panel in SEOL.
Removed
- Auto-polling (the reading of the current composition's current layers and the user's selected layers) as an option has been removed and made a standard feature. The panel's layer readouts now react and update in real time to layer and selection changes, powered by a new, computationally inexpensive algorithm.
- Removed the option to disable panel animations.
- Removed the Mini Panel flashing behaviour (and related setting).
- Removed all tool tips (in favour of the new help pop-up).
1.0.3 -
Oct 15, 2025
- Improved back-end handling of the user settings to improve reliability
Changed
- Updated the bundled SBShortcutManager the latest version to ensure compatability with Control Groups and future extensions.
- Updated Readme with additional FAQ / troubleshooting information.
1.0.2 -
Jul 10, 2025
1.0.1 -
Jun 22, 2025
1.0.0 -
May 6, 2025
Compatibility
After Effects
2026, 2025, 2024, 2023
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