Adobe After Effects is one of the most popular visual effects software used by movie producers, advertisement agencies, media companies, and personal videographers for post-production visual and motion effects. Key features include motion graphics creation, text animation, visual effects, compositing, animation, 3D creation, and integration with other Adobe services and products. Adobe After Effects is commonly used to complete post-production videos for social media content, advertisements, title sequences, broadcast graphics, film, and other general video post-production.
Due to its extensive features and capabilities, Adobe After Effects tends to be more difficult to learn than other creative software. Still, with the listed Text, Masks, and Paint tools keyboard shortcuts shown below, you will be up and running with Adobe After Effects.
Text Keyboard Shortcuts
- New text layer Ctrl + Alt + Shift + T
- Align selected horizontal text left, center, or right Ctrl + Shift + L, Ctrl + Shift + C, or Ctrl + Shift + R
- Align selected vertical text top, center, or bottom Ctrl + Shift + L, Ctrl + Shift + C, or Ctrl + Shift + R
- Extend or reduce selection by one character to right or left in horizontal text Shift + Right Arrow or Shift + Left Arrow
- Extend or reduce selection by one word to right or left in horizontal text Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow or Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow
- Extend or reduce selection by one line up or down in horizontal text Shift + Up Arrow or Shift + Down Arrow
- Extend or reduce selection by one line to right or left in vertical text Shift + Right Arrow or Shift + Left Arrow
- Extend or reduce selection one word up or down in vertical text Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow or Ctrl + Shift + Down Arrow
- Extend or reduce selection by one character up or down in vertical text Shift + Up Arrow or Shift + Down Arrow
- Select text from insertion point to beginning or end of line Shift + Home or Shift + End
- Move insertion point to beginning or end of line Home or End
- Select all text on a layer Double-click text layer
- Select text from insertion point to beginning or end of text frame Ctrl + Shift + Home or Ctrl + Shift + End
- To mouse-click point, select text from insertion point Shift-click
- In horizontal text, move insertion point one character left or right; one line up or down; one word left or right; or one paragraph up or down Left Arrow or Right Arrow; Up Arrow or Down Arrow; Ctrl + Left Arrow or Ctrl + Right Arrow; or Ctrl + Up Arrow or Ctrl + Down Arrow
- In vertical text, move insertion point one character up or down; one left or right; one word up or down; or one paragraph left or right Up Arrow or Down Arrow; Left Arrow or Right Arrow; Ctrl + Up Arrow or Ctrl + Down Arrow; or Ctrl + Left Arrow or Ctrl + Right Arrow
- Select word, line, paragraph, or entire text frame Double-click, triple-click, quadruple-click, or quintuple-click with the Type tool
- Turn All Caps on or off for selected text Ctrl + Shift + K
- Turn Small Caps on or off for selected text Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K
- Turn Superscript on or off for selected text Ctrl + Shift + = (equal sign)
- Turn Subscript on or off for selected text Ctrl + Alt + Shift + = (equal sign)
- Set horizontal scale to 100% for selected text Ctrl + Shift + X
- Set vertical scale to 100% for selected text Ctrl + Alt + Shift + X
- Auto leading for selected text Ctrl + Alt + Shift + A
- Reset tracking to 0 for selected text Ctrl + Shift + Q
- Justify paragraph; left align last line Ctrl + Shift + J
- Justify paragraph; right align last line Ctrl + Alt + Shift + J
- Justify paragraph; force last line Ctrl + Shift + F
- Decrease or increase font size of selected text by 2 units Ctrl + Shift + , (comma) or Ctrl + Shift + . (period)
- Decrease or increase font size of selected text by 10 units Ctrl + Alt + Shift + , (comma) or Ctrl + Alt + Shift + . (period)
- Increase or decrease leading by 2 units Alt + Down Arrow or Alt + Up Arrow
- Increase or decrease leading by 10 units Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow or Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow
- Decrease or increase baseline shift by 2 units Alt + Shift + Down Arrow or Alt + Shift + Up Arrow
- Decrease or increase baseline shift by 10 units Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Down Arrow or Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Up Arrow
- Decrease or increase kerning or tracking 20 units (20/1000 ems) Alt + Left Arrow or Alt + Right Arrow
- Decrease or increase kerning or tracking 100 units (100/1000 ems) Ctrl + Alt + Left Arrow or Ctrl + Alt + Right Arrow
- Toggle paragraph composer Ctrl + Alt + Shift + T
Masks Keyboard Shortcuts
- New mask Ctrl + Shift + N
- Select all points in a mask Alt-click mask
- Select the next or previous mask Alt + ` (accent grave) or Alt + Shift + ` (accent grave)
- Enter free-transform mask editing mode Double-click the mask with the Selection tool or select the mask in the Timeline panel and press Ctrl + T
- Exit free-transform mask editing mode Esc
- Scale around the center point in Free Transform mode Ctrl-drag
- Move selected path points 1 pixel at the current magnification Arrow key
- Move selected path points 10 pixels at the current magnification Shift + Arrow key
- Toggle between smooth and corner points Ctrl + Alt-click vertex
- Redraw Bezier handles Ctrl + Alt-drag vertex
- Invert selected mask Ctrl + Shift + I
- Open the Mask Feather dialog box for selected mask Ctrl + Shift + F
- Open the Mask Shape dialog box for selected mask Ctrl + Shift + M
- Subtract mode S
- Darken mode D
- Difference mode F
- Add mode A
- Intersect mode I
- None N
Paint Tools Keyboard Shortcuts
- Swap paint background color and foreground colours X
- Set paint foreground color to black and background color to white D
- Set foreground color to the color currently under any paint tool pointer Alt-click
- Set foreground color to the average color of a 4-pixel x 4-pixel area under any paint tool pointer Ctrl + Alt-click
- Set brush size for a paint tool Ctrl-drag
- Set brush hardness for a paint tool Ctrl-drag, then release Ctrl while dragging
- Join current paint stroke to the previous stroke Hold Shift while beginning the stroke
- Set starting sample point to point currently under Clone Stamp tool pointer Alt-click
- Momentarily activate Eraser tool with Last Stroke Only option Ctrl + Shift
- Show and move overlay (change Offset value of aligned Clone Stamp tool or change Source Position value of unaligned Clone Stamp tool) Alt + Shift-drag with the Clone Stamp tool
- Activate a specific Clone Stamp tool preset 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 on the main keyboard
- Duplicate a Clone Stamp tool preset in Paint panel Alt-click the button for the preset
- Set opacity for a paint tool Digit on numeric keypad (for example, 9=90%, 1=10%)*
- Set opacity for a paint tool to 100% . (decimal) on numeric keypad*
- Set flow for a paint too Shift + a digit on the numeric keypad (for example, 9=90%, 1=10%)*
- Set flow for a paint tool to 100% Shift + . (decimal) on numeric keypad*
- Move earlier or later by number of frames specified for stroke Duration Ctrl + Page Up or Ctrl + Page Down (or 1 or 2 on the main keyboard)
Note: Some shortcuts are marked with an asterisk (*) to remind you to make sure that Num Lock is on when you use the numeric keypad.
