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 3D Layers, Keyframes, and the Graph Editor keyboard shortcuts shown below, you will be up and running with Adobe After Effects.
3D layers Keyboard Shortcuts
Note: Shortcuts involving function keys F9-F12 may conflict with shortcuts used by your Mac operating system. See macOS Help for instructions to reassign Dashboard & Expose shortcuts.
- Switch to 3D view 1 (defaults to Front) F10
- Switch to 3D view 2 (defaults to Custom View 1) F11
- Switch to 3D view 3 (defaults to Active Camera) F12
- Return to previous view Esc
- New light Command + Option + Shift + L
- Switch to Orbit camera control 1
- Switch to Pan camera control 2
- Switch to Dolly camera control 3
- New camera Command + Option + Shift + C
- Switch to Universal gizmo V
- Switch to Position gizmo 4
- Switch to Scale gizmo 5
- Switch to Rotation gizmo 6
- Move the camera and its point of interest to look at selected 3D layers Command + Option + Shift + \
- With a camera tool selected, move the camera and its point of interest to look at selected 3D layers F
- With a camera tool selected, move the camera and its point of interest to look at all 3D layers Command + Shift + F
- Turn Casts Shadows property on or off for selected 3D layers Option + Shift + C
Keyframes and the Graph Editor Keyboard Shortcuts
Note: Shortcuts involving function keys F9-F12 may conflict with shortcuts used by your Mac operating system. See macOS Help for instructions to reassign Dashboard & Expose shortcuts.
- Toggle between Graph Editor and layer bar modes Shift + F3
- Select all keyframes for a property Click property name
- Select all visible keyframes and properties Command + Option + A
- Deselect all keyframes, properties, and property groups Shift + F2 or Command + Option + Shift + A
- Move keyframe 1 frame later or earlier Option + Right Arrow or Option + Left Arrow
- Move keyframe 10 frames later or earlier Option + Shift + Right Arrow or Option + Shift + Left Arrow
- Set interpolation for selected keyframes (layer bar mode) Command + Option + K
- Set keyframe interpolation method to hold or Auto Bezier Command + Option + H
- Set keyframe interpolation method to linear or Auto Bezier Command-click in layer bar mode
- Set keyframe interpolation method to linear or hold Command + Option-click in layer bar mode
- Easy ease selected keyframes F9
- Easy ease selected keyframes in Shift + F9
- Easy ease selected keyframes out Command + Shift + F9
- Set velocity for selected keyframes Command + Shift + K
- Add or remove keyframe at current time. For property shortcuts, see Showing properties and groups in the Timeline panel (keyboard shortcuts) Option + property shortcut
- Reverse paste the copied keyframes in the timeline Command + Shift + V
