The Properties panel is where you change values. It combines what After Effects splits between the Effect Controls panel and the twirled-open properties in the timeline: transform, contents, effects and everything else that belongs to the selected layer.
What it shows
The panel is a stack of collapsible sections. Which ones appear depends on the selection.
Nothing selected: the Composition section (comp settings), Dynamics World (the comp's physics settings) and Scene (the 3D scene's Environment, Environment Shadows, Ambient Occlusion, Bounce Light, Reflections, Bloom and Render Quality — greyed out until the comp is 3D).
A layer selected: sections in this family colour order — geometry (purple), pixels (amber), values (pink). Common sections:
| Section | Appears for |
|---|---|
| Transform | Every layer. Anchor, Position, Scale, Rotation, Opacity; in 3D, X/Y/Z Rotation, Z Position and so on. |
| Shape / Text | Shape and text layers. |
| Animators | Text layers — text animators. |
| Points | Layers with editable path points. |
| Geometry Operators | Shape layers and layers with Geo Ops. |
| Masks | Layers with masks. |
| Time | Precomps, drawing layers, and video or image-sequence footage. Holds Remap (time remapping). |
| Effects | Layers with effects. |
| Modifiers | Layers with modifiers (Wiggle, Set Driver/Driven, Linear, Expression). |
| Replicator, Dynamics | Layers using them. |
| Audio | Layers with sound. |
| Null Object | Null layers. |
| 3D Lighting, 3D Geometry, Material, Texture Transform, Advanced Channels | 3D layers. |
| Light | Light layers. |
| Lens, Depth of Field | Camera layers. |
| Background | Background layers. |
Click a section title to collapse or expand it. Sections remember whether they were open.
Header bar buttons
Each opens a searchable picker under the button. Nothing is added until you choose an entry.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Geometry (purple icon) | Add a geometry operator (Geo Op) to the selected layer. |
| Pixels (amber icon) | Add an effect to the selected layer. |
| Values (pink icon) | Add a modifier to the selected layer. |
Editing values
- Number fields: drag left/right to scrub, or click to type. Typed values accept comma decimals and simple math (
+ − * /). Tab and ⇧Tab move between number fields. - Stopwatch: click to enable animation. Once a property is animated, clicking the keyframe button adds a key at the playhead (◇) or removes the one there (◆). Drag across several rows to apply the same action to each. ⌥-click (Alt-click) removes all keyframes.
- Scale link: the link button next to Scale drags X and Y together; click it to scale each axis on its own.
- Effects: each effect has an enable toggle and a button to show or hide its parameters.
- Transform ▸ + layered: switches the Transform section to the advanced (layered) operator stack, where you can reorder and interleave transforms and effects. Click ▣ layered to go back to the simple view.
Shortcuts
These reveal properties in the timeline and Properties panel; for the transform keys, an unanimated property also gets its first keyframe.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| P | Show Position (key it if unanimated) |
| S | Show Scale (key it if unanimated) |
| R | Show Rotation (key it if unanimated) |
| O | Show Opacity (key it if unanimated) |
| A | Show Anchor Point (key it if unanimated) |
| L | Show Audio Levels (key it if unanimated) |
| U | Show animated properties |
| E | Show Shape Op / Geo Op / particle rows |
| M | Show Mask Path rows |
| ⌥L (Alt+L) | Link the hovered property (pickwhip) |
Tips
- The Composition section edits the same settings as Composition Settings (⌘K / Ctrl+K).
- The same Add pickers are reachable from the Search palette with ⌃Space.