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After Effects
Control Groups
Group layers and timeline bookmarks with intuitive global keyboard controls, accelerating every After Effects workflow. NEW: Stream Deck Support
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Control Groups is a revolutionary plugin that provides intuitive, extremely fast, and easy-to-learn application controls for After Effects by combining the best of two seemingly disconnected worlds: motion graphics and real-time-strategy game design.
The art of grouping, reselecting and navigating between hundreds of layers was mastered back in '95. Design suites of the modern day have yet to catch up until now. Control Groups levels the playing field; group and select layers, and navigate through your project with composition bookmarks.
New in Version 1.5
The Christmas Update brings major new features and quality-of-life improvements:
Stream Deck Support
Control Groups now features first-class Stream Deck integration with a bespoke plugin that brings the full Control Groups experience to your hardware:
- Icons, colours, slot numbers, and custom names are authentically represented on Stream Deck buttons.
- Real-time synchronisation between Stream Deck and After Effects UI.
- 10 Control Group buttons and 10 Space switching buttons with dynamic appearance.
- Full command access: Undo/Redo, Context toggle, Shortcut Lock, Slideout panel, Sequential Cycling, and more.
- Pre-configured profiles for Stream Deck Classic, Mini, XL, and Plus .
Custom Naming
- Control Group slot names: Right-click any Control Group to rename its slot. Names persist and propagate through notifications.
- Space names: Rename Spaces via the Spaces menu. Custom names appear throughout the UI.
- Display names on groups: New setting to show slot names instead of layer counters.
Additional Improvements
- Space increment shortcuts: New assignable shortcuts for cycling through Spaces up or down.
- Collapsible settings: Settings page now features collapsible sections for substantially improved organisation.
- Improved diagnostics: New warning system for misconfigured After Effects shortcuts.
- Bug fixes: Resolved issues with navigation, notification animations, shortcut highlighting, and the help tutorial.
Overview
Control Groups is designed for streamlining the most fundamental, low-level tasks that every After Effects user repeats dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of times throughout a project:
- Re-selecting a previous selection
- Navigating within or between compositions
Control Groups allows you to group layers or locations with keyboard controls to navigate through your project, and restore previous selections instantly. Use Control Groups for layer organisation, and as mechanisms for instantly moving through your project.
A fully bespoke and advanced undo/redo system pushes these features a step further, with configurable features including navigating to points in compositions where actions were originally made, taking Control Groups from an indispensable tool to an essential upgrade to After Effects.
Reduce the repetitive tasks of managing After Effects’ UI and spend more time creating motion design. Save minutes, or even hours, across your upcoming portfolio, and reinvest that boost in productivity directly back into designing and animating.
Key Features
Control Groups & Spaces
Group layers or locations together into 'Control Groups', and select
them again at any time with a keyboard shortcut. Pick a base key for
a Control Group slot (digit keys 0-9 recommended). The
base key will select the Control Group and its corresponding layers
when pressed. Adding keyboard modifiers (e.g. Alt,
Control, etc) will pertain to applying mutations to
Control Groups (see "Control Group Logic & Modifiers").
Organise your Control Groups into spaces (analogous to desktop spaces or pages). Each space can be switched to with their own definable shortcut. With 10 Control Groups per space, easily create and control 100 Control Groups with a single set of 10 base keys.
Layer & Location Management
A world first for After Effects: in the same vein as strategy games, assign 'locations' (a point in time in any composition) as items in Control Groups - instantly jump to these points with a click or definable keyboard shortcut.
Double-click a layer group or the group's shortcut to navigate to its layers directly, regardless of what composition they're in. Select layers remotely - choose whether to jump to the relevant composition or select a layer across compositions.
Dynamic UI & Audio Feedback
A highly dynamic, resizable, animated, minimalist UI design. Easily view the contents of Control Groups at a glance, or minimise the slide-out panel for a more compact UI view.
Use sound effects for Control Group selections, modifiers and actions. Build habits and muscle memory quickly by incorporating auditory feedback into your workflow. Two complimentary SFX soundboards are included: "Kalimba Bottle" and "Halous" .
Sort Mode
Sort Mode displays Control Groups in a fixed order,
matching their slot numbers 1–10. When enabled, you
cannot drag and drop to rearrange groups; instead, each Control
Group will be fixed in position according to its canonical slot
number. Empty slots are shown as placeholders, making it easy to
create a new Control Group directly in a specific slot using the
context menu.
Sort Mode is enabled by default for a more intuitive experience, but can be disabled for a more compact or flexible panel layout.
Event-Driven Undo/Redo
A fast, event-driven Undo/Redo flow purpose-built for Control Groups, and separate to After Effect's own system. Instantly rewind group edits, selections, and navigation — and optionally jump back to the exact composition and timeline position where each change occurred. It’s configurable, project-aware, and immediately feels intuitive.
- One-tap undo for group & item changes
- Selection & navigation undo/redo, per-type toggles
- Undo history persists across sessions and project files
- Configurable history cap with automatic trimming
Customisation
Access customisation options for groups through the right-click context menu:
- Custom icons for groups: choose from 60+ icons to label each Control Group. Saved per space and per slot.
- Custom names for groups: rename individual Control Group slots. Names are displayed in the panel and propagate through notifications.
- Custom names for Spaces: rename Spaces via the Spaces menu. Custom names appear throughout the UI and in notifications.
- Slot numbers: optional numbers on the bottom right of each group, plus numbers on Sort Mode placeholders. Optionally display slot names instead of the layer counter.
Contexts
Contexts are possible items eligible to be part of a Control Group. A Control Group can be composed of one context type:
- Layers: One or more layers from a given composition.
- Locations: Saved points in time within compositions for instant navigation
The current active context can be toggled between layer or location with the UI button or shortcut. Group creation and modification will only pertain to the active context to avoid mixing two item or Control Group types.
What Makes Control Groups Unique?
- Focused Purpose: Layer grouping is usually offered as a 'bonus' feature in other extensions, attached to other unrelated features you may not need.
- Sky-High Potential: Only Control Groups is focused on adding to this premise in a way that is highly customisable and fully keyboard-driven, offering an exponentially higher ceiling to potential workflow speed increases.
- Advanced Shortcuts: Shortcuts are usually limited for other plugins, if offered at all, and certainly do not provide the same level of control or depth.
- Bookmarking: Control Groups is the first plugin to offer true composition bookmarks. Timeline positions within a given composition can be saved and navigated to at any time within its respective project.
- Superior UX: The UI's advanced, animated design and sound design makes group selection and management responsive, intuitive and engaging to use.
- Immediate Impact: Even the most limited application of the capabilities Control Groups offers can stack into significant time saving. A single Control Group can be used to navigate through a project with multiple bookmarks, or be overwritten repeatedly with specific layers relevant to the current task.
Feature Comparison
See how Control Groups compares to other layer organisation solutions:
| Feature | Control Groups | Other Organisation Plugins |
|---|---|---|
| Bookmarks / Navigation | First-ever plugin to offer inner-composition bookmarking | N/A |
| Stream Deck Support | First-class native support with dynamic appearance and real-time syncing with After Effects | N/A |
| Sound Effects | 48 sound effects included. Most actions' sound effects can be user-defined | N/A |
| Plugin Undo/Redo system | Customisable, persistent, dynamic, navigate to points in time when and where actions occurred | N/A |
| Shortcuts | Most advanced keyboard controls and shortcut handling of any plugin | Extremely limited, if any |
| Integration | Groups are stored as references only - underlying layers are never modified | Often rely on embedding data in layers, potentially conflciting with other plugins. |
| Speed | Groups are designed to be repeatably created, modified and removed on the fly | Panel visibility, mouse-use and multiple UI. Stop-and-start workflow mandatory |
| User Interface | Highly fluid, responsive, animated. Minimalist focused UI. Global visual/audio feedback | Largely static / buried among unrelated features |
| UX – Beginners | Extremely powerful even with a single Control Group. Slide-out panel displays group contents. Features can be used with mouse controls in-panel. Integrated tutorial | Standard, information-heavy panel. Basic layer grouping in a single vertical list |
| UX – Power Users | Every facet is designed to foster relational memory and facilitate user input at speeds akin to competitive strategy games. Panel visibility optional | No additional considerations |
Stream Deck Integration
Control Groups is the first layer organisation tool to offer dedicated Stream Deck support. A first-class plugin transforms your Stream Deck into a hardware control surface for After Effects, enabling rapid group selection, space switching, and workflow control at your fingertips.
Every button dynamically reflects the state of your Control Groups in real-time. Icons, colours, mouse highlights, slot numbers, and custom names sync directly from the panel, creating an authentic visual representation that updates instantly as you work. Input from either the Stream Deck or After Effects UI is reflected on the other in real-time.
Stream Deck Features
- 10 Control Group buttons: Each button displays the group's custom icon, colour stripe, and slot number. Buttons highlight when selected or previewed.
- 10 Space switching buttons: Switch between Spaces instantly. Custom Space names are displayed, and the active Space is highlighted.
- Full control suite: Undo/Redo, Context toggle, Shortcut Lock, Slideout panel, Sequential Cycling, and Help.
- Device profiles: Pre-configured profiles for Stream Deck Classic, Mini, XL, and Plus. The Plus profile includes encoder support for Space navigation.
The Stream Deck plugin and device profiles are bundled with Control
Groups. Double-click the included
.streamDeckPlugin file to install. Requires Stream Deck
software 6.6+, macOS 13+ or Windows 10+.
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 UX experience and platform for faster, optimised workflows. Saving time is a serious value proposition in and of itself; every second saved furthers your value and offering as a designer to clients.
Control Group Logic & Modifiers
Basic Operations
-
Select Control Group:
[Base key](we recommend digits0-9). Selects all layers in the chosen Control Group (layer context) or jumps to the saved location(s) (location context). -
Combine Selection:
[Shift] + [base key]- combine a selection of layers, items or Control Groups with the target group and its contents. -
Jump to Control Group:
[Double Tap] [base key]or double click - use layer context Control Groups as references for project navigation.
Modifier Keys
-
'Overwrite' modifier:
[Cmd/Ctrl]– Replaces a Control Group's contents with your current selection. -
'Add' modifier:
[Cmd/Ctrl + Shift]– Adds a selection to a Control Group. -
'Subtract' modifier:
[Option/Alt]– Removes a selection from a Control Group. -
'Exclusive Trim' modifier:
[Cmd/Ctrl + Option/Alt]– Adds a selection to a Control Group while removing those items from any group they currently exist in.
Additional Features
Management at Speed
Manage Control Groups at speed - add to, overwrite, or remove from Control Groups with shortcuts or UI panel without skipping a beat. Control Groups are designed to be constantly redefined and modified.
Control Groups upon Control Groups - create and modify selections using groups themselves.
Advanced Location Control
A location context Control Group can contain multiple saved locations to cycle through sequentially. Repeatedly using the same location Control Group will sequentially cycle the timeline view between each item in the group.
Layer Sequential Selection Cycling
A layer context Control Group can be used to cycle through its corresponding layers with an optional setting. Repeatedly using the same layer Control Group in this mode will sequentially cycle the selection through each layer in the group, restoring layer selections one at a time for more granular control.
Floating Notification System
A beautifully animated, fully configurable, floating notification palette displays actions and information separate from the main panel. Configurable to display either alongside the cursor, stationary at the current mouse position, or at a single re-definable point on-screen. Use the global notification system, the local-panel notifications, or neither. Enable or disable individual notification types per system.
Miscellaneous Features
- Control Groups are automatically saved to the Project File itself for seamless persistence and portability. Plugin settings and configurations are saved to a local file.
- The panel can be freely re-sized and can be used in very flat or tall configurations to perfectly fit within your workspace.
- The shortcut lock toggle allows for quick toggling of the primary Control Groups global shortcuts.
- Panel controls support all features of Control Groups with mouse-only controls using the context menu.
- Cheat Sheet - a quick-access menu for information on the different modifiers / actions and core plugin features available plus an embedded tutorial (with its own definable shortcut!)
Synergy with Compstronaut
While Control Groups revolutionises how you organise and recall layers and timeline bookmarks, adding Compstronaut to your toolkit elevates your workflow to a new dimension.
- Seamless Navigation Capture: Every time you use Control Groups to jump between layers or timeline positions, Compstronaut automatically tracks those moves in a persistent navigation history. This is in addition to your natural composition switches and timeline scrubbing recorded by Compstronaut as you work. Your entire session becomes an interactive history, letting you retrace creative paths with a single click or shortcut.
- Unified Feedback System: Both extensions share the same floating notification layer, delivering crisp, real-time visual and audio feedback for every action, whether you are triggering a Control Group or navigating through your history with Compstronaut.
- Complementary Workflow: Control Groups gives you instant, organised access to complex layer selection and location. Compstronaut then lets you move backward or forward through your creative session, browser-style, in chronological order with keyboard shortcuts or by freely scrolling through your history and selecting a previous position.
For the ultimate After Effects workflow, pair Control Groups with Compstronaut. Together, they transform project navigation and selection into something as fluid and intuitive as working in a modern web browser. Once you experience this level of integration and speed, you will never want to go back.
Customisable Settings Page
Tailor the plugin's behaviour to your preferences. Settings are organised into collapsible sections for easy navigation:
-
Base Keys: Assign the base key for Control Group
slots
1-10. -
Global Modifiers: Assign the modifiers for:
-
Add Control Group to selection (Default:
Shift) -
'Overwrite' modifier (Default:
Cmd/Ctrl) -
'Add' modifier (Default:
Cmd/Ctrl+Shift) -
'Subtract' modifier (Default:
Option/Alt) -
'Exclusive Trim' modifier (Default:
Cmd/Ctrl+Option/Alt)
-
Add Control Group to selection (Default:
-
Misc Shortcuts: Assign shortcuts for:
- Slide-out panel (view the contents of groups at any time) (local shortcut)
- Expand Control Group in main UI panel (local shortcut)
- Open the settings (local shortcut)
- Toggle shortcut lock
- Toggle active context type
- Deselect all (including layers, items, Control Groups across the plugin and in After Effects)
- Open the help window
- Switch to each of the 10 Spaces
- Increment Space up or down (cycle through Spaces)
-
Sound Effects: Enable/disable and define the sound
effects individually. Adjust the volume or mute SFX of the
extension.
- Disable sound effects when location cycling
- Disable sound effects when layer cycling
- Layer Sequential Selection Cycling: Enable sequential cycling through individual layers when selecting the same layer Control Group repeatedly.
- Shortcut Conflict Suppression: Suppress warning messages for conflicting After Effects and macOS shortcuts when assigning Control Group keys.
- Sort Mode: Enable or disable fixed slot order for Control Groups, for a consistent or flexible panel layout.
-
Slot Numbers: Display the Control Group slot
numbers on the bottom right of each group block in the panel.
- Group slot numbers: Toggle display of slot numbers on actual groups.
- Sort Mode placeholders: Toggle display of slot numbers on empty slots in Sort Mode.
-
Undo/Redo: Configure how undo and redo behave:
- Selection navigation: jump back to the time and composition where the selection was made.
- Deselect All navigation: jump back to the time and composition where deselect all occurred.
- Space switch navigation: jump back to the time and composition of the space switch.
- Context switch navigation: jump back to the time and composition of the context change.
- Maximum history entries: set how many undo/redo steps are stored.
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.
Note: performance may vary on older hardware.
Operating System
Minimum required operating system versions:
- Microsoft Windows 10 (64‑bit) or later.
- Apple macOS 13 Ventura or later.
Conquer Your Compositions
Control Groups is the complete execution of layer grouping and composition navigation - a seamless, fluid tool obsessively designed to let you work faster and more intuitively with After Effects.
Welcome back, Animator
Comments
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Version History
1.5 -
Dec 27, 2025
Stream Deck Support
- Major new feature - Stream Deck Support. Control Groups now fully supports the Stream Deck with a bespoke first-class plugin that takes full advantage of the platform:
- Control Groups' icons, colours, slot numbers and custom names are represented on each slot's buttons authentically.
- Control Group and Space buttons dynamically react in real time to selections and changing spaces.
- The Stream Deck buttons and Control Groups After Effects UI both react in real time to input received on the other.
- 10 Control Group selection buttons with dynamic appearance reflecting panel customisation.
- 10 Space switching buttons with custom Space names and active state highlighting.
- Space increment buttons for cycling through Spaces.
- Direct access to commands and functions such as: Control Groups, Undo/Redo, Context toggle, Shortcut Lock, Slideout panel, Sequential Cycling and Deselect All.
- Pre-configured device profiles for Stream Deck Classic, Mini, XL, and Plus.
- The Stream Deck plugin and device profiles are bundled with Control Groups. Double-click the included .streamDeckPlugin file to install. Requires Stream Deck software 6.6+, macOS 13+ or Windows 10+.
Added
- New feature - added the ability to rename individual Control Group slots as persistent settings. Right-click a Control Group to rename its slot through the right-click context menu.
- New feature - added the ability to rename individual Spaces globally. Open the Spaces menu button in the main panel view (visible by default), and click the chevron to the right of a given space to access options including customisation.
- Custom Control Groups' and Spaces' names will propagate through the UI and through notifications, and can be reset back to the default.
- Significantly improved the settings page organisation by introducing collapsible sections in the settings page, and reorganising the existing General tab.
- Added a new setting - display Control Groups' slot names instead of the layer counter. If the group has no name, it defaults to using the number counter as before.
- Added two new assignable shortcuts to facilitate switching between Spaces incrementally: Increment Space Down and Increment Space Up.
- Added the ability to assign both a name and an icon to a Control Group slot to its 'dummy'/ placeholder state.
- Added error notifications for various scenarios that would prevent a Space switch for more informative feedback.
- Added a new warning system if certain user-defined After Effects shortcuts/settings aren't configured correctly, in addition to new settings to configure whether to suppress these (showing a popup in the main UI by default). This complements an edge-case fix detailed below, ensuring these types of errors can be self-diagnosed if they occur in the future.
- Added an embed in the help popup and store page linking to the r/aescripts discussion thread.
Changed
- Expanded the wording of the warning text that appears in the panel when the SBShortcutManager companion plugin is not connected to provide instructions on how to fix the issue (i.e., reinstalling the extension).
- Grouped the sound effects configuration into a collapsible section, and also moved it beside the general audio settings in the General tab (versus the poorly-seperated Shortcuts tab).
Fixed
- Fixed a bug that would prevent selections or navigation from occurring if the user's native After Effects settings were missing certain values.
- Fixed a bug that would distort the floating notification panel animations when closing.
- Fixed a bug in which global shortcut selections of Control Groups would not highlight the corresponding Control Group UI representations, preventing their contents from appearing in the slideout panel.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Control Groups tutorial from appearing in the help popup.
1.4.5 -
Nov 8, 2025
- Updated the aescripts licensing framework to the latest version.
1.4.4 -
Nov 4, 2025
- Extended the temporary blocking of global shortcuts from other extensions using the SBShortcutManager when interacting with input fields to prevent unintentional shortcut triggering.
1.4.3 -
Oct 29, 2025
- Bundled the latest version of the SBShortcutManager.
- Minor tweak to third party licensing text.
Fixed
- Ensured global shortcuts from "Select Every Other Layer" aren't mistakenly triggered while assigning shortcuts in Control Groups.
1.4.2 -
Oct 19, 2025
- Added a new setting for enabling the shortcut lock sound effect on extension startup if the shortcut lock was enabled (defaulting to off, i.e., won't play on startup). Previously, the shortcut lock sound effect would always play on extension startup.
Fixed
- Hotfix for the panel background not displaying warning messages for the SBShortcutManager not being found, or no project file being open.
- Fix for in-panel update notifications of the Control Groups extension.
1.4.1 -
Oct 15, 2025
- New warning text appears in the panel when the SBShortcutManager companion plugin is not connected.
- Added text truncation (shortening) for longer composition names and layer names for global notifications.
- Added a banner image to the About tab of the licensing.
- Updates to the SBShortcutManager for better compatability with future extensions.
Fixed
- Fixed a bug where selecting compostions in the project bin would interfere with saving project-navigation-related data.
- Fixed a bug that result in two selection sound effects when navigating using a layer-context control group via keyboard shortcuts.
- Fixed a bug that caused the panel to reload when altering the settings of the global notifications.
- Minor tweaks / improvements to the intiial loading sequence.
Changed
- Minor styling updates for the settings page for better readability / visual consistency.
- Minor styling updates for the licensing information for better readability / visual consistency.
- Updated Readme with additional FAQ / troubleshooting information.
1.4 -
Aug 15, 2025
- New feature - Control Group customisation. The UI representations of Control Groups can now have an Icon applied to them to use over the standard location/layer icons. Over 60 icons are available to use.
- Right-click an existing Control Group to customise its appearance:
- Color (already available by clicking the color stripe, but now also present in the context menu)
- Icon
- Control Group customisations now persist per-slot in each space rather than per group. Applying a customisation to a Control Group will also, in turn, customise that slot (e.g Control Group 5 in space 1) - future groups that exist in this slot will also receive the same customisation options.
- New feature - display the Control Group slot numbers on the bottom right of each group. Added new toggles (settings page -> General) to enable/disable these separately for groups (disabled by default) and on placeholders in Sort Mode (enabled by default).
- The context menu now gracefully animates in height. Plus additional minor styling tweaks.
- The context menu now permits you to click options pertaining to creating control Groups even if the resulting operation is invalid (instead of disabling the option). Now, a yellow highlight for the action will indicate there's an issue, and pressing the option will present a notification explaining the issue.
- New feature - when a Control Group, or its items, are used to navigate, the group block in the panel will emit a cosmetic glow as feedback.
- Initial implementation of styling per version of After Effects.
Fixed
- Fixed a bug which would cause the dummy blocks in sort mode to generate lag.
- Fixed a bug that would prevent creating location context groups via the context menu when additionally selecting groups with the mouse.
- Fixed Undo/Redo inconsistency with layer restoration using the deselect all action.
- Improved color selection for generated and preset group colours to prefer brighter colors.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the setting for displaying location times as frames from taking effect.
- Fixed a bug with inverse handling for inert Control Group edits on Undo/Redo. When adding layers already present or subtracting layers not present, undo no longer removes or adds items. Inverse actions now capture only the actual delta to preserve group membership.
- Fixed a bug where inert Control Groups edit actions would result in a new entry in the undo history.
1.3.1 -
Aug 13, 2025
- Fixed a bug preventing the setting to turn off Undo/Redo navigation for selection events from taking effect.
- Fixed Undo/Redo inconsistency with restoring layer selections and UI selections.
- Fixed Undo/Redo inconsistency for double-tap-to-navigate for layer context control groups and location context control groups.
Changed
- Enabled in-panel status bar notifications for new updates.
1.3 -
Aug 12, 2025
- New major feature - Control Groups now supports Undo/Redo operations separately from After Effects' own undo system. This system supports:
- Undo/Redo support for creating, modifying and removing Control Groups.
- Undo/Redo support for selection of layer-context groups and items (including selections of respective associated layers) and location-context groups and items.
- Undo/Redo support for adding/removing individual items from Control Groups.
- Undo/Redo support for composition navigation events instigated by groups or items of either context.
- Undo/Redo support for active context switches.
- Undo/Redo support for space switches.
- Undo/Redo support for the deselect all actions, including Control Group selections and layer selections
- New feature - navigation history for undo/redo events. As a sub-system of the Undo/Redo system, the time in a given composition when certain actions occur can automatically be navigated to/from when undone/redone.
- Undo/Redo navigation support for selection-based actions (including UI selections and layer selections) (enabled by default).
- Undo/Redo navigation support for deselection actions (i.e when using "deselect all") (enabled by default).
- Undo/Redo navigation support for active context switches (disabled by default).
- Undo/Redo navigation support for space switches (disabled by default).
- Added global shortcuts for triggering undo or redo events specifically for the Control Groups extension.
- Added Undo/Redo buttons in the panel. These appear disabled to indicate if at the start/end of the undo history, respectively.
- Added Undo/Redo buttons in the context menu. These appear disabled to indicate if at the start/end of the undo history, respectively.
- Added toggles (settings page -> General) to hide either or both of the Undo/Redo buttons.
- Added new "Nothing to [undo/redo]" notification types with toggles to disable either for both the local and global notification systems.
- Added a value field (settings page -> General) to allow defining the minimum or maximum number of entries for the Undo/Redo system's history. The current minimum and maximum number of possible entries are 3 and 150, respectively, with the default being 20. The history exists as a file stored alongside the other user settings.
- Added toggles (settings page -> General) to enable/disable the Undo/Redo behaviour of navigating to the original composition and point in time when a given undo-able/redo-able action was made.
Fixed
- Fixed a bug in which shortcuts could be triggered when entering values for shortcut fields.
- Fixed a bug where the panel would indefinitely switch between two loading-related messages if After Effects wasn't in focus while the panel was loading. Only a single loading message will be displayed while the panel waits for After Effects to return to focus.
- Fixed a bug that would prevent Control Groups from loading project data if After Effects wasn't already in focus.
- Fixed a bug where it was possible to select the text in the local notification toasts / UI popups.
- Fixed a bug in which an additive selection could consist of layer context control groups containing layers from separate compositions. This is now prevented from occurring alongside a new notification explaining why.
- Fixed a UI bug - the drag handle on Control Groups is now removed when in Sort Mode, as drag and drop is disabled.
Changed
- Changed the wording of the deselect all notification from "Control Groups deselected" to "Deselect all" for consistency with other notifications.
- Re-arranged the General tab of the settings page to be more intuitive: licensing -> settings -> shortcut file management -> info & attributions.
- Added blocks to space switches, active context switches, and undo/redo events while the settings page is open. This is accompanied by a new notification type, flagging that the settings page should be closed first.
1.2 -
Aug 4, 2025
- New feature - Sort mode. In this new mode, Control Groups will appear in a fixed position in the panel, corresponding to their Control Group slot number. Drag and drop for group organisation is disabled in this mode to maintain a fixed order. As sort mode facilitates a more intuitive user experience, it is also enabled by default. You may still prefer not to use Sort Mode if you only intend to only use a couple of Control Groups, or want a very small panel size.
- New feature - targeting specific slots with the context menu for creating Control Groups. Using sort mode, unoccupied slots are now filled with a placeholder which can be directly targeted for creating Control Groups with right-clicking.
- Added the ability to confirm a choice with the colour picker by double-clicking (in addition to pressing enter).
- Added new settings toggles for enabling / disabling selection sound effects when selecting, or shift-selecting, layer-items in the Control Groups' expanded view or slide-out panel.
Fixed
- Fixed a bug in which the colour picker would not be prioritised in certain scenarios when using the enter key.
- Fixed a bug which allowed the colour picker to remain open when the settings page was opened.
Changed
- Tab highlighting / selection locally in the panel using the tab key now works in ascending "number" order (1 > 2 > 3 > etc) (and vice versa for alt + tab) irrespective of creation order.
1.1 -
Jul 24, 2025
- New feature - Layer selection cycling. Optional setting in the settings page > shortcuts tab (disabled by default). Using this mode enables the sequential selection of individual layers within a layer context Control Group by either repeatedly clicking or using the group's corresponding shortcut.
- Added an in-panel warning on macOS if attempting to use features that require the accessibility permission without having already granted it.
- Added an in-panel warning if the After Effects setting "Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network" isn't turned on.
- Added missing punctuation keys for use within shortcuts or as single-key shortcuts on macOS.
- Added two new settings to enable suppression of shortcut conflict messages when assigning shortcuts for Control Group slots, also auto-resolving these conflicts:
- "Suppress After Effects shortcut conflcit messages"
- "Suppress macOS shortcut conflcit messages" (macOS only)
- Added a new setting to format location times as frames instead.
- Added automatic generation of a backup of the user's After Effects shortcut preference file when the extension first launches.
- Added settings to disable excessive sound effects triggered when:
- Location cycling.
- Layer selection cycling.
- The "Toggle Active Context" and "Toggle Shortcut Lock" shortcuts can now be assigned to single keys.
Fixed
- Fixed excessive hanging / lagging for features that relied on accessibility permissions. These are now disabled until these permissions have been granted (communicated within the aforementioned new in-panel warning).
- Fixed displayed AE shortcut conflicts from showing double parentheses in the shortcut fields in the panel settings.
- Fixed a bug in which the local notifications pop-up would sometimes queue and attempt to display multiple duplicate messages.
- Fixed a bug in which location context Control Groups would not incur navigation if local-panel keyboard controls (read: not global) were used to trigger it.
- Fixed a bug in which location context Control Group navigations would display the composition ID instead of the user-set composition name.
- Fixed a bug in which location items/notifications would not display a correctly formatted time.
- Increased reliability of layer-context-Control-Groups-based composition navigation resulting in the corresponding Control Group's layers being selected post-navigation.
- Further hardened protections for the user settings file.
Removed
- Removed the bulk "Clear digit keys shortcuts" button in the shortcuts tab of the settings page. With the combination of the new warning suppression toggles, the UX is now more focused:
- Clearer distinction between the different types of conflicts with the new toggles (i.e macOS conflicts, AE conflicts)
- Non-power-users - no warning suppression. Clear, repeated reminders of possible conflicts and opportunities to create shortcuts. Removing the bulk unassignment button reduces the likelihood of unintentional confusion.
- Power-users - suppress shortcut conflict warnings. Fast, intentional, targeted.
- Original shortcuts are always safe thanks to the new automatic backup, guaranteeing at least one backup.
1.0.2 -
Jul 21, 2025
- Cosmetic and minor updates to the licensing framework.
Fixed
- User settings now persist through uninstallation / installation of Control Group instead of being reset.
- Fix for the Control Groups panel only loading correctly when first opened.
1.0.1 -
Jul 17, 2025
1.0 -
Jul 15, 2025
Compatibility
After Effects
2026, 2025, 2024, 2023
