After Effects shortcuts that save an hour a day

Most of the time in After Effects goes to finding things: the right property, the right frame, the right layer. These twenty-four shortcuts remove the searching. Windows keys are listed; on a Mac, read Ctrl as Cmd and Alt as Option.

Properties

Shortcut	What it does
P S R T A	Show Position, Scale, Rotation, Opacity or Anchor Point of the selected layers. Hold Shift to add a second property without hiding the first.
U	Show every property that has keyframes. Press it twice, UU, to show everything you changed from the default, including effects with no keyframes.
E / EE	Show effects. Twice shows every expression on the layer.
M / MM	Mask path. Twice shows all mask properties, including feather and expansion.

Timeline

Shortcut	What it does
[ / ]	Move the layer so its in or out point sits at the playhead.
Alt+[ / Alt+]	Trim the in or out point to the playhead.
Ctrl+Shift+D	Split the layer at the playhead.
J / K	Jump to the previous or next visible keyframe or marker.
B / N	Set the beginning or end of the work area to the playhead. Previews then stop at the part you are working on.
Shift+0 to 9	Add a composition marker at the playhead. The number alone jumps to that marker.
Ctrl+Alt+T	Enable time remapping on the selected layer.

Layers

Shortcut	What it does
Ctrl+Y	New solid. Ctrl+Alt+Y makes an adjustment layer, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Y a null.
Ctrl+Shift+C	Pre-compose the selected layers.
Ctrl+D	Duplicate layers, keyframes, masks or compositions, whatever is selected.
Ctrl+Alt+F	Fit the layer to the composition. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H fits the width only, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+G the height.
Ctrl+Alt+Home	Center the anchor point in the layer's content. Ctrl+Home centers the layer in the comp.
Alt+drag	Drag a footage item from the Project panel onto a layer while holding Alt to swap its source. Keyframes, effects and masks stay.

Keyframes

Shortcut	What it does
F9	Easy Ease. Shift+F9 eases in only, Ctrl+Shift+F9 eases out only.
Alt+click a stopwatch	Add an expression to that property.
Alt+drag a keyframe	With several keyframes selected, drag the first or last one while holding Alt to stretch or compress their timing proportionally.
Shift+F3	Toggle the Graph Editor.

Views

Shortcut	What it does
`	Maximize the panel under the cursor. Press again to restore.
Caps Lock	Pause rendering. Make a dozen changes, then release it to see the result.
Ctrl+Shift+H	Hide layer controls, handles and motion paths for a clean view.

Make your own

Everything else is one visit to Edit › Keyboard Shortcuts (Ctrl+Alt+'). Search for a command and press the key you want. Two worth binding: Convert Expression to Keyframes and Time-Reverse Keyframes, which ship without shortcuts.