How to hide and show layers quickly in After Effects

Sometimes you need to focus on just one or two layers. Visibility toggles, Solo, and Shy help you control what you see fast without deleting anything.

Steps to hide and show layers quickly

Click the eyeball icon next to any layer to show or hide it in your comp viewer.

Clicking the eyeball icon to hide or show a layer in After Effects

Click the Solo dot to isolate just that layer (or a few soloed layers) and hide everything else temporarily.

Using the solo button to toggle layer visibility in After Effects

Toggle the Shy switch on layers you don’t want cluttering your timeline, then click Toggle Shy at the top of the timeline to collapse them out of view completely.

Timeline in After Effects with shy layers
Timeline in After Effects with the Shy toggle on

One more thing

Alt/Option-click a Solo dot to solo one layer and unsolo all others in one go. Faster than clicking through each one individually.

Related how-tos

How to use the timeline in After Effects
How to dock and undock panels in After Effects
How to reset workspace in After Effects

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