v0.145.4Internal beta docs
OverviewDocsForge tools

Beta documentation · eXLib v0.145.4. Public release is pending.

Apply to Many Properties at Once

The same expression onto twenty properties — the Opacity of every layer in a stack, say — without doing it twenty times.

The task

  1. Get the expression right on one property.
  2. Put it on all the others.
  3. Find out which ones took it.
  4. Be able to undo the whole thing.

How it goes in plain After Effects

  1. Get it working on one property first — see Write & Apply an Expression.
  2. Copy just the expression: select that property and use Edit → Copy Expression Only, which takes the expression without the keyframes or values.
  3. Select the target properties in the Timeline — shift-click a run, or Cmd/Ctrl-click to build the set.
  4. Paste. The expression lands on the compatible selected properties.
  5. Check them. Anything After Effects rejects is switched off and marked on that property; you find those by looking down the Timeline.
i

This is a genuinely good AE path and worth knowing. Its limits are the ones paste always has: the properties have to be compatible, references inside the expression are copied verbatim rather than re-pointed, and nothing collects the results for you.

What changes with eXLib

  • Apply re-reads your live selection when you press it. More than one expression-capable property selected means it writes to every one of them, in a single undo group. There is no separate broadcast button and no confirmation step.
  • Each target gets its own verdict. One failure doesn't roll back the others, and the toast says which happened: "Applied to N properties", or "Applied to K of N properties — M failed" with After Effects' own error for each failure.
  • Controls are created per target, on the destination layer you chose, exactly as a single apply would.
  • One Cmd+Z in After Effects undoes the whole batch.
!

A pinned tab writes to its pin alone, whatever else is selected. If the status bar shows an amber pin chip and you meant to broadcast, click its × first. The Compact panel's Apply is single-target too — use the IDE toolbar or a Library row.

Step by step

Step In plain After Effects With eXLib
1. Get it right once Write it on one property and commit Write it once, Audition it, and leave it in the tab
2. Copy it Edit → Copy Expression Only Nothing to copy
3. Choose the targets Shift/Cmd-click the properties in the Timeline Shift/Cmd-click the properties in the Timeline
4. Check nothing overrides the targets — Confirm the tab isn't pinned; unpin with the chip's × if it is
5. Write to all of them Paste Apply, once
6. Create any controls they need Add them per layer by hand Created per target, on the destination layer you chose
7. See what took Look down the Timeline for switched-off expressions A toast: "Applied to N properties", or "K of N — M failed" with AE's error per failure
8. Undo Cmd+Z — and check nothing was left behind One Cmd+Z in After Effects for the whole batch