What It Does
Unravel sorts elements in your After Effects project panel with controls for which items get organized and how they’re grouped. The main use case: preventing file path problems during project collection by flattening deep folder hierarchies.
The plugin includes a floating panel that adapts to small workspace sizes (below 200px height, the interface compresses to show just the main controls).
Key Features
Sort selected folders. Choose specific folders to organize rather than sorting the entire project.
Expression-aware composition reduction. Works like After Effects’ built-in Reduce Project but checks expressions before removing assets. If a composition references a JSON file through an expression, Unravel preserves it. The native tool misses these dependencies and deletes them. This feature doesn’t work with obfuscated expressions.
Organize imported Photoshop/Illustrator layers. When you import a .psd or .ai file, Unravel can sort the individual layers into separate subfolders automatically.
Filter by project imports. Set the plugin to sort only imported After Effects projects (folders ending in .aep or .aepx) while leaving your main project structure untouched.
File footage only mode. Sorts just the file-based footage while leaving comps and other elements in place. This addresses the core problem Unravel was built to solve: reducing file path length during collection. Deep folder nesting in the project panel creates extremely long paths when you collect files, which can cause data loss on some systems.
Other options include sorting sublayers into subfolders, creating subfolder categories, building subcomposition folders, and deleting emptied folders after organizing.
Who It’s For
Useful for anyone working with complex projects that have deep folder structures, especially when collaborating or archiving. The expression-checking composition reducer helps with projects that use data-driven workflows. The Photoshop/Illustrator import sorting saves time on design-heavy motion graphics.
Pricing
Pay what you want. The plugin is available on a name-your-price model with no minimum, making it accessible regardless of budget. Upgrade pricing is available for eligible prior buyers.