What It Does
Workflower brings organizational structure to After Effects timelines by introducing layer groups, a feature missing from the native application. You can create nested groups within compositions, collapse and expand them for clarity, and move entire groups at once. The plugin also includes selective adjustment layers that affect only chosen layers, cloning tools that maintain expression links, and advanced matting capabilities.
Key Features
Layer Groups. Create hierarchical groups and subgroups within compositions. Collapse or expand groups to reduce timeline clutter. Parent, disable, solo, lock, relabel, and duplicate entire groups. Adjust group opacity or convert groups to precomps (and back). Group headers can trim automatically to contained layers.
Selective Adjustment Layers. Apply effects to specific layers instead of everything below. Workflower creates a control layer and links effects to selected layers via expressions. Visibility and opacity sync automatically. You can use multiple adjustment layers on different layer sets and refresh links when you modify effects.
Clone and Precomp. Copy layers to a precomp while maintaining expression links to source layers. Parents, cameras, lights, and layers referenced by effects transfer automatically. Prime Clones set source layers to 0% opacity so you can apply effects to the precomp layer while continuing to edit contained layers. Refresh connections when you change effects or parents. Unlink everything when finished to remove expressions.
Merge Mattes. Combine multiple mattes onto a single track matte. For layers without comp dimensions or Collapse Transformation, Workflower creates a Precomp Clone to fit them to comp size and correct transforms. Modify blending modes (Normal, Stencil Alpha, Stencil Luma, Silhouette Alpha, Silhouette Luma), opacity, and application order through added Calculations effects.
Pre-Render System. Pre-render groups, layers, Precomp Clones, and precomps to improve playback performance. Toggle pre-renders on and off. Workflower replaces outdated renders automatically to save storage. Customize output format, create proxies, script output paths, and define import interpretation including Preserve RGB.
Layer Tagging. Tag layers to create groups independent of hierarchy. Tag individual layers or Workflower groups. Perform batch actions on tag groups: enable, disable, solo, or select all tagged items.
Link and Parent Masks. Copy masks between layers with different transforms. Linked masks update via expressions even on 3D layers. Parent a layer’s mask by creating a matte layer that the original mask references, allowing you to transform and parent masks.
Show Layer Relationships. Display which layers reference each other through effects or expressions directly on the timeline. Useful for understanding dependencies in complex projects.
Copy Layers Across Projects. Store layers in one of three Global Store Comp slots. Paste them into different projects. Stored layers persist across sessions.
Advanced Precomposing. Crop precomp to alpha channel. Unprecompose layers. Precompose each selected layer individually. Add handles or adjust duration to layer length. Expression references in the project update automatically to new comp names.
Advanced Renaming. Rename layers and update dependent layers that reference them. Flip through naming levels. Useful when layers reference each other in expressions or effects.
Workflower includes additional tools for creating empty track mattes, trimming layers to keyframes or to other layers, and batch operations on groups.
Who It’s For
Useful for motion designers and compositors working with complex timelines. Particularly helpful on projects with many layers, nested hierarchies, or frequent precomposing. The organizational features reduce scrolling and make layer relationships clearer. Pre-rendering improves performance on heavy comps.
Mac users and Japanese Windows users can only assign a maximum of 20 keyboard shortcuts due to system limitations. Test the trial if you rely heavily on shortcuts.
Pricing
Workflower costs $129 for a new license. A 10-day trial is available with most features enabled (Matted Adjustment Layers and Rename Layers by Number are disabled in the trial).
Version 2.5 is free for existing version 2 customers. Version 1 owners who purchased in 2023 receive a free upgrade (requires support ticket for discount code). Earlier version 1 customers receive upgrade discounts: $59 if purchased before October 18, 2022, or $29 if purchased between October 18, 2022 and January 1, 2023.
Compatible with After Effects CC 2018 and newer. An update for full AE 2026 compatibility is coming. Workflower can be installed in AE 2026 via custom installation in the aescripts manager but full compatibility is not yet guaranteed.