Change the stacking order for selected layers, Layer backward into it. see – Adobe After Effects CS4 User Manual
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USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Layers and properties
Last updated 12/21/2009
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To select all child layers assigned to a parent layer, select the parent layer and choose Select Children from the
context menu in the Composition or Timeline panel. The child layers are added to the existing selection.
Lloyd Alvarez provides a script on his
with which you can tag layers and then select, shy,
and solo layers according to their tags. The tags are appended to comments in the Comments field in the Timeline
panel.
More Help topics
Color labels for layers and footage items
Search and filter in the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets panels
Change the stacking order for selected layers
The vertical arrangement of layers in the Timeline panel is the layer stacking order, which is directly related to the
render order. You can change the order in which layers are composed with one another by changing the layer stacking
order.
Note: Because of their depth properties, the stacking order of 3D layers in the Timeline panel does not necessarily indicate
their spatial position in the composition.
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In the Timeline panel, drag the layer names to a new position in the layer stacking order.
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To move the selected layers up one level in the layer stacking order, press Ctrl+Alt+Up Arrow (Windows) or
Command+Option+Up Arrow (Mac OS); to move the selected layers down one level, press Ctrl+Alt+Down Arrow
(Windows) or Command+Option+Down Arrow (Mac OS).
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To move the selected layers to the top of the layer stacking order, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Up Arrow (Windows) or
Command+Option+Shift+Up Arrow (Mac OS); to move the selected layers to the bottom, press
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Down Arrow (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift+Down Arrow (Mac OS).
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Choose Layer > Arrange, and then choose Bring Layer Forward, Send Layer Backward, Bring Layer To Front, or
Send Layer To Back.
When you copy (or cut) and paste layers, the layers are pasted so that they appear from top to bottom in the Timeline
panel in the same order in which they were selected before the copy (or cut) operation. You can Ctrl-click (Windows)
or Command-click (Mac OS) layers to select them in any arbitrary order, cut them, and then immediately paste them to
reorder the layers in the order in which they were selected.
Jeff Almasol provides a script on his
composition by sorting according to In point, Out point, selection order, layer name, or random order.
More Help topics
Render order and collapsing transformations
3D layer interactions, render order, and collapsed transformations