About Advanced Selection

Advanced Selection is an After Effects utility that broadens how layers are selected. It provides a set of combinable filters—including layer type, layer options, blending mode, name substring, and label color—to restrict selections. Additional filters cover specific states such as adjustment layers, null objects, guide layers, 2D/3D layers, motion blur on or off, track‑matte relationships, even/odd layers and parent status. Users can choose the selection scope: only the active composition, the active composition plus one pre‑comp level, recursively through all pre‑comps, or every composition in the project. After matching layers, the plugin can toggle visibility for video and audio tracks, set Solo, and lock layers. Version 1.5 was released on December 30, 2021 and lists compatibility with After Effects 2024 back to CC 2019.

Features

• Filter selections by layer attributes: layer types, layer options, blending modes, label colors, name contains, and more
• Match specific states — adjustment layers, null objects, guide layers, 2D/3D layers, motion blur on or off, track matte relationships, even or odd layers, and parent status
• Four scope options: just the active comp, active comp plus one precomp level, recursive through all precomps, or all comps in the project
• Visibility Control to enable or disable the video (eye) and audio (loudspeaker) settings of selected layers
• Set Solo and Lock Layers on selected layers
• Trigger the filtered selection with the ‘Select Layer’ button, plus a NOR (inverted OR) mode for combining filters

Best for

After Effects users who need to select layers by attribute—type, blending mode, label color, name, parent status, etc.—across a single composition or an entire project.