About Free Compose

Free Compose brings Photoshop‑style layer grouping to After Effects. It groups layers without disrupting expressions, parenting, or cropping, and behaves like a pre‑compose that can be opened and closed in the same layer stack.

The script supports track mattes: setting a matte for a group updates any contained layers without a matte on refresh, and removing a group or moving layers clears shared mattes. Version 2.0 introduced a reduced‑size UI, redesigned icons, and three layout options (row, column, 2‑up) selectable from the help menu, while show/hide and select/deselect functions were combined into two toggles. Free Compose is compatible with After Effects 2026 through CC 2018.

Features

• Groups layers like Photoshop without breaking expressions, parenting, or cropping
• Behaves like a pre-compose you can toggle open in the same layer stack
• Track matte support: set a matte for a group and inside layers without one update to match on refresh
• Three UI layouts — row, column, and 2-up — switchable from the help menu
• Show/hide and select/deselect controls consolidated into two toggles
• Redesigned icons and reduced UI size introduced in version 2.0

Best for

After Effects artists who need to organize layers into groups without pre‑composing, while preserving expressions, parenting and cropping relationships.