How To Cut A Clip In After Effects

When you cut media in Adobe After Effects, the second half of the split image, audio or video will take up a new layer in your composition timeline. This is helpful because it gives you the ability to individually edit and apply effects to cut and pre-cut layers without affecting the other.

A common reason editors cut clips in After Effects is to remove certain parts of a video. Rather than using the CPU-consuming time remap feature on simple cuts, most editors simply adjust the duration of a clip they need to keep, then simply cut off the excess by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + D on their keyboard (more on this further in the article).

Cutting up video, image and audio layers is an essential skill to learn if you're a beginner After Effects user. That's because regardless of what videos you decide to make with the software, you'll definitely find the need to remove and/or individually edit certain clips here and there.

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How do I split a clip in Adobe AE?

Before you apply any editing tool in After Effects, you'll need to have footage or any sort of media imported in a timeline. to do that, open After Effects and click on "File" > "Import" > "File" and select the video you want to cut.

Once you have imported your video footage, the next step is to create a new composition. To do this, go to "Composition" > "New Composition" and set the desired composition settings such as resolution, frame rate, and duration.

To add your video footage to the composition, simply drag and drop it from the project panel onto the composition panel.

Once you have footage in a composition timeline, you're ready to start editing and cutting clips. Here's how:

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1. Select clip in timeline

To add your video footage to the composition, simply drag and drop it from the project panel onto the composition panel. Once your layer is in your After Effects composition timeline, select it.

2. Split the clip

Navigate to Edit (top left corner) > Split Layer. This will split the clip at the playhead position, creating two separate clips. You can then edit and modify and adjust each of the clips independently. Another easier way to do this is simply move the playhead to the part of the clip where you want it to be split, then select CTRL + Shift + D on your keyboard to cut it.

You can also grab the very end of your layer and move it towards or away from the original position to trim or stretch it (if the stretch tool is used).

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How do I cut and delete in After Effects?

If you don't need the remainder of the clips, delete it by pressing the DEL key on your keyboard. Here's a recap on how to first split a clip, then delete the other half.

Find the clip you want to edit and select it.
Move the playhead to the point in the clip where you want to cut it.
Go to the Edit menu and choose "Split Layer" or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+D (on a PC) or Command+Shift+D (on a Mac). This will split the clip at the playhead position, creating two separate clips.
Select the portion of the clip that you want to delete and press the "Delete" key on your keyboard. This will remove the selected portion of the clip from the Timeline.