After Effects keyboard shortcuts.
Animate faster in After Effects — compositions, preview, the timeline, layers, keyframes, tools and render. Mac and Windows.
The single-letter property keys
Animation in After Effects starts with the property reveal keys — P for Position, S for Scale, R for Rotation, T for Opacity and A for Anchor Point — which collapse a layer down to just the one channel you're keyframing. When a comp gets busy, U reveals every property that already has keyframes, so you can see your whole animation at a glance without hunting through the layer outline.
Preview, layers and render
Tap Spacebar or 0 on the numeric keypad to preview, and ⇧/ to fit the comp back into the window. On the timeline, ⌘D / Ctrl+D duplicates a layer, ⌘⇧D / Ctrl+Shift+D splits it at the playhead, and ⌘⇧C / Ctrl+Shift+C pre-composes a selection to keep heavy comps manageable. When the shot is locked, ⌘M / Ctrl+M adds it to the render queue. Because the keymap is customisable, many artists remap these to suit their hands — but the defaults here are a solid starting point. Pair with the Illustrator and Photoshop shortcuts for the wider Adobe set.