Z.TOOLS
V1.0.0 — OUT NOWTen everyday utilities, one compact panel. Snap anchor points without layer jump, align in 2D or 3D, pre-comp and explode, rig nulls, split masks and shapes, stagger layers, and keep a persistent color palette — every action one undo away.
THREE STEPS
TO GET STARTED
From checkout to your first click inside After Effects in under two minutes — no license keys, no restart loops.
DOWNLOAD THE .ZXP
After checkout, the z.tools .zxp package lands in your inbox instantly. One file, Windows and macOS.
RUN THE INSTALLER
Drop the file into the free ZXP Installer and wait for the confirmation. No manual folder digging required.
OPEN THE PANEL
Launch After Effects and go to Window → Extensions → z.tools. Dock it anywhere — it stays compact.
BUILT FOR THE BORING WORK
Ten repetitive setup tasks that eat your day — anchor points, alignment, pre-comps, nulls, mask & shape splitting, staggering, color management — compressed into single clicks. Every button has a tooltip; every action is one undo step.
ANCHOR POINT CONTROL
Move the anchor point of every selected layer to one of 9 positions on its bounding box — without the layer visually jumping. Position is fully compensated, including scale and rotation. Works on text and shape layers using the real rendered bounding box; cameras and lights are skipped.
ALIGN LAYERS (2D & 3D)
Align selected layers horizontally or vertically, in 2D or 3D comps — the Z axis is never touched. Align to the comp frame or to the selection bounding box. Accounts for scale and Z-rotation; parenting is temporarily released and restored automatically.
PRE-COMP
Precompose selected layers with all attributes moved into the new comp — name it yourself or let z.tools generate one. With nothing selected, it creates an empty pre-comp matching the comp's size, duration, and frame rate, added as the top layer.
EXPLODE PRE-COMP
The reverse of precomposing: moves the contents of selected pre-comp layers back into the parent comp, preserves their timing, deletes the pre-comp layer, and cleans the leftover pre-comp item out of your project.
AUTO NULL + PARENT
One null per selected layer — named NULL_<layer>, matching its in/out points and position, placed right above it and set as its parent. Nothing selected? You get a single NULL_Master spanning the work area.
NULL AT ANCHOR
Creates a null exactly at each layer's anchor-point position, then parents the layer to it. The null becomes a clean control handle that rotates and scales around the anchor — perfect for rigging.
SPLIT MASKS
For each selected layer with two or more masks: duplicates the layer so every mask ends up on its own layer, named <layer>_mask1, _mask2, and so on. Layers with 0–1 masks are skipped.
SPLIT SHAPE LAYER
Breaks a shape layer with multiple groups into one layer per group, named <layer> | <group> — perfect for turning an imported vector or logo into animatable pieces. The keep checkbox decides whether the original is kept (disabled) or deleted.
STACK LAYERS
Offsets the in/out points of selected layers in a staircase pattern — perfect for cascade and stagger animations. Set the offset in frames, hit forward or backward; the bottom-most layer stays put.
PERSISTENT COLOR PALETTE
A color library with named groups that survives between sessions. Sample any pixel with the native AE eyedropper, click a swatch to copy its hex, right-click to remove it, and export or import the whole palette as JSON to share with your team.
ONE PANEL
EVERY UTILITY
No floating windows, no ten separate scripts fighting for screen space. z.tools docks like a native AE panel and stays out of your way until you need it.
