Staircase

Staircase, by James Ronan, is a tool for After Effects that allows users to quickly stagger, sequence, and randomize blocks of layers in the timeline.

Divide your layers into separate blocks via block size or via label color. Hovering over the UI will highlight what labels are selected.

Offset layers individually, or control inside and outside the blocks.

Staircase comes with some great additional features like staggering based on position, adding easing to each block, and fading between blocks.

Some of the features in more detail:

Stagger:

Stagger different blocks of layers in multiple increments and in the order they’re selected.

Alt + Click staggers layers and blocks based on their position within the composition.

• Control whether layers with the same position start at the same time
• Base position on the center point of each block and layer, or its bounding box.
• Stagger inside blocks and outside blocks based on position separately.

When staggering by position with a bounding box, layers and blocks are sorted based on their nearest edge,

to the direction chosen. E.g. If the direction chosen is down: Layers and blocks will be sorted based on their top edge.

See above for an example.

Easing:

Add additional easing elements to the main UI.

Ease all selected layers, or choose to ease inside or outside blocks.

Sequence:

Sequence layers individually or in blocks. Staircase works out the overall in-point and out-point of each block and adjusts accordingly.

Fade between blocks of layers and control:

• Shift + Click to fade in.
• Alt + Click to fade out.
• Shift + Alt + Click to fade in and out.

Randomize:

Randomize blocks of layers up to a defined amount forwards in time.

Shift + Click to randomise blocks of layers up to a defined amount forwards and backwards in time.

Custom UI:

Add additional elements you see in the main UI to what ever best suits your needs. Just re open the script to see the changes.

Staircase currently allows you to add or hide:

• Inside / Outside Blocks controls
• Easing controls

Additional Features:

• Choose a unit value between: Frames, Seconds Minutes.
• Round to the nearest frame when easing.
• Merge label colours into single blocks if they’re not together in the timeline.
• Move layers to the CTI.
• Create a block from all layers selected.