Install the Layer panel in After Effects

Last updated: October 30, 2026

Install the Layer panel in After Effects and sign in, so you can generate plates, elements, stills and sound into the composition you are animating, and edit the selected layer with a prompt.

Before you start

  • After Effects on macOS or Windows. The download page lists the minimum version for the current build.

  • A Layer account. The panel is free with every plan, including the free one; generations use your workspace's Creative Units, as they do in the browser.

  • After Effects extensions install differently from Photoshop and Premiere Pro: the Creative Cloud app does not place them, so you run Layer's installer instead of double-clicking a .ccx. The installer adds the panel for every user on the computer, so it needs an administrator account.

  • If your company signs in to Layer with single sign-on (Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace or another provider), first sign in to Layer in your default browser through your identity provider, for example from the Layer tile on your Okta dashboard. The panel's sign-in then only asks you to confirm a code, never for a password.

Steps

  1. Go to layer.ai/integrations/after-effects and download the installer for your platform: a .pkg for macOS or an .exe for Windows.

  2. Run the installer and follow the prompts. It puts the panel where After Effects looks for extensions. Where no installer is offered for your platform, download the .zxp and open it with a ZXP installer instead.

  3. Restart After Effects, then open Window, Extensions, Layer AI. Dock the panel beside your Effect Controls.

  4. The first time it opens, the panel asks you to sign in. Click Sign in on Browser.

  5. Your browser opens Layer's sign-in page, and the panel shows a code. Sign in with your Layer account and confirm that the code on the page matches the one in the panel.

  6. Back in After Effects, the panel opens with Layer's tools.

Result

Generated footage lands as a new layer at the top of the stack, sized to the region it was made for, and the import is one undo step. The panel can read the frame you are on and edit footage it placed itself. Every generation is saved to a Layer session you can open in the browser.

Production tips

  • Generate elements, not whole shots. Plates to push in on, overlays under a title, a loopable puff of smoke, a hit for the moment a gate opens: small, specific pieces are where the panel saves the most time.

  • Undo is one step. A result you do not want costs a single Cmd-Z (Ctrl-Z on Windows), so try several before committing.

  • Render stays local, generation does not. Generation runs on Layer, so a render in After Effects is not competing with it for your machine.

If something goes wrong

  • Layer AI is not under Window, Extensions. Restart After Effects. If it is still missing, check that your version meets the minimum on the download page and run the installer again.

  • The installer asks for an administrator password or stops with a permission error. It installs the panel for every user on the computer, which needs administrator rights. On a work computer your IT team manages, ask them to run the installer for you or deploy it with their software distribution tool.

  • The sign-in page asks for a password, and your company uses single sign-on. You don't need a separate password. Sign in to Layer in your browser through your identity provider (for example your Okta tile), then click Sign in on Browser in the panel again. You can't sign in to a Layer plugin covers this and the panel's other sign-in messages.

  • The panel cannot act on a clip. It reads the current frame and footage it placed itself. Reading any other clip would mean rendering the composition, so it says what it can act on instead.

  • Couldn't start sign-in. Please try again. Check your internet connection and click Sign in on Browser again. If you closed the browser page, click Reopen the sign-in page.

  • Your workspace is missing after you sign in. See You can't sign in or can't see your workspace.

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