ChronoKeys: Fine-Tune Timing Across Your Entire Animation (v1.0.2)

Downloadable Files

You can download ChronoKeys for free from the bottom of this product page.

Time Should Work for You, Not Against You

If you’ve ever had to adjust layer durations in After Effects and watched your beautiful keyframe work go out of whack, then you are not alone. Adjusting timing is perhaps the most painful part of motion design. ChronoKeys allows you to avoid the retiming cleanup and instead turn it into a confident design decision.

Adjust the timing of your animation, but keep every easing curve intact.

What Is ChronoKeys and Why It Matters

At its core, ChronoKeys is a timing control tool for Adobe After Effects that synchronizes keyframes with layer and precomp durations. Instead of having to nudge keyframes around or recreate an animation from scratch:

• Keyframes will respond to Layer In-points and Out-points.
• Your timing will be predictable.
• The cadence of your animation will remain intact.
• All easing curves are protected.

For example, when extending a scene by a few seconds, ChronoKeys ensures the animation stretches or shifts naturally—without destroying motion flow or spacing.

Meet ChronoKeys: Professional Timing Control

ChronoKeys is designed for animators, motion designers, and editors who care deeply about rhythm and precision. It simplifies complex retiming tasks and makes large timeline changes feel lightweight and reversible.

Features

• Sync Keyframes to Layers

  • Lock keyframes to layer in-points or out-points

  • Stretch timing while preserving relative motion

  • Protect keyframe spacing while adapting to layer duration

• Ripple Nudge

  • Automatically pushes neighboring layers when timing changes

  • Works even without synced keyframes for pure layer retiming

• CTI Nudge

  • Extends layers intersecting the CTI

  • Nudges layers left or right based on playhead position

  • Works on selected layers or entire compositions

• Precomp-Aware Retiming

  • Control how deeply changes affect nested precomps

  • Automatically extend precomp duration when needed

  • Retiming without diving into every precomp manually

• Keyframe Alignment & Re-Time

  • Snap keyframes to in-point, out-point, or CTI

  • Re-time by frames or percentage

  • Choose first, center, last keyframe, or CTI as anchor

• Advanced Stagger

  • Layer-based, property-based, or global staggering

  • Ascending or descending timing offsets with precision

Imagine retiming a complex explainer animation or UI sequence—ChronoKeys keeps everything coherent, even across deeply nested structures.

Pro Tips for Better Results

• For character animations, use Protect mode to preserve the spacing of motion.
• Use Ripple Nudge while syncing keyframes to reimagine the shape of an animation.
• Enable auto-precomp extension when retiming precomps so they don’t get cut off.
• Use Stagger with shorter offsets to create more organic motions.

Simple yet effective techniques can improve your work without burdening you with more tasks.

Why ChronoKeys Belongs in Your Workflow

This tool is not about glitz and glamor. ChronoKeys is about control. You can afford to get playful and experiment with timing and spacing, and have complete confidence that your animations won't be falling apart on you.

This tool is key if you are a motion designer looking to add a few frames to an animation or improve the timing of the entire project.

If timing is important to you as a motion designer, ChronoKeys helps make the chore of retiming less like a trip to the dentist!