In After Effects, when I scale two layers at once they scale at different rates?

Question

I am trying to resize two mov layers together. I would usually select both layers, hold shift to maintain their shape and drag the scale slider or layer corner inwards/outward. When I tried this the two objects changed scale at different rates and ended up quite different to each other? this only occurs when mov files are in the composition; on a separate comp with solids scaling works fine. How do you resize two mov at the same time?

Answer 1

The problem is that the layers are scaling at the same rate. If you look at the actual scale values. For example, if you have one layer at 100% scale and another at 90% scale, then select both and resize to 50%, the layers will be at 50% scale and 40% scale, so they have both had their scale reduced by 50% of their total 100%, not 50% of their current scale.

You can see the default behaviour here:

As far as I'm aware this is just how After Effects work and you can't change it. There are 2 main ways to get around this:

1. Pre-compose.

Select all the layers you want to scale, right click and select Pre-Compose...

2. Null Layer.

Create a new Null Layer (Layer → New → Null Object). Select all the layers you want to scale and parent them to the Null Object (drag the little icon under 'Parent' in the layers/timeline to the Null layer).