Fling uses the playhead to decide when a layout arrives. You choose the duration by placing layouts at different times.

Make a two-layout transition

  1. Select your layers and put the playhead at the start of the move.
  2. Click Keyframe options, the diamond button. Click Enable Keyframes.
  3. Leave Stagger at 0 for this first transition. Choose an easing preset.
  4. Drag a Line layout in the pad, or use Apply in Edit Mode. This keys the first layout.
  5. Move the playhead later in the composition.
  6. Place a Ring layout on the same layers.
  7. Preview that interval in After Effects.

The layers now move from the line to the ring. You can keep advancing the playhead and placing more layouts. Fling uses ordinary Position keys, with Scale or Rotation keys when the layout changes those properties.

Ease In Out is the default. Choose Linear for constant speed, or a curved preset to change how the transition accelerates and slows down.

The preset applies to the segments beside the key Fling writes, including an existing following segment. The full preset inventory is in Keyframe options.

Enabling keyframes does not automatically create a starting pose. Make the first placement before moving the playhead. When a later move keys Scale or Rotation for the first time, Fling also keys that property’s current value at the move’s departure time, if it has an earlier Position key to start from.

With Rotation enabled, an already keyed layer turns the short way to its next angle. Fling may write an equivalent angle outside the usual single-turn range to avoid an unnecessary full spin.

Let each layer take its turn

Set Stagger to a number of frames between 0 and 30. It delays each successive layer in shape order. The first target arrives at the playhead, the next arrives one Stagger interval later, and so on.

For example, six layers with Stagger set to 2 arrive at the playhead, then 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 frames later. Leave enough room after the playhead for the last layer’s arrival.

When a previous layout has Position keys, Fling offsets departure times too. Each layer waits before starting, so its move takes the same time as the others. The order runs around a ring or outward along a spiral. In Edit Mode, a grid’s Fill choice changes its placement order.

Set Stagger before both layouts for a regular cascade. Avoid applying at the same time as the previous layout, because a transition needs an earlier key and a later key.

Disable keyframes deliberately

Click Disable Keyframes in the options popover. If the selected unlocked layers have Position keys, Fling opens Clear Position Keyframes? with this message:

This will turn off keyframes and clear Position keyframes on the selected layers.

Confirming removes their Position keys, including separated X, Y and Z keys, and keeps their positions as evaluated at the current playhead. It includes Position keys created outside Fling. Scale and Rotation keys remain. Cancel the dialog to keep Keyframe Mode enabled and preserve the Position keys.

If you only want to switch the mode off without clearing those keys, first deselect the animated layers, then click Disable Keyframes. Existing keyed properties still receive a key when you place a layout with the mode off; the mode controls Fling’s easing and stagger behavior as well as creating keys on unanimated properties.