Remove parent links
Select the layers you want to detach, then click Release. Each unlocked selected layer with a parent becomes unparented. Unselected children remain attached to their own parents.
Selecting a null and clicking Release detaches that null from its parent. To detach the null’s children, select the children instead.
With no selection, you see Select layers to release. If the selection has no parent links to remove, the toast says Nothing to release and a sufficiently wide tile shows Nothing parented.
Delete Nanny nulls
Select the Nanny nulls you want to remove. Hold Alt and click Release. On macOS, use Option. The dashed hub in the hover preview represents removing the null.
Nanny reconnects each removed null’s direct children to that null’s parent. If the null had no parent, those children become unparented. The children stay in place when the links change. They do not need to be selected.
For example, if Master → Nanny → Title, deleting Nanny gives you Master → Title.
Only null layers whose layer comment is exactly nanny are deleted. Renaming a Nanny null is fine. Changing its comment makes it ineligible, and a regular null named Nanny is not enough. Other selected unlocked layers are released normally, including regular nulls; they are not deleted.
Selected locked nulls are skipped. Direct children of an eligible null are reconnected even when those children are locked. Nanny briefly unlocks them for that change and restores their locks.
Keep motion across time
Release preserves the current world-space pose through After Effects parenting compensation. It does not bake animation inherited from a parent. Detaching a layer from an animated parent can change how it moves at other times.
If you need that inherited motion after detaching, bake the required motion in After Effects first. Review the whole time range after release. Each Nanny action can be reversed with one Edit > Undo step.