Dockit

Getting Started

Overview

Dockit is an After Effects panel that keeps your everyday assets and controls close to the composition. Explore browses your folders, previews images, video and audio, and imports them into the project or straight into a comp. Connect turns the properties you need into one master control null, with the original layers linked to it by expressions.

This guide goes through the panel tab by tab. For each tool it tells you:

• SELECT: what to select in After Effects before you click
• SETTINGS: where the options are
• RESULT: what happens

A few general tips:

• Import to Comp and every Connect tool work on the ACTIVE composition. Open a comp and click inside its timeline first.
• Hover over any button to see a short tooltip. You can turn tooltips off in Settings.
• A "› Settings" line inside a block opens the options for that block.
• Short messages ("Imported 3", "Linked", "Select a parameter first") appear for a moment at the bottom of the panel. They tell you what happened or what was missing.
• Imports and links can be undone with Ctrl/Cmd + Z in After Effects.

Explore

Overview

A file browser for the folders you use every day: sound effects, textures, footage, logos, templates.

Saved Folders

The strip at the top holds your saved folders.

• "+" (on the left) adds a folder. Pick it in the system dialog; it is added to the strip and opened.
• Click a folder to open it. The folder stays highlighted while you browse any of its subfolders.
• The × on a folder removes it from the strip. Nothing is deleted on disk.
• A folder shown in red no longer exists at that path (it was moved, renamed or the drive is not connected). Remove it and add it again.
• When there are more folders than fit, scroll the strip with the mouse wheel or a trackpad.

Browsing

Folder header

The name and full path of the open folder. ↻ Refresh - reads the folder again after you added files. ↑ Go up - opens the parent folder.

Search files

Type part of a name to show only matching files and folders.

Filter

All, Importable, Images, Video, Audio, AE.

• Importable shows only files After Effects can import.
• The filter is remembered for each folder separately.
• When a filter is on, a small × appears inside the button. Click it to go back to All.
• Folders are hidden while a filter is on. Turn on "Include matching folders" in Settings to keep the folders that contain matching files.

List / Grid

The two buttons next to the filter: a compact list, or a grid of large previews.

Files and folders

• Click a folder to open it.
• Click a file to select it; click again to deselect. Select as many as you need, then use the import bar below.
• Double-click a file to import it into the project right away.
• Right-click a file for "Reveal in Finder" (Explorer on Windows).
• The heart marks a file as a favorite. Favorites are always listed first in their folder.

Previews

Images

Show a thumbnail.

Video

Shows the first frame. Click the preview to play it muted inside the row; click again to stop.

Audio

Click the preview icon to listen; click again to stop. Scrolling the list or selecting other files does not stop the sound.

Previews can be turned off in Settings (Preview Files) if a folder has a lot of heavy media.

Import

SELECT: one or more files in the list (not in After Effects). The bar at the bottom shows "Import [N] selected items".

to Project

RESULT: the files are imported into the Project panel, into the folder set in Settings (default "Imported Assets").

to Comp

SELECT: also open the target composition.

RESULT: the files are imported and added as layers to the active comp.

× clears the selection.

With "Copy files to project folder before import" on (Settings), Dockit first copies the files into a folder next to your .aep (default "Assets/Folders") and imports the copies. The project then keeps working when you move or archive it together with that folder.

Connect

Overview

Build master controls: pick the properties you want to animate on different layers and drive all of them from one control null. Each linked property gets an expression that reads a control on the null, so moving one slider changes every linked layer.

Control Nulls

The strip at the top lists the control nulls in the active comp.

• "+" creates a new control null ("Linkit Controls") in the active comp and makes it the target.
• Click a null to make it the target. New controls are added to the target null.
• To use a null you already have: select it in the timeline and drag it onto the strip. When the strip is empty you can also select the null and click the "No nulls" hint.
• With many nulls, scroll the strip with the mouse wheel.

The list updates by itself while the Connect tab is open: new nulls, renamed controls and your current selection in the timeline show up within a second or two.

Create Master Nulls

Block Settings

Mode

• Replace expression: a property that already has an expression gets the new link instead.
• Skip linked props: properties that already have an expression are left alone.

Copy source value

A NEW control starts with the current value of the property, so nothing jumps when you link it. Linking to a control that already exists never changes that control's value.

Allow 2D/3D adapters

Lets a 2D property link to a 3D Point control and the other way round.

Tools

Drop parameter here (New link)

SELECT: one property in the timeline, for example Opacity, Position or Fill Color. Drag the property from the timeline onto this area, or select it and click the area.

RESULT: a new control of the matching type is added to the target null and the property is linked to it. Dockit always reads the current selection first, so the property you just dragged is the one that is used.

Which control you get:

• one value (Opacity, Rotation, a slider...) - Slider
• Color - Color Control
• Position, Anchor Point and other 2D values - Point Control
• 3D values - 3D Point Control
• Layer pickers - Layer Control
• Scale and Size (Scale, Rectangle / Ellipse Size, Repeater Scale) - ONE Slider in percent. 100 is the original size; the layer scales around its own anchor point and keeps its proportions and keyframes.

Parameter list

Appears as soon as the target null has at least one control. Each row shows the control name and its type.

• Drag a property from the timeline onto a row to link it to that existing control. The control keeps its value.
• "+" on a row links the property selected in the timeline to that control.
• The pencil renames the control. After Effects updates the expressions that use it.
• × deletes the control and removes the expressions that used it, so the layers keep their current values. Rows turn grey when they do not match the property that is selected right now (for example a Slider while Position is selected). They become active again when you select a property of the matching type.

Settings

Import

Copy files to project folder before import: see 1.4. Preview Files: thumbnails and media previews in Explore. Show correct aspect ratio: previews keep the real proportions of the image or video instead of filling the square. Include matching folders: while a filter is on, show folders that contain matching files. Disk folder near .aep: where copied files go, relative to the project file (default "Assets/Folders"). AE Project panel folder: the Project panel folder imports go into (default "Imported Assets").

Interface

Size (- / +): scales the whole panel. Color Style: W? Style, Blue, Mint, Amber, Rose, Violet, Black & White, or Custom Color (pick any color or type a hex value).

Display Style

Tabs: Icon + Name, Icon Only or Name Only. Show ToolTips: the hover hints.

Cache

Clear Favorites: removes all heart marks. Folders and settings stay. Reset Settings: returns import and interface settings to the defaults. Saved folders and favorites stay. Clear Cache & Reset: deletes all Dockit data on this computer - saved folders, favorites, Connect settings, all other settings and the license key - and the activation screen comes back. Files on disk and nulls in your projects are not touched.

About Dockit

Version number, "More about Dockit", "Leave a feedback" and "Join Discord".

Connect with What? Studio

"Visit What? Studio" and links to Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Tips and Troubleshooting

Common Questions

Nothing happened after a click

Look at the short message at the bottom of the panel - it says what was missing, usually no open comp or no selected property.

A saved folder is red

The folder is not at that path anymore. Reconnect the drive, or remove the folder with × and add it again with "+".

I don't see new files

Press ↻ Refresh in the folder header.

A filter hides my folders

Turn on "Include matching folders" in Settings, or click the × in the filter to go back to All.

The project breaks after I move it to another computer

Turn on "Copy files to project folder before import" so the files are copied next to the .aep, and move that folder together with the project.

Connect created the wrong control

Select exactly one property in the timeline before you drop or click. Delete the extra control with × on its row.

"Source already has an expression"

The property is already linked or has its own expression. Set Mode to "Replace expression" in "› Settings" if you want to replace it.

Scale linked to a slider

That is intended: Scale and Size use one percent slider so the layer keeps its proportions. 100 means the original size.

Starting over

Clear Cache & Reset in Settings resets the whole panel.

Need help? Use "Leave a feedback" or "Join Discord" in Settings. Created by What? Studio - 2026