After adding footage to the Timeline in After Effects, select one or more footage layers and go to Layer > Scene Edit Detection or right-click and select Scene Edit Detection.
Last updated on
Jan 21, 2026
After you bring your footage into After Effects, you can set up After Effects to automatically detect the original cut points in your footage.
Why use Scene Edit Detection?
Powered by Adobe Sensei, Scene Edit Detection automatically detects scene changes in an edited clip and creates scenes as markers or layers for a faster project setup. Finding the original edit points in a video is necessary before you start editing the video. Using this helps you automatically get the cut points without going through the footage manually.
Use Scene Edit Detection to add cut points
In the Scene Edit Detection dialog box, select the following options:
- Create Layer Markers: The selected footage layers will have numbered Segmentation markers applied at each scene edit.
- Split Layer at Scene Edit: The selected footage layers will be split so each scene will be on a separate layer in the Timeline. When using this option, you can also choose Create Pre-comps using the checkbox to have each resulting layer pre-composed. New pre-comps will be placed in the Project panel in a folder matching the footage layer's name, which will be nested inside a Scene Edit Detection folder to help keep your project organized.
Assign a type to Layer Markers
You can assign one of the following types to Layer Markers:
- Comment
- Segmentation
Each type has a default label color associated with it. To customize the label color, select Preferences > Labels. Markers created by Scene Edit Detection are created as Segmentation Markers.
Double-click a marker in the Timeline to launch the Layer Marker dialog box.
Choose from the Comment Marker and Segmentation Marker options.
Use the dropdown menu and select a color to assign a color label to the marker.
Limitations
Scene Edit Detection can only be run on video footage. It can't be run on pre-comps or other layer types and Time-Remapped footage.
Next steps
Now that you have added cut points to your footage, you can start creating and editing your graphics - learn animation basics, create layers, add effects, animate text, and more.
Have a question or an idea?
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