Repeater
One layer, endless copies — each one a step further along.
Repeater takes the layer and stamps it out N times. Every copy gets the same transform as the one before it, applied again: shift it 26 px right and turn it 14°, and copy five sits 130 px right and 70° round.
The copies are not real layers. They exist only while the modifier is on, they cannot be selected, and they cost you nothing in the layer list. Change the source — its fill, its text, its effects — and all of them change together.
When to reach for it#
- Fans, spirals, radial bursts, loading rings.
- Motion trails behind a moving object, using scale and opacity falloff.
- Stripes, ladders, and rhythmic backgrounds you want to retune later.
- Anything where you would otherwise copy-paste a layer ten times and regret it.
How it works#
Copy 0 is the original, untouched. Copy 1 gets the transform once, copy 2 gets it twice, and so on. Rotation and scale both happen around the anchor, which is expressed in percent of the layer box — 50/50 is the middle, 0/0 is the top-left corner, and values outside 0–100 put the anchor outside the layer entirely. That last one is how you build a ring: push the anchor well below the layer and give it a rotation step.
Opacity is the exception. It does not compound. It runs as a straight ramp from Start opacity on copy 0 to End opacity on the last copy, so the falloff stays even no matter how many copies you ask for.
Parameters#
How many copies exist, including the original. One means the modifier does nothing. This is keyframable, and animating it makes copies pop in and out — they appear at full opacity, so if you want them to fade in, animate End opacity alongside it.
Shifts which copy counts as number zero. Leave it at 0 and the original sits where you put it. Push it to 3 and every copy slides three steps along the transform, original included. Animate this instead of Copies when you want the array to travel without the count changing.
How far each copy moves from the one before. These are plain pixels in layer space, so they are unaffected by the layer's own rotation. Both at 0 with a rotation step gives you a fan; both non-zero with a rotation step gives you a spiral.
Degrees added per copy, turning around the anchor. For a closed ring, divide 360 by your copy count — twelve copies at 30° each, sixteen at 22.5°. Anything that does not divide evenly leaves a visible gap, which is sometimes what you want.
Multiplied per copy, not added. 0.9 means each copy is 90% of the last, so copy 10 is about a third of the original. Values above 1 grow, and they grow fast — 1.2 across 12 copies is nearly nine times the original size, which will run off the canvas.
The point rotation and scale pivot around, in percent of the layer box. This is the control that turns a fan into a ring. Drop Anchor Y to 190 and the copies swing around a point below the layer instead of through its middle.
A linear ramp across the array. Start 1 and End 0.15 gives a trail that fades out. Reverse them and the array fades in toward the last copy — useful when the copies are stacked in front.
Whether copies draw behind the original or in front of it. Behind reads as a trail the object is leaving; in front reads as a trail catching up to it. On a fan with overlapping copies it decides which edge you see.
Recipes#
A loading ring
- Draw one small rounded rectangle near the top of where the ring should sit.
- Add Repeater and set Copies to 12.
- Set Rotation to 30 — that is 360 ÷ 12, so the copies close the circle exactly.
- Set Position X and Y to 0 so nothing drifts, and Scale X / Y to 100%.
- Drag Anchor Y until the copies swing around the ring centre you want. Around 190% works for a bar near the top of its own box.
- Set End opacity to about 0.2 for the classic chasing-tail look, then add a Spin driver to the source layer to make it turn.
The Spin driver rotates the source, and the Repeater re-stamps it every frame, so the whole ring turns without a single keyframe.
A motion trail
- Keyframe the layer moving across the canvas.
- Add Repeater, Copies 10, Rotation 0.
- Set Position X and Y to 0 — you want the copies stacked, not offset.
- Set Scale X and Y to 96% and End opacity to 0.1.
- Set Stacking to "Copies behind".
- Add a Delay driver on top, around 0.06 s.
Repeater alone stacks the copies in the same place. The Delay driver is what spreads them along the path the layer actually travelled, so the trail follows the real motion instead of a straight line.
Things that catch people out#
You cannot click a copy, keyframe one individually, or give copy 7 a different colour. If you need per-copy control, use Instancer instead — its clones carry an index that drivers can read.
A scale step of 1.15 looks gentle on copy 2 and is four times the original by copy 10. If the array is disappearing off-canvas, the scale step is almost always why.
A drop shadow on a repeated layer shadows the finished array, not each copy. That is usually what you want. When it is not, put the effect on the source and the Repeater above it in the stack — order in the modifier list decides.
See also#
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