Duplicating keyframes in After Effects

Question

I've made a basic animation where an element quickly changes position multiple times, e.g:

1. Top left corner
2. Middle
3. Top left corner
4. Bottom right corner

I'm trying to duplicate these keyframes a couple times so that the animation lasts longer.

Is there a way to do this? I've read up on copying / pasting keyframes to different layers, but I can't find a way to paste them onto the same layer

Answer 1

1. Click the layer were your made the keyframes
2. Press U or P to reveal the keyframes

3. Highlight the keyframes. You will know it's highlighted since the color of the keyframes is colored blue(see screenshot below)

4. CTRL + C to copy the keyframes

5. Move your time indicator to the next time you wanted
6. CTRL + V to paste the keyframe Note: You need to properly copy the Start and End of the keyframe so that you won't mess up the animation

Answer 2

You can easily copy and paste keyframes in AfterEffects:

• In any non-empty composition, select a property of any layer (e.g. position), and click the stop watch to create a keyframe at the current time.
• Move the cursor/indicator to another time. Click the keyframe icon left next to the stop watch to add another keyframe.
• Create as many keyframes as you like.
• To copy one or multiple keyframes, select them on the timeline and press Ctrl+C / Cmd+C. (You might want to open hidden properties first in order to see the keyframes, or press U to open/close the keyframes of the current selection.)
• To paste keyframes, select a property (e.g. position) of any layer on your timeline (it can be the same layer), place the cursor/indicator where you want the first keyframe to appear, and press Ctrl+V / Cmd+V.
• You can copy & paste keyframes of several attributes (e.g. position, scale and rotation) from one layer to another in one go. To do this, select all keyframes of one layer, press Ctrl+C / Cmd+C, then select one or more other layers and press Ctrl+V / Cmd+V.
• Pasting from one property to another doesn't always make sense, e.g. you cannot paste position keyframes into the scale property. AE will complain with an error message.
• Some other properties allow even more flexible copy & pasting, e.g. you can copy a mask path and paste it into another object's position. This is useful if you want to have an object follow a mask path.
• Related: You can select several keyframes at once and scale them on the timeline by pressing Alt and dragging.