Calvin Swaim offers a handy little tool for After Effects, that will easily offset animation at the click of a button.
Create animations based upon a time offset with ease
The Time Offset Animation Tool can make setting up complicated animations easy, allowing you to set parameters for the offset amount, which attributes to offset, and some housekeeping PreComposition and naming attributes. The tool also can apply an animation controller to your sleeked layers in Ae.
All you have to do is animate a single layer, then create as many duplicates of that layer as you like and apply the Time Offset Animation tool with your settings.
You can learn more about the Time Offset Animation tool is offered through aescripts + aeplugins at a name-your-own-price, so check it out here: Time Offset Animation Tool for After Effects.
More Resources for Creating Offset Animation in After Effects
Calvin Swaim actually based this Time Offset Animation tool for After Effects on a tutorial that he posted a while back, so if yo want to learn how to do it on your own, or want the source code, you can chaco out the post Creating a Script for Offsetting Animation in After Effects With the Time Offset Expression.
As well as another post on Creative Congo looking at a couple of ways to approach time offset in After Effects with the post Creating Time Offsets in After Effects Three Different Ways.
