Fold or unfold objects in AE

Folder or unfolding layers has become popular in After Effects and other apps in the last several years, and tutorials, scripts, and even animated typefaces have popped up to help spread the meme. An origami plug-in would be nice, but for now the easiest way to start folding or unfolding layers is using AE scripts.

See more on scripts, tutorials, and plug-ins in Fold and unfold layers in After Effects at PVC.

TypeMonkey: a kinetic type tool

at PVC is a quick look at TypeMonkey, a new AE script that generates complex kinetic type animations. TypeMonkey takes away some of the drudgery to organizing and animating text, which should let designers have more time to sketch out ideas.

The special 45% off intro price is ending soon -- it lasts until Aug 26, 2013 at aescripts + aeplugins. If you want to give a spin, the trial version has a 7-day limit and allows for a maximum of 10 words.

Scripts and scripting in After Effects

Using and creating After Effects scripts is a collection of some learning and script resources on PVC.

CopyMask2Layer: a new AE script

CopyMask2Layer is a new After Effects script at AE Scripts:

When you copy a mask from one layer to another it often changes its position. With CopyMask2Layer you can copy masks while keeping them perfectly in place - even if the layers are moving and if the mask path is keyframed.

The demo video will immediately answer the questions you have in mind!

DV Rebel Tools for free

Note: Red Giant released Colorista Free, which is pretty much Colorista 1.
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Prolost is celebrating the release of e-versions of The DV Rebel’s Guide (review) by giving away updated versions of the DV Rebel Tools scripts included with the original edition of the book. For many more details, see Rebel's Guide on your iPad or Kindle, DV Rebel Tools For Free.

Here's Stu's tutorial for DV Rebel Tools and a recent color correction session that also features their use (and still hoping for Colorista Free):

DV Rebel Tools Free for After Effects CS5 from Stu Maschwitz on Vimeo.

07 - Color Correcting Food with Magic Bullet Colorista II from Red Giant Software on Vimeo.

ft-MarkerExporter: reuse layer markers

ft-MarkerExporter is a new After Effect script from Francois Tarlier that "exports layer markers to a XML file which can then be reimported and applied to an existing layer, a new layer or even a new comp."

Modifying Keyframes with KeyTweak

Mamoworld, home of Mathias Möhl and friends, has published a new quick tip tutorial (embedded below), Modifying Keyframes with KeyTweak. Mathias says that KeyTweak is a must-have when working with hundreds of keyframes, like in his stabilize motion tutorial. The new version is easier to use -- you can push around keyframes in the work area just using the Arrow buttons.

Mathias explains:

Although the new version of KeyTweak was published last December, I didn't have a tutorial about its new features (the new "local mode"), hence almost nobody discovered its potential so far. While the old version of KeyTweak (consisting only of the "global mode" of the new KeytTweak) had a somewhat confusing workflow (you needed to duplicate a property, delete all keyframes in it that you want KeyTweak to take care of etc), the new local mode is much more intuitive. 
With a set of arrow buttons you just move around all keyframes in the work area, and also fade in/out those changes if you like. The old "global mode" remains still useful for properties that are not 2D, like transparency (local mode works only with 2d properties and mask shapes).

After Effects Tutorial: Modifying Keyframes with KeyTweak from Mathias Möhl on Vimeo.

Customizable After Effects Toolbar: another tutorial

Francois Tarlier posted a tutorial for his script ft-Toolbar on AEtuts, Enhanced Your Workflow: ft-Toolbar A Customizable Toolbar Script.

Too bad Premiere doesn't use these scripts. There's updates and info on AE Scripts; here's the original video demo by Lloyd Alvarez:

Export After Effects to iPhone, HTML5 + sneak peeks

Sebastian Perier notes Export After Effects to iPhone and HTML5 by dab.la, who used Sebastian's XML Gibson from AE Scripts. That script allows you to export your composition to XML files with more parameters than After Effects saves of projects. The solution was to "animate in AE, then export to XML [instead of compiled .ipa like Flash exports], then build both an HTML5 web app... and an iPhone app that can read that XML file and animate appropriately."

Of course HTML5 is one of the general thrusts of Adobe development, as seen at Adobe Labs. Converting Adobe Flash FLA files into HTML and reach more devices is the point of "Wallaby," codename for experimental technology that converts artwork and animation contained in Flash (FLA) files into HTML. For more news of how this all might work, keep an eye on Adobe’s web pro team at SXSW in Austin this week.

Update: Adobe posted some 2011 sneak peeks on AdobeTV. Here's one:

HS_ProxyManager: script to setup AE proxies

Lester Banks notes HS_ProxyManager, a proxy manager script for After Effects by Hiroshi Saito. The script background renders AE proxies in multiple resolutions and provides a UI to switch between them.

For more on proxies see Placeholders and proxies and Post-render actions in AE Help. Here's a video on proxies by Andrew Kramer and a demo of HS_ProxyManager:

WIP HS_ProxyManager vol.2 from Hiroshi Saito on Vimeo.

SearchAndEdit Bundle on AE Scripts

The SearchAndEditBundle from Paul Tuersley on AE Scripts puts 3 scripts together for the price of two: pt_EffectSearch, pt_ExpressEdit, & pt_TextEdit. These 3 scripts lets you search and edit Text, effects, and expressions throughout AE projects at once -- handy for complicated projects.

The much anticipated ExpressEdit is brand new. The 2 others are newly updated; EffectSearch now has the option to do effect instancing, which was a popular feature request. Here's Paul Tuersley on ExpressEdit:

AE Plug-in Matchnames

Update August 2016: After Effects Plugin Match Names from David Torno is the most updated article available (PDF download and script to contribute).

Update: redefinery posted Effect Match Names Reference (for AE CC (12.1)).

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David Torno published a long list of After Effects plug-in matchnames for scripters and expression artists on the AE I Owe You Facebook page:

"Nothing exciting, but might be handy. While the list is not 100% complete, under 1200 right now, I would like to get every single current plugin made for AE in this list at some point.

I can pass along a script I made to export matchname info for plugins. Basically if you don't see the plugins you are looking for on the list AND you have them installed and you are interested in adding to this list, let me know."

What is a matchName? Under the hood, every object or property has a unique matching ID. Here's a description from AEnhancers:

'matchName will give you After Effects' internal name for any given layer or property type, so you can figure out what kind of layer or property you are dealing with. For example, a layer might also be an "ADBE Camera Layer", an "ADBE Light Layer" or an "ADBE Text Layer", all fairly self explainatory really.

So an "ADBE AV Layer" is basically any kind of layer that might contain audio or video, in fact any kind of layer that isn't a Camera, Light or Text layer.'

Several years ago Jeff Almasol posted an Effect Match Names Reference for AE 7 at his Redefinery. Jeff's rd: Gimme Props script "dumps the name and matchName of the property hierarchy of the selected layers, in selected order. Use this information to retrieve the internal matchName for a property that you want to access in your scripts."

Also, some recent AE scripts offer matchname services; see 'Knowledge at your fingertips' for After Effects, ExpressionUniversalizer to translate expressions, and ft-Toolbar.

You can see matchname use in action in a tutorial at AEtuts+, Learn How to Create a Light Rays Custom Effect from Scratch by Jorrit Schulte.

ft-Toolbar: custom toolbar for After Effects

AE Scripts has released ft-Toolbar by Francois Tarlier. This script gives the ability to make your own custom toolbar in After Effects with effects, presets, or any commands you use the most often. At first glance it seems similar to Quick Fx Palette (a 'button bar' for effects and presets).

Toolbar’s features:

• lets you edit the UI: add, delete, order, config buttons of your toolbar.
• with 5 kind of buttons -- EFFECT, ANIMATION PRESET, SCRIPT LAUNCHER (.jsx or .jsxbin), MENU (for example, Time-Reverse Keyframes), JAVASCRIPT, and OS (command line, like launch a calculator)

There's a free trial of the full version of the script which is fully functional without a license for 2 weeks. Here's a demo by Lloyd Alvarez:

AE Scripts previews upcoming releases

AE Scripts posted a preview of its upcoming (and some recent) releases of AE scripts and plug-ins. The presentation was scheduled for the latest meetings of AENY and SFMograph...

AENY Jan 2011 Recorded Presentation from Aescripts+Aeplugins on Vimeo.

ExpressionTimeline: script to modify expressions

AE Scripts and Mamoworld now offer ExpressionTimeline, a new After Effects script that lets you combine and modify expressions without editing the code itself. This script makes it easier to:

• make expressions be active only for a certain period of time
• add more than one expression to a property
• fade expressions in and out smoothly
• transition smoothly from one expression to the next one

Here's a short demo and a tutorial for a peek (there's more on Mamoworld):

After Effects ExpressionTimeline in 1 Minute from Mathias Möhl on Vimeo.

Expression Timeline Tutorial from Mathias Möhl on Vimeo.

Lists of AE project effects, fonts, files +

After Effects Facebook posted a useful tip today: "Use Collect Files (Generate Report Only) to get a list of effects, fonts, & files used. ...the Collect Files command gathers copies of all of the files in a project or composition into a single location. Using this command is a useful step before rendering, for archiving, or for moving a project to a different computer system or user account." For more on Collect Files, see Kingsley in After Effects File Management Heaven or Hell?, and Carl Larsen on the collect and consolidate features in his video File Management in After Effects.

Chris Meyer followed Adobe's tip (likely from Todd Kopriva) with a comment that "the report might miss fonts loaded by an effect (for example, text generation effects where you get to select a font)." So Layer Marker notes might be good if the project is to be archived.

Lloyd Alvarez also noted ProjectInfoListExporter by David Torno on AE Scripts, if you want more customizable control over project information. By the way, David Torno welcomes requests for a script or an update idea for his existing scripts on his Facebook page.

3D Bevel: script responds to AE light

Ben Rollason posted another 3D script for After Effects, 3D Bevel. Ben has 2 other 3D scripts, 3D Widgets and SkyDome, on AE Scripts and some tutorials on premultiplication and blending modes at Creative Cow.

3D Bevel combines the best of the built-in Bevel Alpha effect and the Bevel and Emboss layer style, and adds reaction to an an After Effects 3D light.

AE scripts to distribute layers in 3D space

Lost in the excitement over version 2 of BDRenderer was an update to DistributeLayers by nab Scripts (Charles Bordenave):

This script allows you to distribute the selected layers in 3D space. In addition to offset position, you can offset rotation/scale/opacity and adds some randomness. The “Factor” parameter allows non-linear offset between layers.

Some similar and not so similar 3D scripts from AE Scripts have been noted (eg, Trajectory, Multiplane, Matrix, 3D Layer Distributor, Create3DShapes), but DistributeLayers has not been mentioned here previously. Here's the demo:

SSA Karaoke Animator: new After Effects script

"Paul Tuersley week" ends with a new After Effects script, pt_SSAKaraokeAnimator:

"Imports karaoke subtitles from Substation Alpha files (.ssa/.ass) and creates new text layers with user designed text animation. In this new version you can also add a bouncing ball to your karaoke."

Crop Precomps, a new After Effects script

"Paul Tuersley week" continues with a new After Effects script, Crop Precomps:

"This script can crop nested compositions to fit the image contents. Useful in cases like Photoshop imports where precomps are created as document size. It makes precomp layers easier to work with as their bounding boxes fit the images, and can speed up rendering by reducing the areas being processed.

Written on request for screen graphics designer Mark Coleran, whose work can be seen on the computer screens in movies such as The Bourne Identity and Tomb Raider. Mark designs complex user interfaces in Photoshop made up of many layers nested into groups, before importing them into After Effects to animate."