u/KashuAcademy

I've been seeing a lot of curiosity and, honestly, a lot of hesitation around using Claude with After Effects. So many motion designers are in the "I've heard of it, but I don't really get what it does or how it works" camp. 

So I decided to go deep on it. Not a quick skim. I actually tested it across real motion design workflows and documented everything I found.

I just put together a full breakdown that answers the questions I kept seeing over and over:

What Claude can actually do inside After Effects. Where it helps, where it doesn't, and where it straight-up wastes your time.

How setup works, because this was way less obvious than it should be, and most guides skip the parts that trip you up.

Real use cases for motion designers and not generic "AI can help you brainstorm!" stuff. 

I'm talking about specific things like expression generation and workflow shortcuts that actually make a difference in daily work.

There are things it's genuinely useful for and things that are still faster to do manually.

If you're a motion designer who's been curious about Claude but hasn't taken the plunge because the info out there feels either too vague or too hype-y - this is for you. It's also for you if you've tried it once, got underwhelming results, and figured "yeah, not for me." There's a good chance you just didn't have the right setup or prompts.

What this isn't:

It's not a "Claude will replace you" video. It's not a sponsored thing. It's me sharing what I learned after actually using it in my workflow, so you can skip the trial-and-error phase.

I also put together a cheat sheet with all the prompts I used during testing. If you want it, just DM us or leave a comment, and I'll send it over: https://youtu.be/ayZnTA4dnZk?si=y0ri5-rU5ejwK4QV

Happy to answer any questions in the comments, too. 

I’ve been experimenting with After Effects' native layer styles to achieve a puffy, inflated 3D look on flat vector characters. It’s something I did pretty quickly and gives good results, of course not as good as creating an actual 3D icon, but I hope this quick overview is helpful if you’re in a rush and wanna add more dimensions to our character

Here's roughly how I do it:

1. Convert your Illustrator file to shapes

 

You start by right-clicking your Illustrator layer in After Effects and selecting "Create Shapes from Vector Layer." If your controllers end up scattered, which happens when your .ai file uses clipping masks, there's a quick fix: search for a subgroup in our contents that will be called  "Group 1". That snaps everything back into place.

2. Stack three-layer styles to fake volume

 

This is the core of the technique. I apply three-layer styles in sequence:

• Bevel & Emboss: set to Inner Bevel with a Depth of 102 and an Altitude of 67. This is what creates the inflated, balloon-like shape.
• Inner Glow: a subtle radiance that softens the edges and enhances the puffy feel. Size set to 30.
• Inner Shadow: adds depth from the inside, giving the character a proper sense of dimension. Opacity 20, Noise 10.

3. Finish with Glow + Noise

A Glow effect (radius 10) adds a soft luminance around the whole character. Then an Adjustment Layer with 10% Noise adds just enough texture to make the surface feel tactile rather than plasticky.

5. The whole thing is reusable

Once you've built it once, you can copy and paste the layer styles onto any other flat vector shape in seconds. Some values like Glow Threshold and Intensity might need a small tweak per character, but the system is essentially copy-paste.

We put together a full tutorial walking through every step. Happy to answer any questions about the process in the comments.

Full tutorial here if anyone wants to follow along → https://youtu.be/K8MxR3__cck