Most of this work I do by hand with paper and color pencils but i spend quite a bit of time in ae for color, glow, clone stamp tool fixes, stabilization, and then also some light masking. I actually love doing color stuff in ae curious if others use it for color - motion design or not

We have heard your calls! Thank you for your patience while we figure out a plan.

While self promotion has always been allowed in r/AfterEffects, the recent influx of AI & vibe coded plugins, extensions, and scripts has been a bit overwhelming. We have very very quickly gone from a few trusted marketplaces with strong vetting and at least some kind of expectation of long term maintenance, to anyone being able to churn out a vibe coded plugin and release it on an increasing number of marketplaces, with no guarantee of support or future updates.

With this in mind, we would like to implement a new set of rules to curb the overwhelming number of posts and give users more transparency when choosing to download and use such tools.

Post structure + flair:

Taking a page from the changes mods made over at r/macapps, we will be introducing a new post structure following a Problem, Comparison, Pricing, Maintenance, AI-Disclosure (PCPMA) format.

• Problem: What problem your [Extension, Script, Plugin] solves (1 sentence)
• Compare: Why is your [Extension, Script, Plugin] better than top-named alternatives (1–2 sentences).
• Pricing + link
• Maintenance plan + support plan
• AI Disclaimer: choose from [Vibe Coded], [Human Validated], [Code Completion], or [None]

Extension, script, and plugin posts have always required the (Plugin/Script) flair, this will not change. A sample short post is pinned in the comments.

Other changes:

• Plugin promotion posts will now be limited to mondays only for the foreseeable future. Plugin posts on other days will be automatically removed and linked to this post
• Monday self promo posts using the (Plugin/Script) flair must have 50 subreddit karma, from posts or comments.
• Probing posts will be removed ("Are purpose built motion tools making it into your workflow?" "What's one thing that would save you so much time...")
• Excessively long posts will be removed (A sample short post is pinned in the comments.)
• Gumroad links are still banned. This is unfortunately a reddit-wide blacklist, we have no control over this. We can manually approve gumroad links but they will be automatically sent to the spam filter which we rarely check.

Notes on post structure requirements

We're specifically introducing the compare & maintenance points because we have seen an increasing number of plugins that simply replicate the functionality of existing, long standing plugins from developers who have demonstrated more experience, real support, and have proven to maintain their plugins over many years. Show us how yours is better, and prove to your future users how you will be supporting and fixing the plugin in the long-run. How can users who experience bugs get in contact with you in the future?

AI disclosure

I'm just going to be real, this one is likely going to be easy to skirt. r/macapps actually removed this requirement because everyone was just claiming to have "human reviewed" the code. We're going to try this out and hope folks are honest for the time being.

________

No AI was used in the preparation of this post. We will try this out for a month and see how it goes. Happy animating <3

More projects here: Behance

I figured out a really simple way to turn any flat 2D vector icon into a 3D extruded icon inside AE and wanted to break down why it works.

The whole trick is faking depth by stacking the same layer in Z-space instead of using a real 3D renderer.

1. The setup 

Put your flat icon in a 1080x1080 pre-comp first. This is your "master" icon. Animate it here if you want (I just used a simple scale pop). Everything else references this, so when you want to swap the icon later you only change this one comp.

2. The core stacking trick

Drop that pre-comp into a 1920x1080 main comp, enable 3D, then add this expression to Position:

x = value[0] + (index - 1) * 0;

y = value[1] + (index - 1) * 0;

z = value[2] + (index - 1) * 3;

[x, y, z];

Every copy of the layer gets pushed 5px further back in Z-space based on its layer index. Duplicate it ~40 times and AE automatically creates a solid block of depth. It's actual 3D, you can orbit it.

3. The shading 

Select all the middle copies (not the top one) and add Brightness & Contrast > Brightness -80. This instantly darkens the sides, which sells the extrusion. Leave the top copy bright and clean - that's your front face.

4. Making it look finished:

• Radial gradient in the background for separation
• Drop Shadow on the top copy for ground contact
• Deep Glow on the stack for that soft, inflated 3D edge (optional, looks great without it too)
• CC Light Sweep on top for a glossy highlight pass

5. Making it controllable: 

Parent all ~42 layers to a single 3D Null. Now you don't have 42 layers to keyframe - you just rotate/scale the Null. I trimmed to a 6-second comp and did a simple rotation + scale with Easy Ease.

6. Why it's reusable: 

Because everything points to that first pre-comp, you can literally alt-drag a totally different vector (I tested with a simple flat envelope) into the pre-comp and the entire 3D build updates instantly. If your icon has holes/negative space, Linear Color Key makes those parts transparent.

Anyone else use this stacking method? 

I have the project file with the pre-made template if anyone wants to pull it apart, happy to send it over - just comment below.

Check out the full breakdown here: https://youtu.be/tN8nX1m2dHQ?si=dCJpFAm02B2KrV7N

Been trying to develop my map animation level using QGIS instead of THE geolayers ! Because geolayers is not that good (jk i can't afford it 😭🥀)

I tried using the free website but it was ...

Road to geolayers ..

Spent the last while building this, a 3D deity scene inspired by Ramayana movie trailer, done in After Effects using 3D god model and Trapcode Particular for the energy/particle effects around it.
Full beakdown here: https://youtu.be/LhGEYFTghUM

For this concept piece, I wanted to take AI and give it a tactile, human touch. I experimented with a rough-textured, slightly rough motion feel to bring this concept to life and make the product feel more grounded.

Note: This is an unofficial concept piece and is not sponsored by or affiliated with OpenAI/ChatGPT

Hey guys, Im trying to achieve this gradient swipe effect on the video without a paid plugin... and im struggling to get the same level of output.

To me it looks like a shape layer scaling from the bottom centre with a gradient and blur applied. I have tried layering a couple of the shaped with gradient ramp, gaussian blur and colourama but no dice.

An experimental temporal ghosting / long-exposure toolkit for TouchDesigner, built for turning prerecorded and real-time footage into smeared, split-exposure, echo-like motion.

The system layers delayed frames, masks the active subject region, and adds optional feedback persistence to generate distorted portrait, face, and full-body trails that sit somewhere between long exposure, temporal rupture, and spectral motion blur.

This release also includes:

— a custom FLUX-2 LoRA trained on experimental photography [the one used in this demonstration]
— the pertinent ComfyUI workflow for FLUX-2.dev + LoRA text-to-image generation

Available now through my Tools Store.

Both music and visuals by myself, deeply inspired by the recent BoC-related events.

Diorama 3D is a plugin made by AnvilFx (me). I'ts designed to make working with native AE 3D layers much less painful.

You can read all about the plugin on anvilfx.com/diorama-3d

There is a 7 Day free trial you can download on the website as well, and a launch discount which will last till the end of the month. The plugin isn't out on aescripts yet, but will be in a few weeks time.

For anyone with concerns about performance, it should have a minimal effect on performance. Diorama barely touches the render path. It reads the scene through AE's idle hook, so while AE is busy rendering, the plugin minds its own business. The only thing that touches the render path is an extra effect that comes with Diorama which automatically applies to all 3D layers with effects on them (which can be disabled), which is there to hand Diorama data about the layer its on, so it can be displayed correctly.

About AI: Unfortunately there is really no way for a single person to make a plugin like this without coding help from AI (at least not for me). However, that is all AI has assisted with. The website and UI for the plugin are both designed by me. All icons are either made by me or bought legitimately (apart form a couple placeholder SVGs that are yet to be replaced).

I saw that Expressionist became free today (had never heard of it but it looks like it goes back years) and it made me realize I may have been sleeping on this category.

Quick search also surfaces ExpressCode but that's very recent and might be ai slop so I am suspicious of it.

ALSO I'm aware a lot of people are selling good stuff NOT on AEScripts since it became enshittified.

So what y'all using?

I don't get it, and what's the point? I would like to know- maybe a glitch? Somethin I'm missing?

For years of playing with AE, whenever I needed a gradient, I only used either Gradient Ramp or the 4-Color Gradient. But now, I tried this, and it's confusing me.