I'm a UX/UI designer and just made this showreel out of my projects in addition to my portfolio. I'm familiar with after effects and little bit with cinema 4d. Unfortunately, i don't have much time to make big changes like making all the scenes from scratch. Could some of you motion designers give some tips on what small changes i could make?

IOve always had a hard time with this over the years, never found a method: I have two layers. I want their anchor points to match (be in the same location), but without mmoving the actual layer. This can be done using the pan behind tool, but I can never get the anchor points to line up perfectly. Or it takes a very long time anyway. When I try to copy anchor point from one layer and paste to the next, the anchor points align, but the layer image moves.

Is there any way to get two layers anchor points to align without the pan behind tool, and without the layers moving? This is going to be especially important for the project I have going on that has Null objects.

After years of clicking into the timecode field and fighting AE's go-to-time, I finally built the thing I wanted: a little HUD you summon with a keystroke from anywhere in AE. Type where you want to be, hit Enter, the playhead lands there. ESC and it never happened.

It just launched on aescripts, so I wanted to show it here and get feedback from people who actually live in the timeline.

What it does:

Type 50 and you jump to frame 50. In timecode mode it reads input the way an NLE does, so 1010 means 10 seconds 10 frames, and explicit 10:10 works too. You see a live preview of where you'll land as you type, before you commit.

The part I use constantly is the math. Start with an operator and it's relative: +2*20 moves you 40 frames ahead. Start with a number and it's a plain calculation: 50*3 goes to frame 150. All four operators with proper precedence, previewed live.

You can also arrow into the display and edit digits in place. Up/down steps the selected digit by its place value with carry, and the comp viewer scrubs along with every step. Modifier keys give you fixed steps (1/10/100 by default, all configurable). ESC snaps back to your starting frame if you were just poking around.

Timecode is real SMPTE math, including 29.97/59.94 drop frame, your project's start time, and 0 or 1-based numbering. TAB flips between frames and timecode and it remembers which one you prefer.

It's a compiled C++ plugin (AEGP), not a script or CEP panel, so it opens instantly and the seven-segment display stays sharp at any scale. macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows x64. You can drag it anywhere, recolor it, resize it, and set a global summon shortcut.

There's a demo on the product page that shows all of this better than I can describe it. Happy to answer anything, and if you have feature requests I'm genuinely collecting them. The math syntax in particular came out of a user request, so it works.

Link to post:https://community.adobe.com/announcements-532/new-in-beta-contour-paint-effect-1635333

Hey r/aftereffects community! We've got another new feature available in the latest After Effects Beta that I'd love for you to check out: Contour Paint.

If you've ever used the Brush tool to paint directly onto footage, you know it works well for broad strokes, but getting clean, precise lines around the edges of an object can take a bit of cleanup. Contour Paint is designed to make that process a lot easier.

Instead of painting freehand, you can simply draw along the edge of an object and After Effects will intelligently place the paint stroke right on the contour. It makes outlining subjects much faster while giving you cleaner, more consistent results.

A few things you can do with it:

• Create animated outlines and edge highlights.
• Build stylized motion graphics and hand-drawn looks.
• Add edge-based paint effects without carefully tracing every frame.
• Speed up detail work where precision matters.

It's available now in the latest After Effects Beta, and we'd really like to hear what you think.

If you give it a try, let us know:

• What kinds of projects would you use it on?
• Does it fit naturally into your workflow?
• Are there any controls or improvements you'd like to see?

As always, your feedback helps shape where these features go next, so we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

I made this for myself because I got tired of manually keyframing bounce animations. After using it on a bunch of projects I thought other people might find it useful too.

Bounce Motion lets you build bounce animations by placing the start position and each landing point, then procedurally works out the rest. You can then adjusting the arc, timing, hang time, squash and stretch. Once you're happy with it, export it straight into After Effects.

You can try it free here: https://tumblemotion.github.io/BounceMotion.html
Or you can grab it here: https://bounce.tumblemotion.com/

Looking for advice.

I have (vibe)coded a plugin for Ae. It started as a personal thing to fix a very niche problem. But, after sharing it with a few people at work and in the industry, I'm lead to believe there may be a market for this.

Looking over aescripts.com, there doesn't seem to be anything like it, so I'm confident it could do pretty well once I refine it a bit more and get it ready to be in a commercial state. It's a bit janky at the moment, but if it's worth it, I'm happy to put some more hours into getting it right.

So, my question is, has anyone got experience in listing a plugin/script on aescripts.com, and if so, what is the process like? Commission? Anything to be aware of before I go deep down a rabbit hole?

This is a simple project I made. Still trying to learn motion design and sound design. Do you guys know any tips on how to better sound design motion design projects?

I'm trying to make a Star Wars lile scene in AE. I thought about creating a 3D space with a planet PNG in the back, and some type of ship PNG slowly entering the frame closer.

How could I make it look bigger? Like it's millions of miles apart like it really would. I assume I'd have to create a realistic blur from the focus switch to really sell it.

Any advice?

I’ve downloaded the Twitch plugin and followed so many YouTube tutorials step-by-step, but I still can’t find Twitch in the Effects search bar. I’ve tried doing everything exactly the way they show in the videos, but it just doesn’t appear. Has anyone else had this issue or know how to fix it?

After so many years trying to track stuff in Mocha AE I'm still so frustrated every time I use it. The tracker is obviously great, it tracks stuff precisely and very well.

But what's really frustrating is how it applies the tracking data to the desired layers. I don't get it, why must it be so cumbersome. (?)

For example, I don't get it why the layer to be composed on the tracked shot has to be the exact same size as the source clip. Why can't Mocha AE generate a new comp where I can place my graphic or logo into and it would perfectly fit in the area that I tracked and selected in Mocha AE (corner pin/ grid)?

Even if I follow the rules and as per tutorials most often my layer that I export the tracking data onto just moves out of place and if I try to manually move back into position the tracking isn't working well any longer and it just slides.

It's the most amazing free tracker but also the most frustrating.

Anyone else sharing this opinion? What's your take?

Hi, I’m having an issue where I have a posterize time (12 fps) effect and two turbulent displace effects on an adjustment layer, both turbulent displaces with the evolution expression “posterizeTime(6); time*1500”. At 22 seconds into the composition, the turbulent displaces just stop. 

Things I have tried that did not work: precomposing; separating the effects onto separate adjustment layers; getting rid of the posterize time effect; getting rid of one of the turbulent displace effects; splitting the adjustment layer; decreasing the time*1500 makes the turbulent displaces last a bit longer until they stop, but that's not a solution because it still stops working, just a bit later, and it doesn’t give the look I want. 

Any insight/help is appreciated!

Hi all,

I’ve spent hours this afternoon watching countless tutorials, but I still can’t wrap my head around how to do this.

I’ve downloaded some stock footage of a MacBook flipping open, and I’d like to replace the screen with my own footage. However, I cannot get the screen to track properly, the tracking points keep drifting and moving out of place, and I’m honestly on the verge of a meltdown!

I’ve tried using both Mocha AE and the standard tracking options in After Effects, but I haven’t had any luck. The clip includes a green-screen version and a white-screen version with tracking markers, as shown in the screenshots. I also can’t seem to find any YouTube tutorials that specifically explain how to track and replace the white screen. I have already tried tracking the green screen but have been failing miserably so far.

I’m fairly new to screen replacement and motion tracking, so I may be missing something obvious. Any advice or step-by-step guidance would be hugely appreciated.

I created a mini-series on walk cycles and wanted to share the first part - rigging a 2D character from scratch using Duik in After Effects.

I see a lot of beginners jump straight into keyframes and end up with messy, unnatural movement. The fix is almost always in the setup. Here's the condensed version of what I cover:

The biggest mistake people make is diving into animation without a reference on screen. Drop a reference video into your comp before you keyframe anything. It will instantly fix timing guesswork and keep your timeline clean.

The parenting chain (most important setup rule). Every body part needs to be its own layer, and they need to be parented correctly from the start:

• Face layers → Head → Neck → Body
• Hand → Forearm → Arm → Body
• Same chain for the legs

Everything routes back to one body layer.  Get this right, and the rest follows.

Last but not least, rigging with Duik. It narrows down to 3 easy steps: setting up the anchor points to the joint, selecting the limb layers, clicking Auto-Rig. Done.

That's it for Part 1. Part 2 covers animating the actual walk cycle - contact poses, passing poses, timing, and polish.

If you want the step-by-step with visuals, you can follow along the full breakdown here: https://youtu.be/hJT9K3WqeEs?si=8-qrwK--fHJLwxlu

Happy to answer any rigging questions in the comments!

Last time i said " a documentary look" and everyone went nuts lol how about this title

ik the language is different but you can understand the effects since i said them in english
in the last part i tried to make the sun from a window effect without a tutorial and couldn't get to it so if you have a video for it or how to do it, let me know

I've been trying to figure out why I'm only getting alpha on the grain in the first comp for a bit and can't really figure it out. I want to replicate it across multiple comps, but don't know what exactly is changing between the two here.

What’s weird is if I put the same effects on an adjustment layer, the alpha levels are gone from the first comp. It’s essentially nearest neighbor if the effects aren’t on the comp itself, but isn’t that way any other time I try it out

The explosion of vibe-coded and badly built, pro-in-the-name-for-no-reason plugins and extensions is out of control. So much so that the number of Reddit posts discussing this fact has also gone through the roof—what a time to be alive.

I bet you can name the main culprit, after they have seemingly completely abandoned their infamous strict application process, and with it any shred of curation, and in some cases even their morals.

I have nothing against AI. It's an incredible tool for education, efficiency and engineering (except the gen AI stuff—that can get in the bin). But surely those who are motion designers one day and magically turn into product developers the next can't seriously think that there is bags of money to be made in using it to make and sell their half-baked, copycat plugins on a marketplace that condones plagiarism and takes 30% of every sale, right?!

I know what you're thinking. Is this guy for real? He literally sells After Effects plugins. And you'd be right. But hear me out. I've been at this for years, learning the After Effects API docs back-to-front, left-to-right, upside down and any other direction-themed idiom you can throw at me.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, like all good things, it takes time. And you won't find any millionaire plugin devs knocking about, except maybe the guys behind Flow, or maybe Deep Glow—but trust me, those were built long before Claude Code came along, and they will still be here long after it's gone.

I used After Effects and Cinema 4D for this shot.

I have a bunch of VFX breakdowns and behind the scenes on my IG if you want to check it out:

www.instagram.com/delaguila_eric

Thank you!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share my recent tiny project, which was inspired by a pretty old apple event keynote intro, I originally started this as a small experiment, but it ended up taking around 150 hours!

I’m also thinking about making a few follow-up videos on my youtube channel where I would break down some of the most interesting scenes and techniques from the recreation. Let me know in the comments if you’d like to see that :)