{"id":102898,"date":"2018-06-18T11:39:05","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T16:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/?p=102898"},"modified":"2018-06-18T11:43:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T16:43:01","slug":"four-time-saving-ae-scripts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/four-time-saving-ae-scripts\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-Production Tip: Four Highly Useful After Effects Scripts"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 id=\"working-with-adobe-after-effects-on-a-deadline-these-four-scripts-will-speed-up-your-process-without-creating-careless-errors\">Working with Adobe After Effects on a deadline? These four scripts will speed up your process \u2014 without creating careless errors.<\/h2>\n<p>As fast as you might be with the vanilla version of a software package, you can always add more spice to your setup with some scripts \u2014 those bits of electronic wizardry cooked up by people far smarter than you or I.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve tried a number of different options over the years, and here are a few scripts that are permanent residents\u00a0in my personal After Effects workspace. The common thread\u00a0among these scripts is that they streamline your user experience by speeding up tasks that\u00a0you can do by hand (but are laborious, repetitive, or easy to\u00a0mess up). When you\u2019re on deadline, anything that speeds up your process without\u00a0introducing errors is ideal. As a bonus, you can\u00a0get all these scripts for a fairly low cost (in some cases, you can get them completely free). So let&#8217;s take a look.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 id=\"universal-audio\">Universal Audio<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6TFb9Sv0dmA?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><br \/>\nIf you ever work with voiceover in After Effects, you need to get <a href=\"http:\/\/aescripts.com\/universal-audio\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Universal Audio<\/a>. Rather than jumping back and forth between precomps trying to match your timing or using markers to track key parts of the voiceover, this script will take your selected audio layers and duplicate them throughout your nested precomps while maintaining the timing \u2013 so your audio will always be in the correct place relative to your precomp\u2019s position on the timeline, even if you\u2019re four or five levels deep in your project. This is a lifesaver when working with character rigs where controls can be buried pretty deep.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s even smart enough to compensate for time-remapped compositions, but you\u2019ll need to enable this in the settings (handily it will color-code audio that might not line up correctly in orange, to save you the aggravation of discovering your carefully timed animation is not syncing up in the final version).<\/p>\n<p>Once you\u2019re finished working\u00a0with the audio, a single button-press will remove all the duplicates \u2014 neatly avoiding the issue of leftover audio in your project that can be annoying to track down. This script has saved me hours of frustration when animating, and I really can\u2019t recommend it enough.<\/p>\n<p>Universal Audio is priced at a reasonable $9.99. In terms of speeding up my workflow, it easily paid for itself on the first project I\u00a0took on after picking it up.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 id=\"key-cloner\">Key Cloner<\/h3>\n<p>Developed by <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/conigs\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Paul Conigliaro<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/conigs.com\/tools\/key-cloner\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Key Cloner<\/a> became an instant feature of my workspace as soon as it came out. It\u2019s a simple script (I mean, it has three buttons), but it speeds up your animation workflow in After Effects immeasurably. By allowing you to clone and reverse keyframes while maintaining their relative timing (something that the vanilla time reverse in After Effects doesn\u2019t do), Key Cloner dramatically speeds up duplicating animation or changing an <em>animate in<\/em> to an <em>animate out<\/em> with a click, avoiding the seemingly endless back-and-forth copy-pasting from individual properties that you can find yourself doing sometimes.<\/p>\n<p>It was released with pay-what-you-can pricing on Gumroad, and\u00a0you can find it\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/gumroad.com\/conigs\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 id=\"rift\">Rift<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rift Tutorial\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/54755910?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nAnother script that manipulates your layers,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/aescripts.com\/rift\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Rift<\/a> is all about easily creating staggered offsets, random distributions across time, and ramp ins and outs \u2014 and it works across keys and layers.<\/p>\n<p>Rift can shift layers (or keyframes, or both if required) in time based on your selected parameters. You can easily add a four-frame stagger to a series of layers, or create a ramping offset in time, or move each layer on the timeline a random\u00a0distance \u2013 there\u2019s a lot of flexibility and depth once you get a feel for how it works. When you\u2019re working with heavy layer stacks numbering in the tens or twenties, Rift can save hours of your time, but even when you&#8217;re working with smaller numbers of layers, you\u2019ll save countless mouse clicks.<\/p>\n<p>Rift\u00a0is also available with pay-what-you-can pricing (with a suggested price of $29.99). It\u2019s extremely useful and well worth whatever money you decide to put down.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 id=\"flow\">Flow<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/olB5zSHfBr4?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><br \/>\nLinear keyframes are almost never going to result in the look and feel you want in your animation, but at the same time, the graph editor can be intimidating to dive into. Then again, a script-heavy solution doesn\u2019t really give you the freedom to experiment in a visual way. This is where <a href=\"https:\/\/aescripts.com\/flow\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Flow<\/a> comes in.<\/p>\n<p>Flow\u2019s interface gives you great visual feedback \u2014 without having to submerge yourself in the weird multicolor spaghetti of the graph editor \u2014 while also avoiding the problem of throwing random numbers into a script-based solution and hoping you get the result you\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n<p>If you create a curve you particularly like, you can create a preset so you can use it over and over again (but hopefully not too often \u2014 variety is the spice of life and all that). Flow comes with a library of twenty-five common presets to get you started, and you can also download additional preset packs from the aescripts website created by some top-notch animators.<\/p>\n<p>Flow is available for the bargain price of $30.00 from aescripts.com, and\u00a0you can find it\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/aescripts.com\/flow\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>So there you go. Four highly useful but less well-known scripts that will save you hours of time in After Effects. If\u00a0you&#8217;re looking for more After Effects tips and tricks, check out these articles:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/create-responsive-infographic-after-effects\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">Create a Responsive Infographic in After Effects<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/modern-slideshow-animation-after-effects\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">After Effects: Create a Modern Slideshow Animation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/create-motion-graphics-template-after-effects\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">How to Create a Motion Graphics Template in Adobe After Effects<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/3-typography-motion-graphics-tips\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">3 Typography Motion Graphics Tips | After Effects Tutorial<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/animate-2d-mobile-device-after-effects\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">Video Tutorial: Animate a 2D Mobile Device with After Effects<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Working with Adobe After Effects on a deadline? These four scripts will speed up your process \u2014 without creating careless errors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":102908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,3843,39,583],"tags":[5375,536,5376,472],"class_list":["post-class-post-102898","post-class-post","post-class-type-post","post-class-status-publish","post-class-format-standard","post-class-has-post-thumbnail","post-class-hentry","post-class-category-after-effects","post-class-category-filmmaking-2","post-class-category-video-editing","post-class-category-video-production-2","post-class-tag-after-effects","post-class-tag-filmmaking","post-class-tag-video-editing","post-class-tag-video-production"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.5 (Yoast SEO v21.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Post-Production Tip: Four Highly Useful After Effects Scripts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Working with Adobe After Effects on a deadline? 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