scripts Archives - Video Production News

Download Crate’s Toolbox – After Effects Extension

in After Effects, Featured, Scripts and Plugins/by Chris Kelly

We have amazing scripts, many of them completely free, for After Effects. Crate’s Camera Shake, the Hologram Generator, Crate’s Chromatic Aberration and tons of other useful tools are available for download on ProductionCrate.

Accessing these amazing products is now easier than ever before. With our free Crate’s Toolbox, you can download and install our After Effects scripts from inside of After Effects!

Remember, you don’t have to Log-in every time, you just need to log-in to download the scripts. Click the Offline Button if you don’t want to log in but still want to use the AE scripts you have already downloaded.

Watch the video below to see how it works.

First, if you have any ProductionCrate Scripts already installed, delete them! This will ensure Toolbox can launch the most recent versions and locate the files without issue.

If you are on a Mac, run the .DMG installer, if you are on Windows, run the .EXE

Restart After Effects if you have it open

To locate the Extension if After Effects, go to Window > Extension > Crate’s Toolbox

You’ll need to select 2 Download folders:

The first folder is likely your default Downloads folder. This is just where all of your downloaded items go to when you download from Chrome, Firefox, Safari or any web browser.
The second folder is for storing your Crate Scripts. This can be anywhere on your computer. Don’t delete it, this will be where all the script files will be referenced! You can create a new folder and call it anything, ProductionCrate Scripts, for example.

You will only have to do that step once!

After that, log in to ProductionCrate using Toolbox and download any Scripts and tools you want to use. Hitting Install will launch your browser to install the script, make sure it downloads to your Downloads Folder, or whatever folder you chose as your first folder (see above)

The scripts will be automatically copied over to your store folder, the second folder mentioned above!

3D Scale Lock – Matte Painting Script for After Effects

in After Effects, Featured, Scripts and Plugins/by Chris Kelly

If you’ve ever done matte painting in AE, you may have come across this annoying issue.

All your layers are looking great, your matte painting is some of your best work ever, and now all you have to do is position your layers in 3D space to add a little camera movement. Then comes the tedious, annoying, laborious process of moving layers in Z space, scaling them to fit the correct framing, moving, scaling, moving, scaling…

No more of that. With our latest free AE script, we’ve come up with a technique so you can get your matte painting layers set in 3D space faster, without having to re-scale! Make sure you are logged in with your Basic or Pro account then click to Download the Crate’s 3D Lock Script Here

Learn how to use the script in detail in this tutorial! This script would be useful for 2D to 3D painting as well, working perfectly with our Free Projection/Camera Mapping Script

Free Camera Projection Script for AE

in After Effects, Featured, Scripts and Plugins/by Chris Kelly

Projection mapping is a powerful and extremely useful trick for motion design and visual effects. While the concept is relatively simple, the execution can be extremely difficult with native After Effects tools. That is why we built the Crate’s Camera Projection Script. This Free Adobe AE script allows you to easily follow the guided steps to creating your camera mapping and projection mapping scenes.

To download, just sign in to your Free or Pro ProductionCrate account and click here

This technique is useful for tracking a clean plate into your scene and animating 2d stills to appear 3d.

Check out our step by step tutorial here

If you’re looking to use it for 2D to 3D images, check out this tutorial

Light Sampler – Powerful AE Script

in Featured, Scripts and Plugins/by Chris Kelly

Practical lights have always made visual effects far more believable. We use them all the time. As fantastic as they are, we’ve never been able to use them like this before.

Our latest After Effects Script will let you measure color and luminance values in your shots. Whether it’s the sun, scene lights or effects you can use luminance values to drive reactions in your project. If you have a strobe light going off, you can have automatic muzzle flashes, if you have the sun flashing by a fence, you can add in lens flares that will automatically go off, if you have a practical light that changes color over time, you can drive color to any other effect. All of these shots were built with the Free Light Sampler Script.

Needless to say, this script is packed with potential. We look forward to seeing how you use it. Download it here

Here’s how you use it

How to Install Scripts to After Effects (Windows and Mac)

in After Effects, Featured, Scripts and Plugins, Written Tutorials/by David Blaker

After Effects scripts are a powerful way to automate and accomplish tasks that would have otherwise taken far longer.

For example, many popular scripts automate the way that you animate, automatically adjusting keyframes in an instant to save you valuable time and get better results.

If you haven’t tried any out yet, you can browse our library of exclusive scripts and plugins. Many of them are free to download, while Pro members of the ProductionCrate community can access the entire collection, as well as over 10,000 other creative assets.

Thankfully, installing these scripts is an incredibly easy process, and works the same on both Windows and Mac. We also ensure that our tools are compatible with the most recent versions of After Effects (CC 2018, CC 2019).

Our example today will be walking through the installation of our free Hologram generator script which has just launched!

1 – Extract the script to “/Adobe After Effects CC 2019/Support Files/Scripts”

If you don’t have any .zip file tools, you can use WinRaR.

Using this software to open the .zip file that you download will allow you to then drag the files to a new location. Make sure that you extract all of the content from the zip file.

Our destination is usually found in the Program Files folder. In most cases the full directory is:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2019\Support Files\Scripts

But if you are using any other Adobe CC version, feel free to place it there instead.

2 – Create your After Effects composition

Most of our tools won’t work if there’s no footage for it to work on!

3 – Click File -> Scripts -> Run Script File

From here you can then navigate to the place you extracted the files to. Clicking on the “.jsx” file will then launch your chosen script.

Fixing Errors

There’ll always be the chance that something goes wrong. We’ve compiled a list of steps you can take to troubleshoot these issues

Double-Check

Take a moment to quickly look back in the zip folder, and check if all of the contents are also in the After Effects script folder. If it isn’t, simply drag it all over again!

Settings

Go through Edit -> Preferences -> General. A window will open with a bunch of checkboxes, where you can enable “Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network”.

Call for backup

If all else fails, you can ask on the forums, the comments below or contact us at Support@ProductionCrate.com, we’ll happily try our best to help out!

Crate’s Free Text Animator script for After Effects! (Download)

in After Effects, Featured, Motion Graphics, Scripts and Plugins/by David Blaker

Download the Crate’s Text Animator script for After Effects here

All ProductionCrate members can now download the exciting Text Animation script for free!

This exciting addition to the range of tools gives you the power to create fun animations for your text – with a single click.

With 25 hand-made presets to choose from, you’ll never run out of a fresh way to liven up your videos, commercials or presentations! The presets include glitches, fly-ins, slides, spins and more.

Without the script, to create a text animation graphic in After Effects, you may spend hours manually adjusting countless keyframes and meticulously modifying their speed, opacity, motion blur and many other parameters. This script puts an end to the suffering, doing all of the work for you within seconds!

To give you even more control, our script creates a Null object that contains adjustable parameters, so you can tweak your design to perfection even after generation.

Let’s take a look at the After Effects script:

Choose Animation – This opens up the range of presets that you can choose from.

Eye Icon – Generate a preview that helps you see what the animation looks like.

Text – Enter what you want to be displayed!

Preset Parameters – Once you’ve selected a template, a number of sliders will appear that lets you customize each preset to meet your expectations. These are also accessible through the Null object that is generated with the preset.

Create New Comp – Enabling this creates the new text in a new composition. Disabling will generate the text in your selected composition.

Preview All – A handy tool that creates a grid previewing all the available presets

Create – Once you’re happy with your settings, hit this and let the script make your text come to life!

The script has been built to balance simplicity with function, so whether you’re a Vlogger wanting to spice up your editing skills, or are building a title card for a blockbuster movie, this script is for you!

To install the script, extract the files from the download, and drop “Crate’s Text Animator.jsx” folder into your After Effects > Scripts folder. You then can run the script by heading through File -> Scripts -> Crate’s Callout Script.jsx.

We’re excited to see what you create with this script! If you’re interested in our other After Effects scripts, extensions and plugins, check out this page here.

Animated Hand Gestures – Extension for After Effects

in Featured, Motion Graphics, Scripts and Plugins/by Chris Kelly

Pro Users can download this awesome Hand Gestures Extension here for Mac and Windows

(Mac is the .dmg installer, Windows is the .exe)

This extension comes with 50 Animated Hand Gestures, compatible in AE CC

If this is the first extension you have downloaded from ProductionCrate, a warning message may pop up. Your OS just wants to confirm it is standard and safe (it is!)

The installer is built in, so simply double click and follow the installation guide.

The Crate’s Hand Gestures extension is built in with your needs in mind. Toggle through over 50 different animated hand gestures to find the one that is right for you.

We have options for phone screens, thumb swipes, finger taps and so much more!

Customize the skin color and sleeve color of your animated hand, flip the X and/or Y, and choose whether or not to have the motion shapes enabled.

Lastly, simply select the dimensions you want from the 3 most popular and hit Create! Just like that you have saved yourself hours of tedious labor.

If you want to use one of the many Phone Screen options simply create new compositions (File > New Composition) and make sure the settings for the dimensions are 615×1040 to fit perfectly into our animated phone screens.

Depending on how many swipes in your selected animation you will be able to choose 2-3 screens.

Follow the same steps as before and generate! You can toggle the Shy switch for more control, if you want to make any adjustments to the animation. Jump into your phone screen comps and adjust the timing if needed.

This is perfect for all your explainer videos, promos and commercial content. Enjoy!

Want to see our other Scripts and Extensions? Check these out

Chromatic Aberrator Script

in Featured, Scripts and Plugins/by Chris Kelly

Pro Users can download the Chromatic Aberrator Script Here

Chromatic Aberration is a fantastic way to add style and energy to your shots. It’s wonderful for glitches, music videos, space-travel and logo animations. The techniques, while fairly simple, are always time-consuming. We took our 5 Favorite Chromatic Aberration techniques and turned them into an Adobe After Effects Script!

This Script is exclusive for our Pro Users.

Install the Chromatic Aberrator Script in your After Effects > Scripts folder.

To launch, open AE and go to File > Scripts > Chromatic Aberrator

Select the layer you want to apply the Chromatic Abberator to in your composition.

Choose one of the 5 aberration effects. For further customization there are options to adjust the amount of blur, speed, complexity, and even flip the RGB values!

Note: If you want to apply the Chromatic Aberrator to all layers in your composition, just precompose them all together and then apply the script to that precomp. Alternatively, just select all the layers and add the Chromatic Aberrator method you want to use.

The Effects and Controls Null allows you to adjust your Chromatic Aberrator Settings after you have created the effect.

Each effect has different adjustments to further customize your animations. Here, you can also use keyframes if you would like to animate the effect.

This is particularly useful for the glitch and turbulent effects, but can come in handy for any of them. Play with it, and come up with your own custom creations.

After you have your Chromatic Aberration effect looking the way you want, jump back in to your main composition to see how everything looks. You can always go back and make adjustments later.