circuitFX

circuitFX is an exciting new tool for After Effects designed to create
graphical circuit boards.

The circuit pattern is generated randomly with every button press.

Apart from the circuit lines and circles, circuitFX also creates,
chips, resistors and capacitors.

It has the ability to put all of the needed parts in a single shape layer
or create separate shape layers for each part of the board.

Version 1.6 of circuitFX brought the ability to use bezier masks

circuitFX features three generation modes:

• Fill out: fills the whole composition with the circuit board and its components.
• Center-out: leaves a user defined center square empty (simulating a CPU socket).
• Using Masks: uses masks from the grid guide layer to mask in/out parts of the circuit.

You can easily adjust the the X and Y grid dimensions, for a more dense or scattered pattern.

The populate slider adjusts the percentage of the grid points that are going to be used.

You can adjust the minimum and maximum number of vertices of each circuit line.

In the Center-Out mode, you can use the radius % slider, to adjust the size of the empty center rectangle.

The orientation of the circuit lines is also adjustable.

You can also adjust the direction strength bias (for the examples below, orientation is set to "diagonal").

You can now add clusters to the circuit lines.
Clusters are circuit lines with multiple offsets applied, to simulate parallel circuit paths.

There is a also a generation mode that uses masks from a grid guide layer to mask in/out points.
Here is how the process works:

The Using Masks mode is a five-step process:

1. You adjust the "Grid X and Grid Y" number (this adjusts the density of the grid guide points and your final circuit)
2. Select the "Using Masks" mode
   
3. Click the "Create Grid Guide" button to make the grid
4. Draw a mask(s) on the grid guide layer (be sure you are creating a mask and not a shape)
   
5. With the grid guide layer selected in the timeline, you press the "Create circuit by using masks" button

• You can draw as many masks as you want on the grid guide layer. circuitFX uses all the masks in the grid guide layer as long as they are set on the Add or Subtrack mask path mode.
  
  
• You don't have to create the grid guide layer every time you want to generate a circuit. If you are happy with the density of the grid points (Grid X and Grid Y values) you just select an already created grid guide layer and create new circuits.
  
  

You can easily adjust the number, size, size randomness,
color of the chips, resistors and capacitors.

You can also easily adjust the lines and circles color and width.

There is also an option to avoid circuit lines from crossing each other.

Finally, you can adjust the trim start, trim end and
trim offset of the lines to easily create complicated animations,
like electric current flowing through the board.

circuitFX is compatible with:

• After Effects CS6
• After Effects CC
• After Effects CC 2014
• After Effects CC 2015
• After Effects CC 2017
• After Effects CC 2018
• After Effects CC 2019
• After Effects 2020
• After Effects 2021
• After Effects 2022
• After Effects 2023
• After Effects 2024
• After Effects 2025

on both Windows and macOS (with Intel or Apple Silicon) platforms.

Below is an excellent example of implementing circuitFX in a commercial production.
The 2018 Game Developers Choice Awards by Kert Gartner.