aescripts + aeplugins

Thiago Rodrigues Souza

por favor, que o preço seja acessível

Neo Crescent

Wow, just wow

Dartr Nemec

Hi there! I just downloaded trial version, install, and when i use an extension - nothing happens. Points, tangents - no result at all.

Steve Kirby

Dartr Nemec said:

Hi there! I just downloaded trial version, install, and when i use an extension - nothing happens. Points, tangents - no result at all.

Hi Datr - can you please open a support ticket so that we can resolve the issue that way? Thanks

Miika Turunen

Awesome tool. Having someone sort of a grid that you could enable/disable would be cool! Merge functions would also be cool.

Anycase, really useful tool!

Patrick Murphy

Curious the decision behind editing the paths, etc. in a separate window?  Are there future plans for being able to use the tools inside the Composition view window?

Steve Kirby

Miika Turunen said:

Awesome tool. Having someone sort of a grid that you could enable/disable would be cool! Merge functions would also be cool. Anycase, really useful tool!

Thanks Miika! Yes someone else did mention this too, we'll look into it 

Steve Kirby

Patrick Murphy said:

Curious the decision behind editing the paths, etc. in a separate window?  Are there future plans for being able to use the tools inside the Composition view window?

Hi Patrick. Two main reasons: firstly, the After Effects software developers (Adobe) do not provide script developers with access to user point selections, so we have no way of possibly knowing which points on a path you have selected in the composition panel. Secondly, in After Effects, it’s not possible to select only one tangent of a pair (other than when you’re dragging it around). So providing functions which operate on only one tangent kinda required us to build our own way of selecting those individual tangents.

coen bouman

Funny, I keep wanting to drag the points and handles in Penpal as if it was a solo window for the path itself. A man can dream right ':)

Steve Kirby

coen bouman said:

Funny, I keep wanting to drag the points and handles in Penpal as if it was a solo window for the path itself. A man can dream right ':)

Hi Coen. Yeah you are not the first person to say this. It's not on the immediate roadmap, but dreams do sometimes come true… eventually

Scott Simmons

This looks great.  A pet peeve is not being able to positionally offset selected keyframes.  Does PenPal help with this in any way...?

Scott

Steve Kirby

Scott Simmons said:

This looks great.  A pet peeve is not being able to positionally offset selected keyframes.  Does PenPal help with this in any way...?

Scott

Thanks Scott! Can you explain a little more about what you mean? I’m not sure I’ve understood correctly

HyunJoong Kim

I just have but this. It doesn't work. nothing happens ...

Steve Kirby

HyunJoong Kim said:

I just have but this. It doesn't work. nothing happens ...

Please can you raise a support ticket? Thanks

John Twitch

Nice tool. Can you add feature inside the script to place images as a guide for designing and morphing path properties inside AE like screenshots of sketch to design and update the path.

Steve Kirby

John Twitch said:

Nice tool. Can you add feature inside the script to place images as a guide for designing and morphing path properties inside AE like screenshots of sketch to design and update the path.

Hey John. Thanks - interesting suggestion. I’ll talk it through with Tomas.

Aaron Jones

I would really like to be able to add new points in the Penpal window, as well as editing existing ones. Will this ever be possible?

Also it would be great to be able to drag the points and paths around in Penpal. The arrows are a bit fiddly and it's frustrating not being able to manipulate handles manually at all. 

Itgel Ito

Can't seem to install it. It says "Please install a compatible CC application and try again" I already have almost all versions of After Effects.

Tim K K

Any chance for a CS6 compatible version?

Steve Kirby

Aaron Jones said:

I would really like to be able to add new points in the Penpal window, as well as editing existing ones. Will this ever be possible?

Also it would be great to be able to drag the points and paths around in Penpal. The arrows are a bit fiddly and it's frustrating not being able to manipulate handles manually at all. 

Hey Aaron. We're not planning these features for v1.x because they would involve a massive amount of new work on top of everything we've already built.  If v1 is popular enough then it's something we might consider for v2

Steve Kirby

Tim K K said:

Any chance for a CS6 compatible version?

I'm afraid this is not possible because of the way older versions of After Effects are written. We initially thought Penpal would be compatible with CC2014 and above but actually there were changes under the hood that meant CC2018 is the oldest version we can support.

David Ochudzawa

Tried to load the trial and there is a 'TypeError from data (16733) - Cannot read property "charAt' of undefined" Please help

Steve Kirby

David Ochudzawa said:

Tried to load the trial and there is a 'TypeError from data (16733) - Cannot read property "charAt' of undefined" Please help

Hi David. Please open a support ticket so we can help troubleshoot your issue properly. Thanks.

Erlend Kristiansen

When I try to press it in windows exstensions nothing happens. All the other extensions work fine, is this a known bug? Just bought it specifically for the project am working on right now so if you can answer quickly that would be greatly appriatiated!

Steve Kirby

Hi Erlend. It’s better to do this kind of troubleshooting via the support ticket system. Please raise a ticket for Penpal and describe your steps in detail and we’ll see if we can help.

Erlend Kristiansen said:

When I try to press it in windows exstensions nothing happens. All the other extensions work fine, is this a known bug? Just bought it specifically for the project am working on right now so if you can answer quickly that would be greatly appriatiated!

Neil Benjamin

Itgel Ito said:

Can't seem to install it. It says "Please install a compatible CC application and try again" I already have almost all versions of After Effects.

Itgel Ito - If you are using the latest version of ZXP Installer, you can force the installation: go in the settings and tick the "Install for current user only" checkbox, press OK, then drag/drop the zxp file onto the app to install it again.  That should allow it to install regardless of whether the it detects the CC apps.
This is a common problem whenever Adobe releases new versions of their apps.  The existing installation of ZXP Installer usually stops detecting the newer updates, until you reinstall ZXP Installer AND the entire Creative Cloud.  It's annoying.  But this is a good workaround

Sebastian Rasche

Erlend Kristiansen said:

When I try to press it in windows exstensions nothing happens. All the other extensions work fine, is this a known bug? Just bought it specifically for the project am working on right now so if you can answer quickly that would be greatly appriatiated!

If you have problems with the extension not opening, try installing it with this installer:
https://zxpinstaller.com/

This worked for me.

GhostBunny 3D

Error: After EFfects Error: Can not set enabled on this property because canSetEnabled is false

Script FIle: main.jsx (line 8)

So I am unable to actually join masks paths (the whole reason i bought the toolkit)..... Going to try editing the script to see if it lets me as that feature is needed when i have masks with 100s of points that animate,

Steve Kirby

Jeremy Rosart-Brodnitz said:

Error: After EFfects Error: Can not set enabled on this property because canSetEnabled is false

Script FIle: main.jsx (line 8)

So I am unable to actually join masks paths (the whole reason i bought the toolkit)..... Going to try editing the script to see if it lets me as that feature is needed when i have masks with 100s of points that animate,

Hi Jeremy. Please open a support ticket so we can help you. Thanks. Steve

Anthony Hairgrow

Hey there, I'm really enjoying Penpal, but I'm wondering if there's a proper channel for making feature requests / suggestions. As I'm getting into it, there's a few features I would love to see.

The first one being aligning the points to the edge of the comp. When I'm under the Points tab and the "World Space" is set to Comp, I naturally want to press either align left, right, top or bottom to set the point/s to the edges of the comp. I totally understand its current functionality though. In that the selected points will align to either the leftmost, rightmost, topmost, or bottommost point in the selection. I almost feel when aligning the points there should be two modes. Its current default mode and then align to the comp mode. So it can handle situations of where the user may  want to align points to the center of the comp vertically or horizontally.

Adding this new functionality will make PenPal feel closer to Illustrator or Photoshop when aligning assets to the edges of the Artboard or Composition. Instead of eyeballing the placement of the points to the comp edges or center, I would love to click a button to do so. Of course, I'm saying this without knowing if that functionality already exists.

Steve Kirby

Anthony Hairgrow said:

Hey there, I'm really enjoying Penpal, but I'm wondering if there's a proper channel for making feature requests / suggestions. As I'm getting into it, there's a few features I would love to see.

The first one being aligning the points to the edge of the comp. When I'm under the Points tab and the "World Space" is set to Comp, I naturally want to press either align left, right, top or bottom to set the point/s to the edges of the comp. I totally understand its current functionality though. In that the selected points will align to either the leftmost, rightmost, topmost, or bottommost point in the selection. I almost feel when aligning the points there should be two modes. Its current default mode and then align to the comp mode. So it can handle situations of where the user may  want to align points to the center of the comp vertically or horizontally.

Adding this new functionality will make PenPal feel closer to Illustrator or Photoshop when aligning assets to the edges of the Artboard or Composition. Instead of eyeballing the placement of the points to the comp edges or center, I would love to click a button to do so. Of course, I'm saying this without knowing if that functionality already exists.

Hi Anthony.

You mention both aligning points and aligning assets (shapes?), and you mention aligning to the edge of the comp and to the centre of the comp… and I'm not entirely sure I understand exactly what it is you need. It might be that we need to have a little back and forth conversation and that might also be better off done via the aescripts support ticket system than here in the comments. If you send us a ticket there I can find out if your ideas are something we can include in a future release. Thanks

James Curtis

How do I copy-flip a path?  I would have thought option-click the flip button would do it.  I've tried most of the usual key-combos.

I'm having to use Overlord to merge paths, and then send back to Ae.  That works, but surely this function is in Penpal, no?

Tooltips aren't working in the 1.4 version for OSX I'm using.

Steve Kirby

James Curtis said:

How do I copy-flip a path?  I would have thought option-click the flip button would do it.  I've tried most of the usual key-combos.

I'm having to use Overlord to merge paths, and then send back to Ae.  That works, but surely this function is in Penpal, no?

Tooltips aren't working in the 1.4 version for OSX I'm using.

Hi James. To copy and flip a path you would duplicate it in the timeline and then flip the new copy. Tooltips should be visible in a bar at the bottom of the penpal canvas but it's possible to turn them off in the preferences. The user guide is here, if that helps. If you cannot see tooltips at all, even with them turned on, then that is a bug we would like to investigate via a support ticket.

James Curtis

Hi Steve.  You wrote:  "To copy and flip a path you would duplicate it in the timeline and then flip the new copy."

I figured that out, but Ae doesn't have the Paths Pathfinder tools that Ai has, and I don't know if there's a way to merge mask paths or paths in shape layers into one mask or path in a Shape Layer, unless I buy another script like "Shape Layer Toolbar" or round-trip to Ai to use the Pathfinder tools. 

I know there's a Merge Paths Shape Layer function, but it doesn't merge separate paths into one path, it gives the appearance of doing so, which is fine for some situations.

I can work with two Paths in PenPal, but if I've done the dupe path, flip, I have points on top of points (not merged), which can make editing the tangents a challenge.

Maybe consider this as a feature request, unless I'm missing something else.

On Tool Tips, I must apologize.  I was expecting those little pop-up tips I see in other apps and plug-ins.  I totally wasn't looking for them at the bottom of the tab.  So sorry.

Steve Kirby

James Curtis said:

Hi Steve.  You wrote:  "To copy and flip a path you would duplicate it in the timeline and then flip the new copy."

I figured that out, but Ae doesn't have the Paths Pathfinder tools that Ai has, and I don't know if there's a way to merge mask paths or paths in shape layers into one mask or path in a Shape Layer, unless I buy another script like "Shape Layer Toolbar" or round-trip to Ai to use the Pathfinder tools. 

I know there's a Merge Paths Shape Layer function, but it doesn't merge separate paths into one path, it gives the appearance of doing so, which is fine for some situations.

I can work with two Paths in PenPal, but if I've done the dupe path, flip, I have points on top of points (not merged), which can make editing the tangents a challenge.

Maybe consider this as a feature request, unless I'm missing something else.

On Tool Tips, I must apologize.  I was expecting those little pop-up tips I see in other apps and plug-ins.  I totally wasn't looking for them at the bottom of the tab.  So sorry.

You're right that AE doesn't have Pathfinder-style tools. In general, After Effects is designed for a more non-destructive workflow than AI and PS. The Merge Paths shape operator and a mask's mode dropdown (Add, Subtract etc) work in the same way that AI's Pathfinder Shape Mode buttons do if you hold Alt when you click them. Both of the original paths remain live and editable, rather than being replaced by a single new path.

If we tried to provide a button in Penpal that truly merged (or intersected, or subtracted) two paths and replaced them with one single path, we would face quite a lot of difficult choices and challenges. How would we deal with paths that are keyframed? What do we do if one path's Group had been scaled or rotated, but not the other? What we do if the paths had different Fills and Strokes? You can stack more than just two paths and one operation - would users expect to be able to replace five masks with different modes into one single mask?

If we knew we always had only two paths, with no keyframes, that were next to each other inside the same group, then maybe we could provide the function you want. But a lot of users of AE might not be expected to understand those limitations… so we risk ending up with something that seems too limited and unintuitive to many. Also, the maths for intersecting bezier paths is pretty complicated stuff!

As far as I'm aware, there is no third party script that will properly merge paths in AE in the way you want. I think Shape Layer Toolbar provides an easier way to handle the Merge Paths operators rather than actually 'baking' a new, merged path. If you come across a script that does this, please let me know, as I'm curious how they implement it.

I will talk to Tomas about it but for the reasons given, I think it's unlikely we will be able to add this. And, for what it's worth - in my own experience, the non-destructive workflow is usually better in the end. At least, it is while you're in the animation phase.

Steve Kirby

James Curtis said:

I can work with two Paths in PenPal, but if I've done the dupe path, flip, I have points on top of points (not merged), which can make editing the tangents a challenge.

I forgot to mention that if you are struggling to edit multiple paths in Penpal, you can select one of them (it's easiest to see in the paths tab) and right-click and either 'Remove Path from View' or 'Solo Path in View'. This also works with multiple paths so you could, for example, select two out of four paths and remove those from the canvas.

Nick Breckon

Hi there - does this tool allow you to manipulate bezier handles on spatial keyframe vertices too, or is it just shape path vertices? Many thanks in advance!

Steve Kirby

Nick Breckon said:

Hi there - does this tool allow you to manipulate bezier handles on spacial keyframe vertices too, or is it just shape paths? Many thanks in advance!

Hi Nick. If you mean motion paths, then no. Penpal only modifies properties that are actually named 'Path' (in shape layers) or 'Mask Path' (in layer masks)  in the AE timeline. Not Position properties.

Michael Foran

Is there a way to align tangents? When I select tangent handles and use the align tools I get unexpected results. Instead of aligning the tangent handles move to strange positions. Thanks.

Steve Kirby

Michael Foran said:

Is there a way to align tangents? When I select tangent handles and use the align tools I get unexpected results. Instead of aligning the tangent handles move to strange positions. Thanks.

Hey Michael. There are a few different tangent tools in Penpal. It depends how you want them to align… what is it they need to be aligned to? If you’re seeing unexpected results it might be because you are working in a different Space to the one you need to. If you’d like me to look at your issue in detail, it would be easier for us both if we could see a screenshot or something. You can either open a support ticket and attach one, or feel free to email me directly (just Google my name to find my website and then click About Me to get my address) Steve

Michael Foran

Thanks for the fast response! I submitted a ticket so I could include screenshots.

Ttt zzz

I purchased it and now it says "trial expired" and cannot be activated.

All other purchased plugins can work, except "penpal".

Steve Kirby

Ttt zzz said:

I purchased it and now it says "trial expired" and cannot be activated.

All other purchased plugins can work, except "penpal".

This doesn’t sound right. You should open a support ticket and we’ll troubleshoot there.

Jeff Dutton

Having the same issue a couple others mentioned below. Click the Penpal line in the extensions panel, and nothing happens. I tried uninstalling/reinstalling, using ZXP Installer, etc. but no luck.

Steve Kirby

Jeff Dutton said:

Having the same issue a couple others mentioned below. Click the Penpal line in the extensions panel, and nothing happens. I tried uninstalling/reinstalling, using ZXP Installer, etc. but no luck.

Hey Jeff - have you tried enabling debugging in ZXP Installer and following these steps described here? This usually works.

Diego Israel Peralta

Hi there, same problem with only this plugin. I try to launching it but nothing happens. I'm using Ae 2022. I alredy uninstalled and reinstalled using the aescripts manager.

Steve Kirby

Diego Israel Peralta said:

Hi there, same problem with only this plugin. I try to launching it but nothing happens. I'm using Ae 2022. I alredy uninstalled and reinstalled using the aescripts manager.

Have you tried all the steps described in that link? Eg. Enabling debugging. If you have followed all the steps described and still have issues, please open a support ticket.

Stevan del George

Any plans to add 3D space (Z) to plugin & controls?

Steve Kirby

Stevan del George said:

Any plans to add 3D space (Z) to plugin & controls?

No, we did not have any plans for that. What kind of workflow did you envision? Adding another Space that is equivalent to the active camera? And kinda allowing you to … project shapes on to a surface? … I'm trying to imagine how this would be useful.

Thomas Alberti

how do you join two points (in points mode, not two paths in path mode)? I have an open path, like a 'C', and I would like to connect the first and last points with a segment.