aescripts + aeplugins

Blake Estes

This looks great; going to try it out! I use blend in Illustrator often, so bringing that functionality over to AE easily (and with more options) sounds nice. 

Zohaib Malik

Blake Estes said:

This looks great; going to try it out! I use blend in Illustrator often, so bringing that functionality over to AE easily (and with more options) sounds nice. 

Thank you Blake for your kind words and that was my mission to enable others to blend shapes in After Effects as well so they can animate them easily. And tried to introduced some additional functionality as well. I hope you'll enjoy this as well and find this helpful.

weird core

love the look of this plugin, but would it ever be possilble to have an "SVG export" feature? (like the Aura plugin does)

Zohaib Malik

weird core said:

love the look of this plugin, but would it ever be possilble to have an "SVG export" feature? (like the Aura plugin does)

Thank you for your interest in the script. I am sharing the step on how to export the blended shapes in svg and to use in other programs like Illustrator.

You can freeze the blend using "Freeze Blend" feature and can easily export it using Bodymovin extension's "SMIL (svg)" export format. I hope it will help.

Natalya Greben

Hey! Thanks for the plugin!

Can you tell me how can I animate this shape from illustrator?

I made dots with dash lines and round caps.

How can I make intermediate lines dashed in your plugin?

Zohaib Malik

Natalya Greben said:

Hey! Thanks for the plugin!

Can you tell me how can I animate this shape from illustrator?

I made dots with dash lines and round caps.

How can I make intermediate lines dashed in your plugin?

Hi Natalya,

I am happy that you liked the plugin.

To add dashed lines to the blend you need to follow these steps:
Method 1:

- Disable the stroke from the property panel for the whole "Blend" layer.

- Add a new "Stroke" property to the "Blend" layer. (Make sure it comes after the "Group-Blend" in the layer's content.)

  

- Now you can easily adjust dashes for the whole blend here.

Method 2:

- Set/Update the total number of shapes to 1 for the whole blend from script UI. (You can increase later and all animations will remain intact.)

- Now open the "Blend" layer's content and adjust the dashes for that remaining one shape's stroke.

- You can now update the number of shapes again as you like and all will have the same dash settings.

  (With this method you can still control other stroke properties from the additional controls on the "Master" layer.)

I hope it will help you resolve this. Don't hesitate to contact for any further assistance. Thanks!

Alicja Gluszek

Hello! I installed the script and everything seems to be ok, until I hit create blend. What happens then is that the 2 shapes get centred on the composition, they loose their properties, so no longer have a stroke color, and a white dotted line is drawn between the original 2 positions of the shapes, then i move everything around but nothing happens. Can someone please help? Thanks! 

Zohaib Malik

Alicja Gluszek said:

Hello! I installed the script and everything seems to be ok, until I hit create blend. What happens then is that the 2 shapes get centred on the composition, they loose their properties, so no longer have a stroke color, and a white dotted line is drawn between the original 2 positions of the shapes, then i move everything around but nothing happens. Can someone please help? Thanks! 

Thanks Alicja for buying the script. The issue seems to be with the expression engine and you need to switch from "Legacy ExtendScript" to "JavaScript".

Kindly follow these steps to switch to the JavaScript engine:

1. Go to project settings (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K) for Windows and (Command + Option + Shift + K) for Mac.
2. Go to "Expressions" tab in project settings dialog box.
3. Under "Expression Engine" menu choose "JavaScript".

I hope by following the above steps your issue will be resolved.

Feel free to contact us for any further assistance.

Thanks & Regards!

Zohaib

Christos Kotsovos

Every-time I open AE 2020, its says extCOM error 0, then reverts back to trial mode.

So I enter my key I bought and says it works.

HOWEVER every time I go to use it, I get a pop-up saying

"Total shapes limit is 10 in trial version"

Why is this happening, I already payed for it.

UPDATE

A friend let me use his work station to test it out on AE2022, basically the script not functional with AE2020. In fact when I uninstalled the script from AE2020 "extCOM error 0" disappeared.

This is a very glaring over-site on the developer end.

Please fix this, my machine technical limitations can't go past AE2020

Zohaib Malik

Hi Christos,

Thanks for reaching out to us regarding the issue and this is the first time I am hearing about this compatibility issue. I actually tested and developed the script on AE2020 machine and not any other AE2020 user reported it before.

It might be some other issue, kindly check if these AE configurations are fine at your end?
- The latest "JavaScript" expression engine is enabled in AE project settings.
- Check if scripts are allowed to write files on your machine.

Let's check it out together what the issue could be. And please open a support ticket instead to keep the conversation in relevant place to avoid clutter. I will sort out this issue for you.

Thanks & regards,

Zohaib

Christos Kotsovos said:

Every-time I open AE 2020, its says extCOM error 0, then reverts back to trial mode.

So I enter my key I bought and says it works.

HOWEVER every time I go to use it, I get a pop-up saying

"Total shapes limit is 10 in trial version"

Why is this happening, I already payed for it.

UPDATE

A friend let me use his work station to test it out on AE2022, basically the script not functional with AE2020. In fact when I uninstalled the script from AE2020 "extCOM error 0" disappeared.

This is a very glaring over-site on the developer end.

Please fix this, my machine technical limitations can't go past AE2020

Ali Mahreen

It doesn't work even though I'm selecting the path.

Zohaib Malik

Ali Mahreen said:

It doesn't work even though I'm selecting the path.

Hi Ali,

It seems you are selecting the primitive shapes, however you need to convert these to "Bezier Paths" by right-clicking on these and selecting "Convert To Bezier Path". And try again, I hope it will work.

Thanks & Regards,

Zohaib

Ilya Gusinski

So is there a way to make it compatible with lottie - so I can export the animation as a lottie?

Zohaib Malik

Ilya Gusinski said:

So is there a way to make it compatible with lottie - so I can export the animation as a lottie?

Thanks Ilya for asking the question. As this is a complex rig managed by heavy expressions. But if the blend is simple and paths are not animated with loop then you can convert all expressions to keyframes for blend layer only and can export lottie animation. You can also use any script in case you already have to bake all with one click.

After converting to keyframes you can just keep the blend layer visible and hide others as they are not needed to be exported.

Thanks & Regards,

Zohaib

Jesper Zachrison

Hi! This is just what I'm looking for. 

I've been testing the trial and I can't seem to find an option to scale the two blended shapes to different sizes. What am I missing?

Best regards. /Jesper

Zohaib Malik

Jesper Zachrison said:

Hi! This is just what I'm looking for. 

I've been testing the trial and I can't seem to find an option to scale the two blended shapes to different sizes. What am I missing?

Best regards. /Jesper

Hi Jesper,

You can easily scale paths from the master paths layer.

Double click on any point of a master path and it will show transform bounds around that path, then you can easily scale it.

I hope it will help. Let us know if need any further assistance.

Thanks!

Best regards,

Zohaib

Jesper Zachrison

Hi Jesper,

You can easily scale paths from the master paths layer.

Double click on any point of a master path and it will show transform bounds around that path, then you can easily scale it.

I hope it will help. Let us know if need any further assistance.

Thanks!

Best regards,

Zohaib

Perfect, thank you. I'm buying.

Zohaib Malik

Jesper Zachrison said:

Hi Jesper,

You can easily scale paths from the master paths layer.

Double click on any point of a master path and it will show transform bounds around that path, then you can easily scale it.

I hope it will help. Let us know if need any further assistance.

Thanks!

Best regards,

Zohaib

Perfect, thank you. I'm buying.

Thank you Jesper. Really appreciated.

lik mak

Hi! Everything works perfect last week when I explore the  trial version,

I just bought a license today, and a lot of expression error occur once I hit the create blend button:

Anchor Point "Bad method arguments: pointOnPath() error, path does not contain any points"

Path "Property or method named “20” in class ‘Array’ is missing or does not exist. It may have been renamed, moved, delete, or the name may be been misstyped"

etc.

how to fix it? cheers.

Zohaib Malik

lik mak said:

Hi! Everything works perfect last week when I explore the  trial version,

I just bought a license today, and a lot of expression error occur once I hit the create blend button:

Anchor Point "Bad method arguments: pointOnPath() error, path does not contain any points"

Path "Property or method named “20” in class ‘Array’ is missing or does not exist. It may have been renamed, moved, delete, or the name may be been misstyped"

etc.

how to fix it? cheers.

Hi lik mak,

Thanks for buying the script.

The first thing you can check is the render engine in case it was switched to "Legacy ExtendScript", so you may need to change to latest "JavaScript".

Kindly follow these steps to switch expressions engine:

• Go to project settings (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K) for Windows and (Command + Option + Shift + K) for Mac.
• Go to "Expressions" tab in project settings dialog box.
• Under "Expression Engine" menu choose "JavaScript".

If you are already using latest expression engine then kindly restart After Effects and try again as sometimes scripting engine bugs cause this.

I hope above will fix your problem and you can reach out for any further queries or help.

Cheers!

Zohaib

lik mak

Zohaib Malik said:

lik mak said:

Hi! Everything works perfect last week when I explore the  trial version,

I just bought a license today, and a lot of expression error occur once I hit the create blend button:

Anchor Point "Bad method arguments: pointOnPath() error, path does not contain any points"

Path "Property or method named “20” in class ‘Array’ is missing or does not exist. It may have been renamed, moved, delete, or the name may be been misstyped"

etc.

how to fix it? cheers.

Hi lik mak,

Thanks for buying the script.

The first thing you can check is the render engine in case it was switched to "Legacy ExtendScript", so you may need to change to latest "JavaScript".

Kindly follow these steps to switch expressions engine:

• Go to project settings (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K) for Windows and (Command + Option + Shift + K) for Mac.
• Go to "Expressions" tab in project settings dialog box.
• Under "Expression Engine" menu choose "JavaScript".

If you are already using latest expression engine then kindly restart After Effects and try again as sometimes scripting engine bugs cause this.

I hope above will fix your problem and you can reach out for any further queries or help.

Cheers!

Zohaib

Thank you! It works.
Nice plugin.

Zohaib Malik

lik mak said:

Zohaib Malik said:

lik mak said:

Hi! Everything works perfect last week when I explore the  trial version,

I just bought a license today, and a lot of expression error occur once I hit the create blend button:

Anchor Point "Bad method arguments: pointOnPath() error, path does not contain any points"

Path "Property or method named “20” in class ‘Array’ is missing or does not exist. It may have been renamed, moved, delete, or the name may be been misstyped"

etc.

how to fix it? cheers.

Hi lik mak,

Thanks for buying the script.

The first thing you can check is the render engine in case it was switched to "Legacy ExtendScript", so you may need to change to latest "JavaScript".

Kindly follow these steps to switch expressions engine:

• Go to project settings (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K) for Windows and (Command + Option + Shift + K) for Mac.
• Go to "Expressions" tab in project settings dialog box.
• Under "Expression Engine" menu choose "JavaScript".

If you are already using latest expression engine then kindly restart After Effects and try again as sometimes scripting engine bugs cause this.

I hope above will fix your problem and you can reach out for any further queries or help.

Cheers!

Zohaib

Thank you! It works.
Nice plugin.

Thank you lik mak. Happy you liked it.

Tomasz Marciniak

I'm not quite happy with this plug-in unfortunately. All works amazing when you use simple shapes like lines, circles etc. But when you try to import more complexed shapes like logos the blend is completely random doesn't follow the proportions as it does in Illustrator, you may get better results when increasing the number of blend steps but one- that doesn't really give you the visual effect that you intend to obtain, two- it will/can slow down you computer significantly which makes further edits impossible and I'm using the latest mac. There are also times when it just doesn't make any action. It shows then it did the blend but there is none.. 

Please let me know if you have any ideas on how to fix it. 
Thanks 

Zohaib Malik

Tomasz Marciniak said:

I'm not quite happy with this plug-in unfortunately. All works amazing when you use simple shapes like lines, circles etc. But when you try to import more complexed shapes like logos the blend is completely random doesn't follow the proportions as it does in Illustrator, you may get better results when increasing the number of blend steps but one- that doesn't really give you the visual effect that you intend to obtain, two- it will/can slow down you computer significantly which makes further edits impossible and I'm using the latest mac. There are also times when it just doesn't make any action. It shows then it did the blend but there is none.. 

Please let me know if you have any ideas on how to fix it. 
Thanks 

Hi Tomasz,

Thanks for reaching out to us with your problem. We are sad to know that it doesn't fit your requirements.

It is better to use simple shapes as complex path points need more calculations and the same happens with adding a lot of blended steps/shapes. (We also guided on the product page and in the user guide.)

It is not exactly like what the Illustrator blend method does. However, it has some additional options to control the blend.

In case your blend doesn't work as expected you may need to check the first vertex and the shape direction. So, if they don't match or both paths have opposite directions then it may cause the issue. To fix that you can use shift vertex and reverse path functions on the script panel.

To get a better idea of what kind of shapes work best, you can check the samples provided with the script or at the end of the promo video.

In case your script doesn't work, try closing the script panel and opening it again from the window menu of After Effects as due to some bugs in the scripting engine, it happens sometimes. If the script still doesn't work then restarting After Effects can also help.

I hope these will answer your questions, in case you have any further queries or need any help, don't hesitate to contact us again.

Thanks & Regards,

Zohaib

Chase Hostler

Hello,

I am trying to use this effect on a blend of two lines. It's working great for that purpose, but for the transition I need to use CC Ball action. When the effect is applied to the precomp of the blend, the lines are no longer visible (only some parts show with the balls) and when I try to apply the effect to the shapes master layer in the blend, nothing happens. 

Is there a workaround for this? Thanks so much!

Zohaib Malik

Chase Hostler said:

Hello,

I am trying to use this effect on a blend of two lines. It's working great for that purpose, but for the transition I need to use CC Ball action. When the effect is applied to the precomp of the blend, the lines are no longer visible (only some parts show with the balls) and when I try to apply the effect to the shapes master layer in the blend, nothing happens. 

Is there a workaround for this? Thanks so much!

Hi Chase,

Thank you for purchasing the script and we are happy to help.

Kindly try applying the CC Ball Action to the "Blends" layer instead as that's the only layer visible.

And if the balls don't appear then it might be caused due to the thin line strokes, so to fix increase/animate the width of the stroke from the controls on the "Master" layer.

The same will work if you apply the effect on the precomp of the whole blend and will show correctly with lines after increasing the stroke thickness.

I hope it will fix your issue. Kindly feel free to contact for any further assistance.

Thanks & Regards,

Zohaib

gregor huber

I just bought 'shapes blender' and wanted to learn how to use it with the tutorial video. At first I thought it's a prank, because I didn't understand 50 % of the spoken instructions . I am sorry, you guys make great software, but that is just outrages. Please, please redo the tutorial. Thank you very much.

Zohaib Malik

gregor huber said:

I just bought 'shapes blender' and wanted to learn how to use it with the tutorial video. At first I thought it's a prank, because I didn't understand 50 % of the spoken instructions . I am sorry, you guys make great software, but that is just outrages. Please, please redo the tutorial. Thank you very much.

Hi gregor,

Thanks for purchasing the script and showing us your concern regarding the voice quality for the tutorial. Actually, that is already on our list and we will soon re-record it with better quality that will be easily understandable.

In the meanwhile, kindly check the pdf instructions guide in case you need to learn about anything and we will update you once the new tutorial is uploaded.

Sorry again for any inconvenience caused.

Thanks and regards,

Zohaib

gregor huber

Thank you very much Zohaib Malik. I want to excuse myself if I have hurt anybodies feelings. I am overwhelmed by the plugin and am a bit frustrated because I assumed it to be easier to use. Thank you again for your response.

Zohaib Malik

gregor huber said:

Thank you very much Zohaib Malik. I want to excuse myself if I have hurt anybodies feelings. I am overwhelmed by the plugin and am a bit frustrated because I assumed it to be easier to use. Thank you again for your response.

No worries gregor.

We can understand and respect your feelings. As far as the use of the plugin is concerned, it is not that difficult to use, but it might be challenging to get used to it at first due to the tutorial issue.

But we will make sure to eliminate this issue as soon as possible. Thanks for bearing with us.

You can also open a support ticket in case you need any help with a certain feature.

Best regards,

Zohaib

Mike Mirandi

Hi guys-- I'm looking to animate one of the blended shapes using Points to Nulls, but it doesn't seem to work. Is there a setting that I'm missing or will it not work that way?

Alternatively is there a way to bake down the points to nulls animation so that I just have a keyframed path animation?

thanks!

Zohaib Malik

Mike Mirandi said:

Hi guys-- I'm looking to animate one of the blended shapes using Points to Nulls, but it doesn't seem to work. Is there a setting that I'm missing or will it not work that way?

Alternatively is there a way to bake down the points to nulls animation so that I just have a keyframed path animation?

thanks!

Hey Mike,

Yes, you can use Points to Nulls to control the paths. Just twirl down to any shape path on the Master layer and create nulls for it. If the paths are moved or rotated along the spine or from the twist control preset then the nulls won't rotate or move with the spine as path nulls don't look for the shape group's transformation data but will just modify the paths.

To bake the blend is not yet available within the script and you can only freeze paths at a single frame. But you can bake by using any third-party script. Thanks for the suggestion, we will add this to the feature requests and may introduce this in the future.

I hope the above was helpful. In case you have further queries you can open a support ticket.

Thanks & Regards,

Zohaib

John Kyker

Please do not overwrite global objects prototypes. You've overwritten Number, Boolean, etc. It is considered a very bad practice. It breaks other scripts and we recommend to our customers to remove your script. Thanks.

Zohaib Malik

John Kyker said:

Please do not overwrite global objects prototypes. You've overwritten Number, Boolean, etc. It is considered a very bad practice. It breaks other scripts and we recommend to our customers to remove your script. Thanks.

Hi John,

Thanks for pointing out the issue. I've checked but I couldn't find any prototype overwrites in this script.

Can you explain the issue a bit more so I could fix this? Also, are you writing on behalf of Aescripts or one of my customers? So, I can assist better.

Thanks & Regards,

Zohaib

Ricardo Donoso

Are you still supporting this plugin, it's almost one you from the latest update...

Zohaib Malik

Ricardo Donoso said:

Are you still supporting this plugin, it's almost one you from the latest update...

Yes Ricardo,

The plugin is still supported but there isn't anything major to update at the moment. We are re-doing the tutorial with a new voice-over. But you can let us know if you are facing any issue with any feature of the plugin and we'll fix that as well.

Thanks & Regards,

Zohaib

Ricardo Donoso

I was thinking of buying this plugin, but when I saw the version history tab, I had doubts. Thank you so much for the answer.

Zohaib Malik said:

Ricardo Donoso said:

Are you still supporting this plugin, it's almost one you from the latest update...

Yes Ricardo,

The plugin is still supported but there isn't anything major to update at the moment. We are re-doing the tutorial with a new voice-over. But you can let us know if you are facing any issue with any feature of the plugin and we'll fix that as well.

Thanks & Regards,

Zohaib

Zohaib Malik

Ricardo Donoso said:

I was thinking of buying this plugin, but when I saw the version history tab, I had doubts. Thank you so much for the answer.

Zohaib Malik said:

Ricardo Donoso said:

Are you still supporting this plugin, it's almost one you from the latest update...

Yes Ricardo,

The plugin is still supported but there isn't anything major to update at the moment. We are re-doing the tutorial with a new voice-over. But you can let us know if you are facing any issue with any feature of the plugin and we'll fix that as well.

Thanks & Regards,

Zohaib

You are welcome!

And you can reach out for any further queries or help.

Thanks & Regards,

Zohaib

David Birdwell

I know you can change the number of shapes in the plugin window itself...But, ie there any way to keyframe (tween) the number of shapes?
I can't find "number of shapes) in the Effects Control panel.

Keeping my fingers crossed for this functionality.
Even if it was a bit jumpy, I think it's be a cool animation

Zohaib Malik

David Birdwell said:

I know you can change the number of shapes in the plugin window itself...But, ie there any way to keyframe (tween) the number of shapes? I can't find "number of shapes) in the Effects Control panel. Keeping my fingers crossed for this functionality. Even if it was a bit jumpy, I think it's be a cool animation

Hi David,

Thank you for reaching out for assistance. We are happy to help.

Could you please explain how you would like to animate the shapes to increase or decrease the number of shapes?

You can use "Offset-Controls" to control and animate the shapes' movements. (Stretch / Scale / Offset)

If you use Offset, then disable "Loop Offset" if you don't want the shapes to reappear from the other end, which creates an effect of shapes appearing from one side.

You can also utilize advanced opacity controls to make the shapes disappear from any side using "Opacity-Start or End" properties.

Please let us know if these solutions work for you, or feel free to contact us again with more details to discuss further.

Thanks & Regards,

Zohaib

jde de

Hello, Is there a way to scale the shapes using keyframes. I know you can go into the master path and scale the transform, but how do I keyframe it so that the whole blend change sizes according to the keyframe

Zohaib Malik

jde de said:

Hello, Is there a way to scale the shapes using keyframes. I know you can go into the master path and scale the transform, but how do I keyframe it so that the whole blend change sizes according to the keyframe

Hi,

Yes, you can scale the entire blend based on the keyframes by adding keyframes to the path property of the Master paths. Instead of adjusting the transform scale, modify the path property using its bounding box and add keyframes to adjust its size.

I hope this clarifies things for you. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any more questions.

Best regards,

Zohaib