To start I love AE Scripts. I buy plugins (at least it feels like) all the time so take this as coming from someone who isn't a "hater". At some point, products that came out on AE Scripts started making teaser videos that didn't show the product but rather "illustrated" versions of the products working. I have no idea when or why exactly this trend started but please make it stop. We want to see the UI! The product in action. The menus, the controls! What we don't want to see are floating bits of text and solids that are meant to be a metaphor for whatever plugin we're trying to look at. It's a waste of time because all I do (and a lot of my colleagues do) is just skip right past it to find a real video about the plugin. It just feels like people are putting lot of work in to something that most of the people I know just skip past.
that's a great point. as an author, when I have to make a promo, I'm confused with all kind of references that I see around. I feel that I must create something great, epic ... but in the end, I always want to show the actual product, as you said, the interface, the tool in action.
There are certainly different perspectives when it comes to the promotional videos for tools.
Some users prefer to see a raw recording of the UI in action, while others appreciate the more flashy and conceptual videos.
As an avid collector of scripts, I can understand both perspectives. Some tools have so many features that it can be difficult to showcase them all in a short promotional video.
Ultimately, the choice of how to present a tool is up to the author and should be respected.
What is most important to me is the functionality and benefits that the tool offers.
The promotional video is simply a means to showcase the tool and its capabilities, but it is not the sole deciding factor for me when evaluating a tool imho.
as an author, when I have to make a promo, I'm confused with all kind of references that I see around. I feel that I must create something great, epic ... but in the end, I always want to show the actual product, as you said, the interface, the tool in action.