keyboardFX

keyboardFX is a tool for Adobe After Effects designed to generate fully customizable keyboards together with user-defined typing animations. NEW: Intelligent case detection for mobile keyboard and new Virtual keyboard panel + much more!

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Description


keyboardFX is a tool for Adobe After Effects, specifically designed to create
highly customizable keyboards together with user defined typing animations.

It saves you an incredible amount of designing time.
If you want to create an animated typing keyboard, this tool is for your!


update notice: v1.51 is free for all existing users!




Every keyboard is fully and dynamically customizable giving you the ability
to create virtually any type of keyboard.

There is also an option for Qwerty,
Azerty
or Dvorak keyboard layouts.

Here are a few examples
created only with keyboardFX:

keyboardFX - examples
keyboardFX




keyboardFX also includes a secondary mode for better timing your animations by using markers!
For each generated text character, keyboardFX creates a layer marker,
which controls the typing animation and key illumination.

keyboardFX - using markers mode



keyboardFX also features the 'Wa8mEmW4Fbdh14gG1O0yoAmQW7a4i3Sy{{HOLD}}Wa8mEmW4Fbdh14gG1O0yoAmQW7a4i3Sy special code which gives you the ability to light-up key combinations or whole sections of the keyboard.

keyboardFX - HOLD example 1

keyboardFX - HOLD example 2



keyboardFX v1.5 automatically inserts 'Wa8mEmW4Fbdh14gG1O0yoAmQW7a4i3Sy{{SHIFT}}Wa8mEmW4Fbdh14gG1O0yoAmQW7a4i3Sy codes, when a lower/upper case change occurs, in your input text. This makes the keyboard layout change automatically to reflect any case changes!

keyboardfx_preset_1




There are several animation presets included in keyboardFX. Here are a few examples:

keyboardfx_preset_1 keyboardfx_preset_2 keyboardfx_preset_3 keyboardfx_preset_4



You can illuminate all available keys on every keyboard, including
the Function, Modifier, Navigation and Numeric Pad Keys.



keyboardFX


keyboardFX - UI
In order for keyboardFX to illuminate other than alphanumeric keys (e.g. the function keys, arrow keys etc.) a special code must be typed. This special code is nothing more than double curly brackets before and after the name of the key.

For example:

If you want keyboardFX to generate typing animations for the following two words: Hello World! immediately followed by illuminating the "Page Down" key, your input text must look like this:

Hello World!'Wa8mEmW4Fbdh14gG1O0yoAmQW7a4i3Sy{{PAGE DOWN}}Wa8mEmW4Fbdh14gG1O0yoAmQW7a4i3Sy

and then press the "Generate keyboard!" button.


Here is an example list of codes for the special keys of a PC keyboard.
(similar lists for all types of keyboards -Apple, Mobile/Tablet, Commodore- are provided in the included PDF user guide)


keyboardFX - special codes


You can easily adjust the typing speed as well as the glow decay.
Below is an example of various values of the "glow decay" effect control.

keyboardFX - glow decay




keyboardFX - effect controls

Once the keyboard has been created, you will find the following effect controls in the effects panel of the keyboardFX shape layer.

If you like our work, please visit:
www.realcreations.gr

keyboardFX - footer

Discussions

Want to talk about it?

Head over to r/aescripts to chat with fellow users about this product.

Need Support?

Please open a support ticket to be connected directly with the author of this product

Version History

1.51 -

Sep 16, 2024

-fixed: an issue where on some AE installations, keyboardFX would freeze on setting-up expressions

-fixed: an issue where keyboardFX would not set the Arial Font name properly for the generated text layers

1.5 -

Sep 5, 2024

-optimized: significant overall speed improvements in generating any type of keyboard

-fixed: a few annoying bugs

-updated: some special codes and also added a few more

-added: a Virtual Keyboard to easily input special codes for each type of keyboard

-added: numbers [0-9] on the mobile/tablet keyboard

-added: lower/case letters on the mobile/tablet keyboard

-optimized: the mobile/tablet keyboard which now automatically reads your text and inserts {{SHIFT}} codes on every lower/upper case change, updating the keyboard layout

-updated to license framework v4.2.0

1.2 -

Nov 24, 2019

- fixed: a bug which prevented the complete generation of Commodore64 keyboards on AE CS6

- fixed: the random preset for Commodore64 was not random. It now fixed.

- fixed: a few typing errors on some of the presets

- fixed: a bug where the custom input text field was locked on first run on AE CS6

- fixed: carriage returns no longer mess the timing of the animations and properly light up the "Enter" key

- fixed: the order of the layers became shuffled, if there were other existing layers in the timeline. It's now fixed.

- fixed: some layer properties stayed open in the timeline after the generation of the keyboard. It's now fixed and every property is closed (twirled up)



- changed: the glow and key layers are no longer locked

- changed: renamed the effect control "Glow Decay" to "Glow Decay Speed" for better clarity

- changed: smaller UI + a few cosmetic changes



- added: the {{HOLD}} special code which allows the illumination of key combinations (like Ctrl+Alt+Del)

- added: a second mode of controlling the keystroke animations through markers! (Using Markers Mode)



- optimized: before generating any keyboard, keyboardFX checks the input text and informs the user about mistyped special codes

- optimized: when deleting keyboardFX layers, expression errors are now suppressed

- optimized: the -initial- typing speed and glow decay speed is automatically adjusted at a comfortable pace of approximately 8 characters per second

- optimized: redesigned progress bar that is more accurate, more informative, and works both in window and in dockable panel mode. Also added a enable/disable checkbox for it, in the settings tab (CS6 only)

- optimized: compatibility with macOS Catalina

- optimized: compatibility with After Effects 2020

- optimized: instead of typing multiple {{PAUSE}} codes to further prolong a pause you can now type {{PAUSE1}} through {{PAUSE30}} (the same applies with the HOLD code)



1.1 -

Jan 9, 2019

- added: the DVORAK keyboard layout

- added: five lighting key animation presets

- optimized: broadened compatibility. keyboardFX in now compatible with older versions of After Effects (CC + CS6)

- changed: keyboardFX no longer uses the "Arial" font as the default font for every text layer it generates. It will now use what ever font is selected in the After Effects Character Panel upon generation.

1.0 -

Oct 23, 2018

initial release

Compatibility

After Effects

2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, CC 2019, CC 2018, CC 2017, CC 2015.3, CC 2015, CC 2014, CC, CS6