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After Effects
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Blender
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Cinema 4D
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Houdini
Lockdown 3 for After Effects
FREE version of Lockdown which allows 1 and 2 point tracking. Lockdown is the original and best plug-in that allows you to track warping surfaces inside After Effects. Lockdown 3 lets you give your mesh 3D depth. Easily send the mesh to Cinema 4D, Blender, and other 3D apps to attach objects, digitally re-light, and more! NEW: Improved 3D planar tracker. Includes Paint Link and Composite Brush for free.
Click the TRY button above to download the free version.
From $399.99
To $399.99
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EULA
END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
This software ("the Software Product") and accompanying documentation is licensed and not sold. This Software Product is protected by copyright laws and treaties, as well as laws and treaties related to other forms of intellectual property. The author owns intellectual property rights in the Software Product. The Licensee's ("you" or "your") license to download, use, copy, or change the Software Product is subject to these rights and to all the terms and conditions of this End User License Agreement ("Agreement").
Acceptance
YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT BY SELECTING THE "ACCEPT" OPTION AND DOWNLOADING THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT OR BY INSTALLING, USING, OR COPYING THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT. YOU MUST AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT BEFORE YOU WILL BE ALLOWED TO DOWNLOAD THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU MUST SELECT "DECLINE" AND YOU MUST NOT INSTALL, USE, OR COPY THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT.License Grant
This Agreement entitles you to install and use the Software Product. In addition, you may make one archival copy of the Software Product. The archival copy may only be used for the reinstallation of the Software Product. This Agreement does not permit the use of the Software Product by more than one user at a time, or the installation of the Software Product on more than two accounts or computers at any given time, including systems that allows shared used of applications, on a multi-user network, or on any configuration or system of computers that allows multiple users. Multiple copy use or installation is only allowed by the license type of the Software Product, for example with Floating Licenses which allow installation on more than one computer but still restrict the use to one user at a time.Restrictions on Transfer
Without first obtaining the express written consent of the author, you may not assign your rights and obligations under this Agreement, or redistribute, encumber, sell, rent, lease, sublicense, or otherwise transfer your rights to the Software Product.Restrictions on Use
You may not use, copy, or install the Software Product on more than two computers or accounts, or permit the use, copying, or installation of the Software Product by more than one user at a time or on more than one computer or account at a time. If you hold floating licenses, the Software Product may be installed on as many computers as necessary as long as they are all on the same internal network as the Floating License Server. If you hold multiple, validly licensed copies, you may not use, copy, or install the Software Product on any system with more than the number of computers permitted by license, or permit the use, copying, or installation by more users, or on more computers than the number permitted by license.You may not decompile, "reverse-engineer", disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for the Software Product.
Restrictions on Alteration
You may not modify the Software Product or create any derivative work of the Software Product or its accompanying documentation. Derivative works include but are not limited to translations. You may not alter any files or libraries in any portion of the Software Product.Restrictions on Copying
You may not copy any part of the Software Product except to the extent that licensed use inherently demands the creation of a temporary copy stored in computer memory and not permanently affixed on storage medium. You may make one archival copy which must be stored on a medium other than a computer hard drive.Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability
UNLESS OTHERWISE EXPLICITLY AGREED TO IN WRITING BY THE AUTHOR, THE AUTHOR MAKES NO OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN FACT OR IN LAW, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OTHER THAN AS SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT OR IN THE LIMITED WARRANTY DOCUMENTS PROVIDED WITH THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT.The author makes no warranty that the Software Product will meet your requirements or operate under your specific conditions of use. The author makes no warranty that operation of the Software Product will be secure, error free, or free from interruption. YOU MUST DETERMINE WHETHER THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT SUFFICIENTLY MEETS YOUR REQUIREMENTS FOR SECURITY AND UNINTERRUPTABILITY. YOU BEAR SOLE RESPONSIBILITY AND ALL LIABILITY FOR ANY LOSS INCURRED DUE TO FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT TO MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS. THE AUTHOR WILL NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR THE LOSS OF DATA ON ANY COMPUTER OR INFORMATION STORAGE DEVICE.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL THE AUTHOR, ITS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PARTY FOR INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND INCLUDING LOST REVENUES OR PROFITS OR LOSS OF BUSINESS) RESULTING FROM THIS AGREEMENT, OR FROM THE FURNISHING, PERFORMANCE, INSTALLATION, OR USE OF THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT, WHETHER DUE TO A BREACH OF CONTRACT, BREACH OF WARRANTY, OR THE NEGLIGENCE OF THE AUTHOR OR ANY OTHER PARTY, EVEN IF THE AUTHOR IS ADVISED BEFOREHAND OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. TO THE EXTENT THAT THE APPLICABLE JURISDICTION LIMITS THE AUTHOR'S ABILITY TO DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES, THIS DISCLAIMER SHALL BE EFFECTIVE TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED.
Limitation of Remedies and Damages
Any claim must be made within the applicable warranty period. All warranties cover only defects arising under normal use and do not include malfunctions or failure resulting from misuse, abuse, neglect, alteration, problems with electrical power, acts of nature, unusual temperatures or humidity, improper installation, or damage determined by the author to have been caused by you. All limited warranties on the Software Product are granted only to you and are non-transferable. You agree to indemnify and hold the author harmless from all claims, judgments, liabilities, expenses, or costs arising from your breach of this Agreement and/or acts or omissions.Governing Law, Jurisdiction and Costs
This Agreement is governed by the laws of New York, without regard to New York's conflict or choice of law provisions.Severability
If any provision of this Agreement shall be held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remainder of this Agreement shall remain in full force and effect. To the extent any express or implied restrictions are not permitted by applicable laws, these express or implied restrictions shall remain in force and effect to the maximum extent permitted by such applicable laws.
In regards to the open source libraries we use within this product, we use some parts of the Open CV library. It's required that we list their copyrights below.
License AgreementFor Open Source Computer Vision Library
(3-clause BSD License)Copyright (C) 2000-2019, Intel Corporation, all rights reserved.
Copyright (C) 2009-2011, Willow Garage Inc., all rights reserved.
Copyright (C) 2009-2016, NVIDIA Corporation, all rights reserved.
Copyright (C) 2010-2013, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., all rights reserved.
Copyright (C) 2015-2016, OpenCV Foundation, all rights reserved.
Copyright (C) 2015-2016, Itseez Inc., all rights reserved.
Third party copyrights are property of their respective owners.
This next section refers to OpenCV's liability within Lockdown
This software is provided by the copyright holders and contributors “as is” and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed. In no event shall copyright holders or contributors be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages (including, but not limited to, procurement of substitute goods or services; loss of use, data, or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this software, even if advised of the possibility of such damage.
Below are copyrights and notices for other libraries we use. These permissions refer specifically to the code of theirs that we use in Lockdown.The OpenGL Extension Wrangler Library Copyright (C) 2008-2016, Nigel Stewart <nigels[]users sourceforge net> Copyright (C) 2002-2008, Milan Ikits <milan ikits[]ieee org> Copyright (C) 2002-2008, Marcelo E. Magallon <mmagallo[]debian org> Copyright (C) 2002, Lev Povalahev All rights reserved.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Mesa 3-D graphics library Version: 7.0 Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Brian Paul All Rights Reserved.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL BRIAN PAUL BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Copyright (c) 2007 The Khronos Group Inc. Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and/or associated documentation files (the "Materials"), to deal in the Materials without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Materials, and to permit persons to whom the Materials are furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
THE MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE MATERIALS OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE MATERIALS.
License to use Alembic library:
//-*****************************************************************************
//
// Copyright (c) 2009-2016,
// Sony Pictures Imageworks, Inc. and
// Industrial Light & Magic, a division of Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd.
//
// All rights reserved.
//
// Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
// modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
// met:
// * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
// notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
// * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
// copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer
// in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
// distribution.
// * Neither the name of Sony Pictures Imageworks, nor
// Industrial Light & Magic nor the names of their contributors may be used
// to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific
// prior written permission.
//
// THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
// "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
// LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
// A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
// OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
// SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
// LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
// DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
// THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
// (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
// OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
//
//-*****************************************************************************Updated: Oct 21, 2025 1:35 AM
Get the free version now through the aescripts manager app!
Lockdown (est. 2018) is a revolutionary plug-in that allows you to track warping surfaces inside After Effects
Lockdown is a tool for tracking warping surfaces and planes in After Effects. Lockdown 3 allows you to add 3D depth to your mesh, so you can attach 3D objects in Cinema 4D, and other 3D applications. Try the demo now to see how it works!
Features:
- Track Warping and Planar Surfaces in After Effects
- Cleanup and Paint in a convenient stabilized composition
- Includes Paint Link and Composite Brush for free! (a $250 value)
- Use Photoshop's A.I. Generative Fill on moving footage via Paint Link!
New in Lockdown 3:
- Export 3D Tracking Data to Cinema 4D as a C4D file, or to other 3D applications such as Blender via Alembic.
- Attach objects in 3D
- Relight your Mesh
Included with Lockdown 3:
To leverage the full power of Lockdown 3, it now comes bundled with these 2 incredibly powerful tools (a $250 value!)
Reactions
I will only say this a few times left in my career...
— Andrew Embury (@aembury) September 30, 2019
This is ✨game-changer✨
How and wow — just wow...#postchat #mochat #mograph https://t.co/qWk7JktE3F
THIS IS INSANE. This is going to be such a powerful plugin. I wish I had a use for it right now https://t.co/LgERYg2luB
— adam zimmer (@AdamZimmer93) September 30, 2019
This is nuts. https://t.co/321AsTGaSw
— Brent Pierce (@Cineblur) September 30, 2019
The frequency with which I say this may be increasing. Nonetheless, THE! GAME! HAS! CHANGED!
— Evan Abrams (@ECAbrams) September 30, 2019
I have had to do this manually for too long, and I love that a computer can do it now.
Lockdown is another class of tool. I strongly feel it could convert entire studios and pipelines from Nuke/Flame to AE
- Teddy Gage - Shotgun Studios
Whattawhaaaat?!!!
— Willem (@grumpnl) September 30, 2019
The game has been changed! I REPEAT! THE GAME HAS BEEN CHANGED! https://t.co/hbwz6npr0f
— IAMJamina™ (@iamjamina) September 30, 2019
Man no more need to do this by hand... thank godddddd https://t.co/XJTmNxdOUB
— Agustin Eguia (@agustineguia) September 30, 2019
FAQ
Upgrade Notice
If you purchased Lockdown after Feb 12, 2023, you can upgrade for $100 (note that Lockdown 3 is $150 more expensive than v2 was due to all the new functionality and inclusion of Paint Link and Composite Brush, a $250 value on its own). If you purchased before, the upgrade is $200. Simply login to the same account and the discount price will be automatically added in the shopping cart. If you need assistance please open a support ticket.
I have a white screen or other render errors in the popout
We've figured this one out and will patch it soon. Please disable the "anti-aliasing" checkbox while working in the popout. This is related to a GPU driver conflict, and seems to only happen for users who have installed Unity, Unreal, Visual Studio, Ai applications, or anything that modifies your drivers. While you're working in the popout, please disable anti-aliasing, but turn it back on before closing the popout. Anti-Aliasing works differently in the popout and Ae, and should still render just fine with CPU in your composition.
For other render errors, It may be helpful to reset your Windows display and scale settings, as well as Nvidia control panel settings. Keep your GPU drivers, operating system, and After Effects up to date if you can!
How do I use Lockdown with Blender or other 3D applications?
In the 3D tab, when you export, you can export the mesh as an alembic. The alembic exporter will create a scene with a camera, a warping mesh, and a background object. The almbic format is limited, so you'll need to set up some parts of the project yourself. Import this into Blender, and inside the Lockdown group, you can look through the camera that was created for you. You can attach your footage to the background object. If you need the texture on the mesh itself, you can project the texture using the Lockdown camera as your projector. You cannot assign the textures to the Lockdown mesh via UVs, because the UVs are set to remain completely still aligned to the hero frame. To explain it using a real world example, if you track a shot of a brick wall, you can apply a still frame of a painting texture to the mesh, and it will appear to follow the brick wall.
How do I manually install Lockdown 3 (After Effects)?
We don't recommend a manual install, please use the manager app! https://aescripts.com/learn/aescripts-aeplugins-manager-app/
But if you have a specific reason:
Go to aescripts.com/lockdown (Top of this page)
Press the green "Try" button to access the downloads, and download/unzip.
Enter the Windows folder for a Windows install, copy and paste the ..aex plugin file here: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 2023\Support Files\Plug-ins
Enter the Mac folder for a Mac install, copy and paste the .plugin file here: Applications/Adobe After Effects 2023/Plug-ins/
Enter the Models folder, and paste depth_estimator_384x384_low_vram.vrl into the same folder as your plugin.
Go to aescripts.com/downloadable/customer/products and find your license code. It takes about 15 minutes to generate after purchasing.
Copy your License Code.
Apply Lockdown to an empty layer.
Press "Register" at the top of the plug-in.
Paste in your license code.
Press "activate"
In After Effects, go to Edit/Purge/All Memory & Disk Cache
Sometimes I crash (out of memory) when tracking high res footage, or very long footage (Ae)
In After Effects, go to "Preferences/Memory & Performance/RAM reserved for other applications". By default, it's set to something like 3 GB. Try to set this number very high. If you have 32 GB of RAM on your computer, maybe try releasing 16 GB. We're digging into an official fix, but at the moment, Ae and Lockdown aren't properly sharing RAM. AE is battling to create a RAM preview with as much RAM as it can get its hands on, and Lockdown needs a good amount for the motion vectors, point data, etc... Sometimes the system runs out. It's our top priority fix this. You should really only be seeing issues in extreme cases where Lockdown may need an unusually high amount of RAM for high res footage.
How do I get rid of the grid watermark?
Please refer to this faq on how to register your license and some troubleshooting tips.
How do I create a log file?
Please watch this video. Log files contain a record you can send to us, that tells us basically everything that happened since you opened Lockdown until you closed it. It makes it much easier for us to find bugs. Please make sure to delete the log folder after sending us the log, because the log file will get very very large over time if you keep the folder. Basically, if the folder exists, the log file is created and written to. If not, the log file is not created or written to. So you don't want the log folder to exist for any longer than it needs to be.
Lockdown turns a clip black, and nothing works
Please make sure you're using the CURRENT version of After Effects. We built Lockdown with the 2019 API, so it's a guarantee 2018 and earlier will not work at all. We keep it up to date with the latest version of Ae.
Some users report they have to update their graphics card drivers to get Lockdown working. More troubling, some Nvidia users claim GeForce experience says it's up to date, but they had to go to the Nvidia website to manually update drivers before Lockdown would work. Our team on Lockdown updates our graphics drivers immediately, so to minimize the chance of rendering errors, please stay up to date with your drivers.
I'd like to see the Lockdown 2 tutorials only
Here is the Youtube playlist for Lockdown 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJv_pO_Bsoo&list=PL1arT3aE34g5d-gJlY_dAVcrJyj37FX5L
I have a problem not listed here, can you help me?
We can sure try. All the help tickets for this product regarding technique are answered us, the creators of Lockdown. If you send us footage that poses unique challenges from every other video listed above, we can test it. That being said, we have a policy to ONLY send back screen recordings of your project for guidance, we will never send back any project files, no exceptions. We answer help tickets to assist you, and to improve Lockdown, but the help ticket system is not a way for us to complete your projects. Please make sure you have all the necessary permissions before sending a project file. You can open a help ticket here.
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
Compatibility
After Effects
2025, 2024, 2023, 2022
Blender
4.4, 4.3, 4.2, 4.1, 4.0, 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.2
Cinema 4D
2025, 2024, 2023, S26, R25, S24, R23, S22, R21, R20, R19, R18, R17, R16, R15
Houdini
21, 20.5, 20, 19, 18, 17
Maya
2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017