Tracery
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Compatibility After Effects Please check exact version compatibility under the "COMPATIBILITY" tab below
Tracery is a powerful After Effects plugin designed to automatically track objects or regions via color keying and generate highly customizable graphical overlays. Create intricate visual clutter, data-driven schematics, tracker visualizations, and stylized motion graphics elements directly from your footage.
- Automated Color Region Tracking: Track color spots and regions without traditional keyframing—simply select a color, and Tracery automatically tracks it throughout your composition.
- Dynamic Visualization System: Generate responsive overlays that automatically adapt to moving targets throughout your composition.
- Multi-Target Support: Track and visualize up to 512 objects simultaneously with individual styling for each tracked element. Need more? Simply add another layer with the plugin.
- Performance Optimization: Works in multi-threaded mode with adjustable quality settings to balance precision and render speed based on your project needs.
- Seamless Integration: Works directly within After Effects' native environment—no external applications or data required.
- Advanced Connection Algorithms: Choose from four connection types including Sequential, Star, Full mesh, and Minimum Spanning Tree for optimal visual layouts.NEW
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Color Keying & Detection
Advanced controls for isolating elements by color, with adjustable threshold and blur settings. Includes mask preview and quality presets to balance precision and performance.
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Bounding Box Settings
Create customizable rectangular overlays around detected regions with adjustable borders, fill styles, opacity, and optional segmented corners.
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Text Coordinates
Display precise positional data with customizable text labels showing X/Y coordinates for each detected region, with control over typography and positioning.
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Center Markers
Add visual reference points at the center of each tracked region with multiple marker styles (Dot, Plus, Cross), customizable colors and sizing options.
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Connection Lines
Create dynamic paths between tracked points with multiple connection algorithms and adjustable style properties, including straight or curved lines, customizable appearance, and optional dashed line effects.
- Sequential: Traditional chain/loop connections between consecutive bounding boxes
- Star: All bounding box centers connect to the first (topmost) point, creating a star pattern
- Full: Complete graph where every point connects to every other point (most visually dense)
- Minimum Spanning Tree: Optimal connections using Prim's algorithm for minimum total distance without cycles
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Arrows
Add directional indicators to connection lines with control over arrow size, angle, positioning, and fill style to visually represent flow or movement.
Tracery is an essential tool for motion designers, visual effects artists, and data visualizers who need to generate complex, data-driven graphical overlays, stylized tracker marks, intricate schematics, or generative visual elements based on footage content directly within After Effects. It excels at creating visually rich "clutter" that responds dynamically to the underlying video.
After Effects | 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, CC 2019, CC 2018, CC 2017, CC 2015.3, CC 2015, CC 2014 |
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1.1 (Current version) - Jun 3, 2025
- Star: All bounding box centers connect to the first (topmost) point, creating a star pattern with single hub
- Full: Each bounding box center connects to every other center, creating a complete graph pattern (most visually dense option)
- MST (Minimum Spanning Tree): Uses Prim's algorithm approximation to create optimal connections with minimum total distance, forming tree structure
Fix: Resolved critical AE crash caused by outdated MSVCP140.dll library
Fix: Fixed plugin compatibility issues when third-party OpenGL plugins were present in composition
Fix: Tracery log file no longer writes to desktop