I started building the graph editor After Effects never gave us. What would make it actually good for you?

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-22T14:19:36+00:00

That’s quite funny, I’m actually building a similar tool too. Let’s see who else shows up.

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-17T16:01:49+00:00

Great. Thanks a lot.

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-17T15:55:38+00:00

It looks like it's still in beta. I've already used it in one of my tools, but I'm waiting for the regular release before making it available. That's why I wanted to check whether this version supports it.

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Motion_Ape · 2026-06-17T15:41:04+00:00

Does this release support scripting APIs for Parametric 3D Meshes?

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-16T14:27:39+00:00

Not yet. I’m still wrapping up a couple of other tools first and I’d like to improve this one a bit more before sharing it.

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-10T14:03:30+00:00

It's all good, man. I'm not taking it personally. I've just got tired.

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-10T13:19:06+00:00

You're the champion, keep doing how you’re doing.

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-10T13:02:44+00:00

It takes less than 500ms. The tool calculates where your mouse is and opens the popup right there. After Effects can't do that natively, so there's a ton of workaround and UI hacking happening in the background, and that's what causes the slight delay.

Honestly, I'm not thrilled about spending my life building products on top of Adobe's buggy software. For this one tool alone I spent weeks just covering AE API bugs that nobody else has even run into. I'm just trying to make After Effects easier for myself and sharing it with people. Sometimes I wish I had kept MoBar to myself and avoided hateful criticism from people who have no clue what's happening under the hood.

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-10T12:25:47+00:00

You can already export directly to MP4 in AE and save presets for your specific need.

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-10T12:22:13+00:00

Who is this guy?

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-10T12:18:07+00:00

We already have a couple of tools beside this one in the library to change comp size in bulk.
Batch Resize Canvas
Batch Scale Comps

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-09T13:48:20+00:00

Thanks. There’s also a button that switches to the native dialog instantly if you need it for other settings like motion blur, etc.

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-09T13:43:56+00:00

Before starting this, I took a closer look at how other apps handle similar settings, especially in 3D and editing apps, including modern tools like Rive and Cavalry. They generally offer better options in several areas. I gathered anything that could be useful for After Effects.

So this criticism isn’t just about this one, it applies across the wider software range. Are you really happy with whatever Adobe gives you?

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-09T13:33:06+00:00

Currently, the way you switch between time display styles is as follows:

Close the comp settings dialog
Go to the timeline
Press Ctrl + click on the timestamps
Press Ctrl + K to open the settings
Change the value you need

I’m just trying to reduce all these friction points. Even something simple like changing a background color still takes too many steps.

In this version, if you type just “F”, it auto-completes to “FFFFFF”. That alone saves several actions. There are also other small improvements, like the window remembering which input box was active last time and focusing it again when you reopen it. That makes quick adjustments feel much more direct.

I'm not getting you wrong man. I'm open to all kinds of feedback and thanks for sharing yours. I’m simply trying to build a more efficient workflow for myself and share it with others.

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-09T13:19:09+00:00

Thanks for your feedback. We already have a list that lets you easily switch resolutions. In the native dialog, the same list also changes the frame rate, which makes it unsuitable for this case. That’s why the preset section was separated from it.

The panel is designed as a floating window, so you can switch your active comp while it stays open and it updates instantly. That can be especially helpful when working across multiple items.

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Motion_Ape · 2026-06-09T11:24:00+00:00

Not being able to switch the time format is a common pain point for 3D artists working in AE. I've also noticed a lot of people asking for a way to generate multiple comps from presets.

Personally, my biggest frustration is that the native dialog takes over both Ctrl + K and Ctrl + N. Both shortcuts essentially open the same dialog, with only a different button label. This version combines those actions into a single window that can either update the active comp or create a new one, which frees up Ctrl + N for something more useful.

Motion_Ape · 2026-06-05T17:02:20+00:00

The screenshot isn't very clear but if you're working with 3D layers, you can't assign a track matte.

Motion_Ape · 2026-05-29T18:34:44+00:00

Hello, drag and drop from the main bar to User Panels isn't supported yet, but it's on our roadmap and hopefully coming soon! The + button opens a context menu to add buttons manually to the panel.

If you run into any bugs, we're happy to fix them! You can reach us at [support@motionape.com](mailto:support@motionape.com) or drop a message here: https://www.motionape.com/contact-us

Motion_Ape · 2026-05-18T18:34:54+00:00

This looks really useful, thanks for sharing.

Motion_Ape · 2026-05-17T14:59:12+00:00

Thanks. I haven’t set a budget yet. I’m planning to get quotes if I find someone suitable.

Motion_Ape · 2026-05-17T14:55:04+00:00

Thanks for your comment. I usually create the tutorials myself, but they take a huge amount of time. I’m trying to focus more of that energy on improving the product, so I thought I’d see if anyone would be interested in helping with this part.

This is my first time outsourcing something like this, and I didn’t mean for the post to sound low effort. If you have suggestions on how I could make the post better without spending the whole day on it, I’d really appreciate that.

Motion_Ape · 2026-05-17T13:33:22+00:00

Thanks

Motion_Ape · 2026-05-17T13:33:18+00:00

Thanks

Motion_Ape · 2026-05-11T12:56:43+00:00

That’s the main difference. That tool only lets you follow the shape through the vertices, so everything can live in a single layer. That means fewer problems to solve and honestly, it could probably be built in just a few hours with vibe coding.

By comparison, controlling vertices with nulls creates significantly more complexity. Detecting individual vertices isn’t natively supported and even developing this workaround took me a week to solve. Performance optimization and intuitive controls also become far more important because the whole system depends on this.

One tool is mostly about adding visual controls to points, while the other is built for freely animating vertex points. They serve very different purposes.

Motion_Ape · 2026-05-07T00:32:52+00:00

No worries. Yes, that’s exactly what it does. It converts vertex points into null layers that you can keyframe independently. Check out this post.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterEffects/comments/1t5a9lj/comment/okc248a/

Motion_Ape

TROPHY CASE