After Effects

Overview

Automate Adobe After Effects — the industry-standard motion graphics and compositing tool. This skill covers ExtendScript for programmatic project manipulation, CEP/UXP panel development, expressions for procedural animation, aerender CLI for headless batch rendering, MOGRT template automation, data-driven graphics, and production pipeline integration. Build repeatable workflows for social media content, broadcast graphics, and VFX pipelines.

Instructions

Step 1: Scripting Approaches

1. ExtendScript (.jsx) — Full project DOM access, runs inside AE
2. Expressions — Per-property JavaScript-like code, runs per-frame
3. CEP/UXP Panels — HTML/JS panels with ExtendScript bridge
4. aerender — Command-line renderer (headless)

Run an ExtendScript:

# From AE: File > Scripts > Run Script File
# Or place in Scripts/Startup/ for auto-run