
Some of my favorites are Ouroboros, Comp Setter and Motion. They are scripts, expressions and - as is the focus of this article - HTML extensions.īefore HTML extensions, the only other game in town, besides plugins, was scripts written in Adobe’s ExtendScript (which we’ll get into later).
#Adobe after effects examples code#
However, most third-party add-ons that involve code are not actually plugins. They are low-level applications with a GUI (graphical user interface), written in C or C++ or other intimidating geekery.


I’ve learned that programs like Element are categorized as plugins. The case study ahead will hopefully offer practical insights to designers but more specifically to those who want to take their Adobe apps to the next level for themselves or others. This article is about my 17-month side hustle journey to a product that I now believe is reasonably well-rounded and useful to anyone building a brand online through video, for themselves or as a service to others. Looking back, I’ve learned that it’s also not something you need a four year CS degree for - although having a head start on the fundamentals will help. It was hard, I learned a lot, and I certainly had a boat-load of fails.īut, I found it immensely rewarding. What I found was reassuring for code-dummies like myself.Īfter a lot of starting and stopping, I’ve now built something with walls of scary symbols that, until recently, broke me out in cold sweats.

On what must have been a slow day, I finally took action and looked into Adobe development some more. My yardstick was Andrew Kramer’s amazing Element plugin, which is wildly complex and (as far as I know) has a team of people far smarter than me working on it.īut as I tinkered myself towards the edge of the coding cliff, I learned that this was really just an outlier in a sea of relatively simple but useful third-party apps. Building a plugin for Adobe After Effects was never something I seriously considered.
