ae-effects

Effects and blur

Effects are applied with ae_apply_effect: pass the display name or the matchName, and parameter values by name. The call returns every parameter, so the next call can set the rest. Names below are the exact ones After Effects uses. If one isn't found, the effect isn't installed: look it up with ae_catalog {"kind": "effects", "query": "…"}.

ae_apply_effect {"layer": "Logo", "effect": "ADBE Glo2",
                 "params": {"Glow Threshold": 60, "Glow Radius": 40, "Glow Intensity": 1.2}}

Order matters. Effects render top to bottom, so a glow after a blur glows the blurred result. Reorder with ae_property_meta {"path": ["Effects","Glow"], "index": 1}. Toggle one off (the fx switch) with "enabled": false.

A stack that behaves, most of the time:

Where the effect goes

The same effect gives three different results depending on what you put it on. This decides more about the look than the parameters do.

Two bounds traps, both of which look like the effect is broken:

• **Effects on a shape or text layer are clipped to that layer's own

bounds.** A blurred blob drawn with ae_shape gets a hard straight edge where the shape's box ends. Put the blur on an adjustment layer above the shapes instead — the soft-gradient recipe in ae-ui-motion relies on this.

• An effect that grows the image (glow, blur, drop shadow, displace) is

cut off at the layer's edge. Add ADBE GROW BOUNDS (Grow Bounds) before it in the stack, or precompose with "move all attributes".

Glow, light, energy

A glow that reads as light, not a grey blob: stack two glows. The first is tight (radius 10–20, intensity 1–1.5). The second is wide (radius 80–200, intensity 0.3–0.6). Keep the threshold high so only the bright core glows. For neon, set Glow Colors to A & B colors with a saturated Color A and Color B.

Texture, smoke, organic motion

Animate noise with an expression, not keyframes. On ["Effects","Fractal Noise","Evolution"]: time * 90. For a heat haze, put Turbulent Displace (Amount 5–10, Size 40–80) on an adjustment layer and animate its Evolution the same way.

Effects that read another layer

Displacement Map, Set Matte, Compound Blur, Card Dance, Caustics and the gradient wipes take a map layer and read its brightness or alpha. Three things decide what they see:

• Which stage of the map they read. The map-layer menu has Source, Masks

and Effects & Masks. On Source, the effect sees the map's raw pixels: its own masks, effects and transform are ignored. So a Fractal Noise map animated on its own layer reads as an empty solid. Pick Effects & Masks, or precompose the map.

• Neutral values. For Displacement Map, 50% grey (128) moves nothing;

brighter pushes one way and darker the other. A map that averages lighter than mid-grey shifts the whole image as well as distorting it. For Compound Blur, black is sharp and white is fully blurred.

• Size. A map that isn't comp-sized is centred, stretched or tiled (the

effect's map-behaviour menu). Stretch changes the scale of the pattern, so make the map the size of the layer it drives.

Hide the map layer (switch its video off); the effect still reads it.

Paper, print and stepped motion

Collage, cut paper and print looks have one rule: what the material is stays still; only the life on top of it moves.

• Paper fibre is still. A Fractal Noise or photographed paper layer

with no Evolution, in Multiply or Overlay at low opacity. Animated noise on paper reads as video noise, not paper.

• Grain moves. A separate VISINF Grain Implant or ADBE Noise2 pass

(Amount 4–8%, colour off) on an adjustment layer at the top.

• Print boil. Turbulent Displace at a very low Amount (1–2, Size 50–60)

on the cut-out, with Evolution stepped so the edge shifts a few times a second instead of crawling:

  posterizeTime(8);
  time * 90

• Cut-out shadows. Two Drop Shadows: a tight contact shadow (Opacity

~30%, Distance 2, Softness 3) and a soft ambient one (Opacity ~12%, Distance 7, Softness 12) at 1920 px wide. Scale Distance and Softness with the comp width.

Stepped cadence ("on twos"). Two tools, different results:

Choose a rate that divides the comp's rate: 15 on 30 fps or 12 on 24 fps gives even holds. 12 on 30 gives holds of 2 and 3 frames alternately, which reads as a stutter, not a style.

Presets and behaviours (After Effects 2026)

AE 2026 ships two families of ready-made effects that save building things by hand. Both are real effects, so ae_apply_effect applies them and returns their parameters — read the names back from that call rather than guessing them, because they differ from the hand-built equivalents.

The behaviours are motion, not looks: they belong to ae-motion-principles. The motion presets are looks — ADBE CM LightLeaksMarkers on an adjustment layer gives per-marker light leaks in one call, where the hand-built version is three layers and a blend mode. List what this install has with ae_catalog {"kind": "effects", "query": "light leaks"}.

Also new in this generation: ADBE Curl Noise (Curl Noise), a flowing noise field that suits smoke, ink and fluid-looking drift better than Fractal Noise's boiling.

Particles and simulation

Particles are heavy. Preview with ae_render_frame at downscale: 4, and limit Birth Rate before raising quality.

Glitch and chromatic split

After Effects has no native chromatic aberration. Build it:

1. ae_layer_action {"action": "duplicate"} twice, so there are three copies.
2. On each copy, ADBE Shift Channels (Take Red From / Take Green From /

Take Blue From) keeps one channel.

1. Set the copies' blendingMode to "add" and offset them 2–6 px apart.

For glitch frames, add ADBE Offset (Shift Center To) and ADBE Mosaic on 1–2-frame hold keys, and ADBE Posterize Time (Frame Rate 8–12) for a stepped look.

Stylize and colour

Layer styles (Drop Shadow, Outer Glow, Bevel as layer styles) are menu commands: ae_menu_command {"command": "Drop Shadow", "layer": "Title"}.

Blur

Repeat Edge Pixels on Gaussian Blur stops a full-frame blur fading at the edges. Turn it on for backgrounds.

Animate a blur with the move. A whip: Directional Blur Blur Length 0 → 80 → 0 over the 4–6 frames of the fastest part, Direction matching the motion.

Motion blur

Moving layers without motion blur look like stop-motion.

1. The comp switch: ae_set_comp_settings {"settings": {"motionBlur": true, "shutterAngle": 180, "shutterPhase": -90}}.

180° is film-natural; 270–360° is smeary and fast.

1. The layer switch: ae_set_layer_props {"layers": "all", "props": {"motionBlur": true}}.

Both switches must be on.

1. For things layer motion blur can't see:

Motion blur multiplies render time. Leave it on for final renders, and use downscale for previews.

Exposing an effect for a person to drive

When a person or a template needs a dial, add an Expression Control to a Controls null and point the effect's parameter at it. The controls are effects themselves:

Then the effect reads it: thisComp.layer("Controls").effect("Glow Strength")("Slider"). That single slider can drive both glows in the stack, so one dial changes the whole look (ae-templates for putting it in Essential Graphics).

When it looks wrong

Always look

Effects are judged by eye. After each one, ae_render_frame at a representative moment — and at downscale: 1 for anything whose point is detail, because a contact sheet hides grain, banding and soft edges. For anything animated (noise, particles, blur), ae_review_motion. Report the look, not the parameter values.

ae_proof will not judge a look, but it does catch what effects tend to break around them: layers moving fast enough to strobe with motion blur off, footage pushed past 100%, an effect switched off and forgotten (ae-motion-proof).