After Effects MCP Server

Composition and work-area commands: Trim Comp to Work Area, Crop Comp to Region of Interest (needs a region drawn in the Composition panel), Set Poster Time, Lift Work Area and Extract Work Area (on the given layers, or all), set the work area to the layers' span, Composition Flowchart, and Reveal Composition in Project. The menu commands make the composition active

Run an Edit menu command: Undo or Redo (several steps back or forward through Edit > History), Cut, Copy, Paste, Select All, Deselect All, or Select Label Group. They act on the focused panel and its selection; give comp to focus that composition first. Copied layers can be pasted into Premiere Pro

Run an After Effects menu command by its English menu name (found with app.findMenuCommandId) or its numeric id, such as an extension panel under Window > Extensions or a custom workspace. Commands act on the current selection; one that opens a dialog waits for the user, so prefer the specific tools

Project file commands: close the project (File > Close Project), revert to the last saved version (File > Revert), open the most recent project (File > Open Recent), or save a numbered copy and continue in it (File > Increment and Save). Close, revert and open_most_recent can lose unsaved work

Run a View menu or viewer command on a viewer: Zoom In, Zoom Out, Show Grid, Snap to Grid, Show Layer Controls (these toggle), the view layout (1, 2 or 4 views), Share View Options, New Viewer, or close the viewer (File > Close). Give comp to use its Composition panel; otherwise the focused viewer

Save one frame of a composition as a PNG file (Composition > Save Frame As)

Save the project in place, or as a new .aep file (the project then refers to it)

Save a copy of the project while it keeps its own file (File > Save As > Save a Copy), or a copy in the text-based XML format (Save a Copy As XML, .aepx). The project must have been saved; saveFirst saves it in place first

Choose the active tool in the Tools panel (shape and mask tools: Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Star; Pen, Add Vertex, Delete Vertex, Convert Vertex, Mask Feather; Brush, Clone Stamp, Eraser; Roto Brush, Refine Edge; or Selection), and/or open the Paint, Brushes or Content-Aware Fill panel (Window menu, which toggles a panel that is already open). Drawing with the tool is then done by hand in the Composition or Layer panel

Select or deselect keyframes of a property in the Timeline panel, or deselect every keyframe, property and property group (Edit > Deselect All in the Timeline). Selected keyframes are what run_animation_command's keyframe commands act on

Change which layers are selected in the Timeline: select given layers (by number, as typing it on the keypad), add or remove them, invert the selection, select children of parents, move the selection to the next or previous layer or extend it, select all or none

Select items in the Project panel: replace the selection, add to it (extend the selection), remove from it, or clear it; optionally show the Project panel. Menu commands act on this selection

Separate a Position property into X, Y (and Z) Position so each can be keyframed alone, or join them again (Animation > Separate Dimensions)

Arrange layers one after another in time, in the order given, optionally overlapping with an opacity dissolve (Animation > Keyframe Assistant > Sequence Layers)

Change the 3D view of a composition's Composition panel (View menu): switch to the active camera, front, left, top, back, right, bottom or a custom view (View > Switch 3D View) or the last view, reset the view, look at the selected or all layers, or create a camera from the current view. Opens the composition in the viewer first

Change application and project performance settings: memory limits (Preferences > Memory & Performance), the project's Mercury GPU acceleration (File > Project Settings), whether preferences are saved on quit, and the preferences the scripting guide documents (expand flowchart compositions, JavaScript debugger)

Set layers' Audio Levels (the Audio group, L in the Timeline) in decibels: a static value, or keyframes at times (Animation > Add Audio Levels Keyframe)

Edit a mask path or a shape layer's Path property: replace its vertices and tangents, make another vertex the first (Layer > Mask and Shape Path > Set First Vertex), reverse its direction, move, scale and rotate all its points about an anchor (as Free Transform Points does), or set variable-width feather points on a mask (Mask Feather tool: extent, tension, Hold, inner or outer). Points are in the layer's own pixels; tangents are relative to their vertex; vertex and segment numbers start at 0

Set camera layer options (Layer > Camera Settings, and Camera Options in the Timeline): zoom, F-Stop, depth of field, focus distance, aperture, blur level, iris shape, rotation, roundness, aspect ratio and diffraction fringe, highlight gain, threshold and saturation, and Point of Interest. Values are keyframed when the property is animated or a time is given

Choose a camera navigation tool in the Tools panel: the Unified Camera tool, Orbit (around the cursor, the scene or the camera's Point of Interest), Pan (Track XY) or Dolly (Track Z). Navigating with the tool in a viewer is done by hand

Change the project's colour settings (File > Project Settings > Color): bit depth (8, 16 or 32 bpc, where 32 is high dynamic range float), working colour space (a profile from get_color_management, or "" for None), working gamma, Linearize Working Color Space, Blend Colors Using 1.0 Gamma and Compensate for Scene-referred Profiles

Choose a composition's 3D renderer (Composition Settings > 3D Renderer: Classic 3D, Advanced 3D or Cinema 4D) and turn Draft 3D on or off (Composition panel). With no settings it reports the renderer, the installed renderers, Draft 3D and the active camera

Change a composition's settings (Composition > Composition Settings): name, size, pixel aspect, duration, frame rate, resolution, start timecode or frame, drop-frame timecode, background, motion blur (shutter angle and phase, samples), nesting options and work area; and its Timeline switches Enable Frame Blending and Hide Shy Layers

Choose the active tool in the Tools panel (selection, hand, zoom, rotation, camera orbit, pan and dolly modes, shapes, pen, type, paint, Roto Brush, puppet pins), or cycle to the next tool in a group as clicking a tool button repeatedly does. Camera tools need a camera layer

Display colour in the Composition panel (View menu): turn Use Display Color Management on or off (the command toggles it; scripts cannot read its state), choose a Simulate Output preset (display colour management must be on), or open the Lumetri Scopes panel. Applies to the composition opened in the viewer

Apply an effect from the Effect menu to layers by display name or match name and set any of its controls by name in the same call, or set the controls of an effect already on the layers (Effect Controls panel). Values: numbers, true/false for checkboxes, [x, y] pixels for points, "#RRGGBB" for colours, a menu choice's text or number, a layer's name or index for layer controls, a mask's name for mask controls, an object for the controls inside a group, and a list of strings to replace a Dropdown Menu Control's items. With time, each value is a keyframe

Open a composition in the Essential Graphics panel as its primary composition (Composition > Open in Essential Graphics), set the template name, rename controls, and list the controls

Write an expression on a property, as typed in the expression editor (or clear it with an empty string), and report any expression error After Effects finds. The expression can use the whole expression language: global objects (thisComp, thisLayer, time, value), time conversion, vector math, random numbers, interpolation (linear, ease), colour conversion and other math; comp, footage, layer (sub-objects, general, properties, 3D, space transforms), camera, light, effect, mask, property, project, key, marker and path attributes and methods; dropdown menu attributes; text style objects for per-character and paragraph styling and for linking styles across text layers on Source Text; and, on the Amount of a text animator's Expression selector, textIndex, textTotal and selectorValue. Text style methods need the JavaScript engine (set_expression_engine)

Choose the engine that evaluates the project's expressions (File > Project Settings > Expressions): javascript (the default, faster, modern syntax) or extendscript (Legacy ExtendScript, for old expressions)

Set the favourite font families shown in the Character panel font menu, or have After Effects rescan font folders outside the system ones (such as the Adobe local Fonts folder) for added or removed fonts

Frame blending (Layer > Frame Blending): set layers to Off, Frame Mix or Pixel Motion (the layer's Frame Blending switch), and turn the composition's Enable Frame Blending switch on or off, without which layer frame blending is not previewed

Set a 3D layer's Geometry Options: extrude and bevel text and shape layers (bevel style, bevel depth, hole bevel depth, extrusion depth) or bend footage and precomposition layers (curvature, segments). Extrusion needs the Advanced 3D or Cinema 4D renderer (set_comp_3d_settings). Values are keyframed when the property is animated or a time is given

Set the Comment column text of project items; an empty comment clears it

Add keyframes to a property at several times, with their values, and optionally the interpolation (linear, bezier, hold) and easing (Easy Ease influence and speed) for each

Set layer switches and timing: name, comment, enabled (video), audio, solo, shy, lock, 3D, motion blur, adjustment layer, effects (Effect switch), Collapse Transformations / Continuously Rasterize, Preserve Underlying Transparency, quality and sampling (Bilinear, Bicubic), blending mode (or step to the next or previous one), Auto-Orient, label, in and out points, start time, stretch

Add Photoshop-style layer styles (Layer > Layer Styles: Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Outer Glow, Inner Glow, Bevel and Emboss, Satin, Color Overlay, Gradient Overlay, Stroke), Remove All, Convert to Editable Styles, and set Blending Options (Global Light, Fill Opacity, channels, Blend Interior Styles as Group, Use Blend Ranges from Source). The style commands select the layers and make their composition active; set each style's own values with set_property

Set light layer options (Layer > Light Settings, and Light Options in the Timeline): light type, intensity, colour, cone angle and feather, falloff type, radius and falloff distance, casts shadows, shadow darkness and diffusion, Point of Interest, and an environment light's source layer. Values are keyframed when the property is animated or a time is given

Change masks on layers (Layer > Mask): mode, inversion, lock (or lock every other mask: Lock Other Masks; unlock them all: Unlock All Masks), outline colour, RotoBezier, Motion Blur (same as layer, on, off), Feather Falloff (smooth, linear), feather, opacity, expansion, name and selection

Set a 3D layer's Material Options: casts shadows (off, on, only), light transmission, accepts shadows (off, on, only: a shadow catcher), accepts lights, ambient, diffuse, specular intensity and shininess, metal, appears in reflections, reflection intensity, sharpness and rolloff, transparency and its rolloff, and index of refraction. Also turns a layer into an environment layer (Layer > Environment Layer). Values are keyframed when the property is animated or a time is given

Change, add or remove a Render Queue item's output module (Output Module Settings dialog, Composition > Add Output Module): template or output format (QuickTime, AVI, H.264, image sequences such as PNG, TIFF, JPEG, OpenEXR, DPX, Targa, Photoshop, SGI, IFF, Radiance, or audio as AIFF, MP3, WAV), output file and file name template, channels, depth, colour, starting frame number, resize, crop, audio output, project link, source XMP metadata and post-render action, and optionally save it as a template. Codecs such as GoPro CineForm are chosen through a template made in Edit > Templates > Output Module

Change or keyframe existing paint strokes (Paint effect, Timeline panel): Start and End (write-on), colour, diameter, hardness, opacity, flow and the other brush settings, a clone stroke's Clone Position, Clone Time and Clone Time Shift, the stroke's Transform, and the effect's Paint on Transparent. Strokes themselves are drawn by hand with the Brush, Clone Stamp or Eraser tool

Read or change project settings (File > Project Settings): time display style (timecode or frames), footage start time, feet + frames and film type, frame count start, colour depth, expression engine, and the transparency grid in Project panel thumbnails. With no changes it returns the current settings

Set a property's value, as in the Timeline or Properties panel (layer Transform, shape, camera and light options, effect properties): with no time and no keyframes the static value, otherwise a keyframe at the time (or the current time). Text layers' Source Text takes a string

Give footage items or compositions a proxy (File > Set Proxy): a file or image sequence, a solid or a placeholder, or remove it (None). useProxy switches between the proxy and the original (the proxy indicator in the Project panel)

Change Render Queue items' render settings (Render Settings dialog): apply a template (Best Settings, Draft Settings, DV Settings, Multi-Machine Settings or your own), set quality, resolution, disk cache, proxies, effects, solo switches, guide layers, colour depth, frame blending, field rendering, 3:2 pulldown, motion blur, time span, frame rate and Skip Existing Files, the log level and the completion notification, and optionally save the result as a template