Release notesRelease notesRelease notes

v2.10.1October 30, 2026

• Chat: the context gauge no longer fills in a number it doesn't know. A Claude model without [1m] only reveals its context window size with its first reply (right after a fresh install, or the first time you use a model). Until then the gauge shows just the tokens used, like 12.3k/—; the percentage, the bar and the compact prompt (at 80%) appear once that reply reports the window size. Before, it could show a percentage divided by a 200k window that didn't match the real one. It also no longer picks up another model's window size in a conversation resumed on a different model, or in a turn that used web search.
• Chat: the "N in · N out" token counts now follow real usage. One reply used to be added several times, which inflated the input and cache figures, while output counted only a placeholder from the start of each reply and came out far too low. Conversations started before the update keep the numbers already stored; new usage is added on top the new way.
• Tools that stopped halfway on locked layers now finish. Text Exploder, RGB Split, Shapes from Vector and Duplicate with Precomps used to fail on a locked layer and leave locked pieces, or a duplicated comp and folder, half-built. They now run to the end. If one still fails for another reason (Text Exploder's Jamo mode included), it removes what that run made and turns the hidden original back on. Duplicate with Precomps also removes the comps and folder it duplicated.
• Depth Pass: works when the comp has locked layers. A single locked layer used to make it fail outright at the render step. Your comp's locks are left alone.
• Carousel: Re-apply and Duplicate work with locked carousel layers. With Controls, cards or shadow copies locked, pressing either used to stop partway and leave half-built cards or comps behind. It now builds to the end and puts the locks back as they were.
• Chat: narration cuts (EDL) report what really happened. Applying cuts to a locked audio layer used to report success while the uncut original played overlapping; that is fixed. If a segment ends past the end of the source, it is trimmed to the source's end, the next segment follows from there, and the reply marks it as trimmed. A segment entirely outside the source is dropped with a warning.
• Chat: assembling a template with two or more overlays works. With overlays that span the whole length, such as audio or grain, the second and later ones kept the wrong start and end points with no warning. All overlays now start at 0 s, end no later than the assembled comp, and stack in the template's order. A locked overlay is unlocked only while it is placed and locked again afterwards.
• Bento Grid: large grids apply in much less time. Applying a large grid in "Empty grid" mode with Shapes output used to be slow because After Effects kept that comp open in the viewer while the layers were stacked, and the panel could show "timed out" before it finished. The tool now keeps an empty comp open in the viewer while it builds and returns to your comp afterwards. On the one Windows PC we measured, a 30×30 grid went from about 78 s to about 6 s and a 40×40 grid from about 4 min 29 s to about 12 s. On a Mac (After Effects 26.5) a 30×30 grid finished in about 3 s and a 40×40 grid in about 6 s (we did not measure the Mac before the change). Times depend on the PC and the project. The panel's wait limit was also raised to fit large grids. If "timed out" still appears, After Effects finishes the job anyway, so pressing the same grid again stacks a second one on top.
• Deleting the panel layout file is picked up. If the file that stores your panel setup (panelLayouts.json) is deleted outside After Effects, open panels now return to the empty starting state within a few seconds. Before, they kept drawing the old layout.
• Chat: check images no longer pile up in the temp folder. The image sheets Chat makes after applying a text preset (donys_typo_contact_*.png) used to stay in the temp folder forever. Sheets older than 7 days are now deleted just before a new one is made; newer sheets and other temp files are left alone.
• Chat: Korean file names on Mac are recognized as the same file. On a Mac, importing a Korean-named file whose name is stored in decomposed form (NFD) twice through Chat was not recognized as the same file and created a duplicate footage item, and the ' 2' / ' 3' suffix for layers with the same name might not be added (English names were fine). The 2.10.0 behavior "importing the same file again no longer adds a duplicate item" now covers this case too, and layer names get their suffixes without colliding.

v2.10.0October 23, 2026

• There is now a free version. Without a license key you can use all of Library, Curves and Expressions, plus 26 Toolbox tools. Chat, Custom 1 and the 13 Pro Toolbox tools need a Pro key; locked tools appear in the list with a lock icon. The Library "Effects" tab is now called "My Effects".
• Free users get update notices too.
• Face Track: boxes now end at scene cuts (detected from the color difference between neighboring frames; gradual transitions such as dissolves are not caught) and disappear when the face leaves the frame. Detection gaps of 0.3 s or less are bridged. The face detector is now SSD MobileNet v1 for better accuracy (three sensitivity levels; the default is unchanged). For blur and mosaic, the mask now starts earlier and ends later around the frame edges, follows the face's motion through them, and is slightly wider, so a half-visible face is not exposed. Faces smaller than 5% of the frame height can still be missed.
• AE+PR bundle keys now activate the After Effects plugin (2.9.0 rejected them).
• Library free search: author/source credit is now shown for Pexels and Freesound results (Freesound CC BY-NC sounds are excluded by default), and the credit row is always visible, GIPHY included. The third-party notices now list gifsicle and the face-detection model (SSD MobileNet).
• Fixed the top tab row, sub-tab row and the free-search key notice overflowing or overlapping when Library is docked narrow. The Effector Target property list no longer shifts sideways.
• (Owed from 2.8.0) On Windows, if you moved your local app data folder (LOCALAPPDATA), the panel now stores its data there too. Data at the old location is not moved automatically.
• (Owed from 2.8.0) On Windows, the Codex conversation history moved, so Codex tab conversations started before 2.8.0 can't be continued (this applies to every Windows user of Codex).
• Chat: finds web images and brings them in. The model searches the web, shows previews of the images on an article or page, then downloads the one you pick into the project (webp/avif are converted to PNG). Stock search covers Pexels, Wikimedia Commons and GIPHY (Pexels and GIPHY use the keys saved in Library). Each downloaded file gets its source recorded beside it and a line in CREDITS.md in the project folder. Check usage rights and attribution yourself.
• Chat: video download (optional). Turn it on in Settings → Video to install yt-dlp, then download just the section you need from a video page as an After Effects–ready mp4. It is off by default; site terms and copyright are your responsibility. Chat can also cut a section out of a local video.
• Chat: After Effects stays usable while rendering. Chat renders in a separate process, with progress and cancel. It renders the saved project, so if there are unsaved changes it asks before saving.
• Chat: fewer dead ends. A mistyped effect name still finds the right effect, and setting a property that does not exist shows the real names. Chat warns right away when an expression's value is clipped by the parameter's range, or when renaming a layer breaks another expression. Importing the same file again no longer adds a duplicate item.
• Chat: no more restart delay. Attaching an image or asking for a large job no longer makes Chat restart once first.
• Chat: two writing skills. Chat checks Korean captions and copy for spelling, spacing and grammar and explains each fix, and rewrites Korean text that reads as AI-written so it sounds natural. Ask with phrases like "check the spelling" or "make this read naturally".
• Chat: runs Toolbox tools directly. Chat can run the 16 Toolbox tools that have no dialog, such as Write On, Parent to Null, Unprecomp and RGB Split, the same way the buttons do. Like any other After Effects change, it asks for approval first.
• Chat: web page rendering (optional). Turn it on in Settings → Web Render to let Chat open one page that draws its content with JavaScript (and looks empty to a plain read) in your installed Chrome, Edge or Brave and read its text and image candidates. It is off by default; turning it on downloads the open-source tool agent-browser (about 18 MB, Apache-2.0). No cookies or logins are used.
• Organize Project: set up your own folders. Rename and move folders, and edit the classification words and file extensions for each kind (the order of the checks stays the same, and a word put in two kinds is flagged before saving). Save one template and export or import it as a file. When you organize again, items already inside the template folders are left where they are; turn on "Reclassify" to move them to the changed template's places. You are asked once before unsaved edits are overwritten. Available in the free version.
• Carousel: Follow a path is easier to find. The new "Follow a path" section in the dialog has shortcuts to the path presets (Path Smile · Path Line · Orbit Path) and the button. Select one shape layer drawn with the pen, rectangle or ellipse tool and press it. A new carousel now follows that path straight away (you can pick the layer while the window is open).
• Carousel: lighter. On a 20-card carousel, preview and motion-blur renders take about 20–35% less time, and building one is more than twice as fast (measured on our test PC). Presets other than Hero Slider no longer create shadow-copy layers. If you switch a carousel to Hero Slider from the Effect Controls dropdown, reapply it from the dialog to add that shadow.
• Text exit animations are no longer cut off at the end of the layer. Exits with a long settle, such as the spring exit, start early enough to finish before the layer ends. Presets with a short settle keep their timing.
• Round Corners, Points to Nulls and Auto Marker no longer leave an empty "Solids" folder or unused nulls in the Project panel.
• Parent to Null now stops with a message when it meets locked layers, instead of leaving a null with no children. Unprecomp no longer stops halfway on a locked layer inside a precomp and leaves half the copies behind.
• With two After Effects windows open, Chat in one no longer cuts off Chat in the other.

v2.9.0October 13, 2026

• The controls for Effector, Click React, Cursor Click, Round Corners, Master Shadow, Depth Pass, Overshoot, Edge Boil and Typewriter now sit in a single effect in Effect Controls. No more hunting through separate sliders.
• Rigs made with these tools in an earlier version can't be re-applied as they are. Release them or delete their controls, then apply again. The panel shows the same message.
• Fixed the intermittent "internal error" in the Effector. In Korean After Effects, % properties such as Fill Opacity no longer drop out of the list, and audio and obsolete effects no longer show up in the effect picker.
• Chat can run on an API key instead of a Claude or Codex subscription. In the Account tab of settings, choose subscription login or API key for each backend. Keys are kept in the Keychain on Mac and stored encrypted on Windows.
• Fixed Chat failing to pull colors from an image reference. When previewing several times at once, the frames that succeed are still shown if some fail.
• Bento Grid Fill and Cut are faster, and they no longer report a timeout after the apply has finished.
• Fixed dropdowns not opening inside After Effects. In a narrowly docked panel, dialog buttons no longer overflow and the Effector effect picker no longer collapses.
• Carousel gallery previews play smoothly at 30 fps. Tool preview images went from 7.7MB to 3.5MB.
• The Pattern Lab font list on Mac leaves out fonts the system hides, and skips font names After Effects won't accept.
• Entering a wrong license key no longer undoes an existing activation. Fixed the CLI saying "already up to date" on Windows while offline.

v2.8.0October 5, 2026

• Carousel was rebuilt. The Preset dropdown at the top of the Carousel Controls effect switches between 35 layouts. Applying it puts the carousel in a stage comp of its own, and your comp gets a single layer.
• When you pick fewer layers than the preset has cards, choose Fit to my cards (the default) or Fit to preset. The first lays the preset out for your layer count; the second keeps the preset's card count and repeats your layers to fill it. Cards can also flow along a shape layer's path.
• Carousels made in an earlier version can't be edited. Release them and make them again. Presets saved with the old Carousel are not carried over.
• The Chat model list shows the models your installed Claude Code and Codex CLI support. You can check the CLI version in the list and update it with one button, and the panel installs the CLI if it's missing.
• Chat lets you pick a reasoning effort. The available steps depend on the model.
• Copy/Paste Keys moved to the Curves panel, and it can paste in reverse. Elastic and Bounce add a keyframe at every turn, and you drag the first bend handle on the graph to set size and count.
• The Library has a Comp tab. Save an open comp there and bring it into another project.
• Distribute Values spreads position, rotation, scale or opacity across the selected layers by step, range or formula. Vertex Grid draws grid lines and marks as shapes, running from a layer's corners to the comp edge. Both are new tools.
• Bento Grid cells can be rectangles, ellipses, polygons or stars. Cut makes a precomp per cell holding only that region of the original.
• The Effector takes any After Effects effect directly and links it to distance as soon as you apply it. The Text Preset Glitch In was rebuilt as a box mosaic.
• Fixed Loop In/Out raising false errors, and the overshoot curve stopping after it separated Position.
• Fixed Anchor Point ignoring scale, rotation and 3D orientation, the Multi Fill color input closing, and the Pattern Lab ASCII color and font list not opening.

v2.7.1September 19, 2026

• The Effector can apply effects now. Pick a preset and it lands on every member at once, then links the property that reacts to distance.
• Your own effects work with the Effector too. Apply one to a single member, copy it to the rest, then pick that parameter.
• The Chat panel runs on ChatGPT too. Install the Codex CLI and you can pick it in the backend selector at the bottom of the panel; the panel walks you through signing in. Either way it runs on your own plan, and we do not sell tokens.
• You now sign in to Chat inside the panel instead of the terminal.
• Auto Marker shows on screen what it based its marks on.
• Riso Print was rebuilt on the house ink chain, and the texture that never attached is fixed.
• Fixed Bento Grid gaps shrinking on screen, and images being left outside the comp.
• Fixed the Chat toolbar escaping the screen and the header showing the wrong version.

v2.6.0September 15, 2026

• Depth Pass is in. Select a video or photo layer and run it. It builds a depth map, lays it under that layer, and applies Camera Lens Blur. Set where the focus sits with the Focus Distance slider, or turn on Auto Focus and drag Focus Point to the spot you want on screen: it reads the depth under that point every frame and focuses there. The background blur stays adjustable afterwards, and parallax (how far things shift with depth) sits on a knob.
• Depth Pass downloads its runtime once, the first time. Press the button and you get progress; after that it runs straight away. The internet connection is only needed for that first run. On macOS it works on Apple Silicon only (Intel Macs are not supported). On Windows it computes on the graphics card.
• Apply to layer in Pattern Lab goes up to 512 columns (it was 240). Raising the column count grows the number of shapes it makes by the square, so when you are going dense it is better to check a small value first. Baked tile PNGs are now saved next to the project file, so the artwork travels with the project when you move it.
• The Toolbox has been tidied. Sequential Fill, which assigns the palette in order, and Random Fill, which assigns it at random, are in, and Parent to Null is back. Six tools that were not being used are gone. Every numeric control inside a tool now puts a slider and a number field side by side.
• Multi Fill now assigns colors bottom to top in the timeline, in the order you made the layers.
• Riso Print joins the bundled effects, making five. It lays the ink bleed and paper tooth of riso printing on as real texture.
• Auto Marker reads AIFF files too.
• All seven panels got another pass on color and shape. Two fixes came with it: resizing the Toolbox panel now stops at the panel edge, and the Custom panel title no longer sits out of line.
• The update notice was arriving a day late, and a failed in-app install showed the internal error text as it was. Both are fixed. Update files now come from a new server, which is faster and steadier.

v2.5.0September 7, 2026

• Pattern Lab is in. It builds eight patterns on sliders (dots, hatch, checker, halftone, truchet, concentric, ASCII and grain) and bakes them to vector shapes or PNG. You can add scroll, rotate and flicker motion, and it writes keyframes only, no expressions and no effects, so playback does not get heavy.
• Pattern Lab has a second way in. Select a layer before you open it and it opens in the mode where that layer's luminance becomes the density of the pattern. Bright areas come out dense and dark areas sparse, so a video or a photo turns into a pattern. In ASCII mode you type the characters it uses yourself.
• Shadow Caster is now called Master Shadow. The controls that were folded away in a drawer are out in the open, and the shadow can take a gradient.
• Cursor Click grew a lot. Ten macOS cursor icons are available, and the icon changes as the cursor moves (a hand while dragging, for instance). Instead of a single click you can build a path through several points, and each point can take its position from a layer that is already there. The click ripple and the bounce at the arrival point are adjustable too.
• Motion presets in the Library are split into in and out. Picking one used to attach both; now you pick them separately and set the timing of each with a marker. The travel distance stays editable in Effect Controls after you apply it. Text presets work the same way.
• The preview you see when you hover a Library card did not match what actually got built. Fixed, together with three things underneath it: the curve changing while the numbers did not, the out retracing the path of the in exactly, and a trail left behind after the layer was gone.
• Custom Toolbox panels went from three to one. Inside that one you pick a saved layout from a dropdown instead. The layouts you saved are still there and only the way you choose them changed, so there is nothing to build again.
• Fit Precomps now goes deeper than one level of precomp; it used to stop there. Trim Layers to Comp still trims only the current comp, on purpose. To trim further in, After Effects’ own Alt+[ and Alt+] are the better route.
• Typing a Toolbox cell size as a number took only two values, and large tiles showed no name. Both are fixed.

v2.4.0August 31, 2026

• The product is now called You Name It. The name in the After Effects Window menu changed with it, so after updating you may not find it under the old name. Look for the entries that start with You Name It. The install location and your saved data are unchanged, and you do not need to enter your license again.
• Every panel got a new color and shape. The old cream tones became a single blue palette, and buttons no longer carry a filled face; they invert only at the moment you press them. The syntax colors in the expression editor were brought onto the same palette.
• You arrange the Toolbox yourself now. Drag a button where you want it and resize it; when buttons overlap, the one underneath is pushed aside. Empty cells stay as empty space.
• Up to three Toolbox panels can be open separately. Each panel holds its own layout, and layouts export and import as files.
• A setting you reach for often can be frozen into a button. The values you entered when you ran the tool are saved with it, so one press runs it the same way next time. Gradients, text presets, easing curves, expressions and effects from the Library can go into a Toolbox panel too.
• Three new tools are in. Auto Marker reads the beat out of the audio and drops markers. Start Marker marks where the work begins. Torn Paper makes torn paper edges and fold creases.
• 41 tools got a preview image. Even the tools whose result does not show up in the comp straight away now say what they do on the button itself.
• The installer grew from 3.5MB to 5.1MB. That is what the preview images above cost.

v2.3.3August 23, 2026

• Fixed the license coming loose after about a week, which meant entering the key again. Three causes were stacked on top of each other: the value that identifies the computer was built out of information that can shift with a reboot or with the state of the network; a temporary network error during an offline check locked it immediately, with no grace period; and when several panels were open at once the stored license data could overwrite itself and break. It now uses the permanent identifier the operating system guarantees, and when the connection drops for a moment it waits instead of locking.
• With that repair, license data that is already stored is carried over to the new scheme automatically. Some of you who renamed your computer along the way may have to enter the key once more after updating. After that it stays put.
• In Round Corners, giving the four corners different radii and applying them still showed every corner at the same value until you turned on the checkbox in Effect Controls by hand. Per-corner values now apply as they are from the start.
• For reference: when a very large radius on one corner makes the neighboring corner look less round, that is intended behavior, not a defect. It is the rule that scales two roundings down proportionally so they do not overlap on the same edge, the same way Figma and web CSS do it. The value you typed into the slider is kept as it is.
• The installer came down from 14MB to 3.5MB. Large resources that were no longer in use were taken out.

v2.3.2August 21, 2026

• Fixed an empty panel list after installing on After Effects 2022 and 2023. The installer declared a higher runtime version than it actually needs, so those versions of After Effects never found the plugin at all. It was out of line with the support range we state (2022 and newer).
• That solves it as far as installing on 2022 and 2023 goes; it is not a full check of how everything behaves on those versions. If something looks off, tell us and we will deal with it right away.

v2.3.1August 21, 2026

• Fixed the panel spinning on its loading indicator and never opening. The name of the installed folder made the process that draws the panel exit the moment it started, and it restarted again every time. Installing this version changes the folder name, and the symptom goes away.
• The installer could not finish the install through the official path. Every version up to now was in this state, and because the installer unpacked the files its own way instead, it looked from the outside like the install had worked. The folder name problem above came from this.
• The old folder stays where it is but is no longer used. When After Effects finds several copies of the same extension it uses only the one with the higher version, so installing this version leaves you where you would be if it had been cleaned up. If you want the disk space back, you can delete the old folder. It sits under %APPDATA%\Adobe\CEP\extensions on Windows and ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions on macOS, under the old name. If yours was installed under Program Files, deleting it needs administrator rights.

v2.3.0August 20, 2026

• Round Corners is in the Toolbox. It goes on text, solid, footage and precomp layers as well as shapes, and the four corners can each take a different radius. The values stay editable in Effect Controls after you apply it, so there is no need to run it again. The corner radius holds as you scale the layer up or down. To remove it, Alt+click the Toolbox button.
• The Proximity tool is now called Effector. Only the button name and its description changed, and it behaves the same. The null the rig creates was renamed to match ("effector null").
• Panels that opened as nothing but a black screen now show why. In some environments the panel stopped at the loading state and said nothing at all; now it prints the cause on screen. This makes the cause visible rather than removing it, so if you still see the problem, send us that message.
• Fixed Toolbox tooltips running past the width of the panel, which pushed the description text out past the grid when the panel was kept narrow.
• When installed under Program Files, an update could leave the old version files uncleaned with nothing said about it. Deleting files in that location needs administrator rights; now a failure leaves a record, so the cause can be checked.
• Fixed automatic effect preset repair not applying for some users. A difference in the line-ending format of the files made identical contents read as different files.

v2.2.1August 13, 2026

• For anyone who came up from v2.1.0, 61 script files from the old version were still sitting in the install folder. The install only overwrites files, it does not delete them. Nothing behaved badly, but the source protection v2.2.0 was aiming for was not in place for those people alone. The new version now clears them out on its first run.
• The update notice always shows the "What's new · manual install" link. It used to appear only when an install was reported as failed, which meant that when an install failed quietly there was no way to reach this page.

v2.2.0August 12, 2026

Still on v2.1.0? Its in-panel installer can report success when the install failed, so install this one update by hand with the steps at the top. From v2.2.0 on, the panel installs updates itself.

• Cursor Click has controls. After you apply it you can change the press size, the press, hold and release times, the bounce, and the click count and interval in Effect Controls, and the ripple ring carries its own duration and opacity. These values used to be fixed inside the script, so changing the click count alone meant running the tool again. Every time you did, the position, size and color you had set by hand were lost.
• Cursor Click and Click React show their start time as a marker on the timeline. You can see where the motion begins, and dragging the marker brings the whole motion with it.
• Fixed the text layer in Typewriter shaking left and right while the characters were being typed. It was most visible with left-aligned Korean, and with center alignment the alignment itself collapsed to the left.
• The six keyframe buttons in the Toolbox became three, and the actions that were hidden inside the buttons are gathered into a right-click menu. The menu shows the keyboard shortcut next to each entry.
• Fixed three problems in easing copy and paste, among them values coming back with the sign flipped and a stored clip not lining up with the property it was pasted onto.
• Fixed an in-app update reporting success even when the install had failed. The fix takes effect from the next update onward, so if you are coming from v2.1.0, this one upgrade has to be installed by hand.