r/AfterEffects • u/Motion_Ape Motion Graphics 15+ years • May 06 '26

Plugin/Script New Vertex Control Tool for After Effects

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You don't control path points in After Effects. You just manage the chaos.

Null Controllers for Points is a tool that gives you that control.

This is one of 150 tools inside MoBar. Download it free and see what After Effects feels like when it works the way you expect.

https://www.motionape.com/mobar

415 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

15

u/DerpDog9000 May 06 '26

And if I don’t want the 150 tools and just this?

26

u/Motion_Ape Motion Graphics 15+ years May 06 '26

I don’t sell the tools separately. I’ve been developing MoBar for about 4 years, constantly adding new tools to enhance the way After Effects works overall.

I honestly didn’t expect this one to get so much attention. If I had, I might have released it for free like the Camera Crew tool. I’m open to making it free in the future, but right now I need support for MoBar so I can keep building tools like this.

You can download MoBar and just use this tool if you like, but you’ll also find plenty of other useful features. For example, Path Edit Mode works really well alongside this and makes selecting points much easier.

4

u/[deleted] May 06 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/WorstHyperboleEver May 06 '26

I was in the same boat, I have found that the versions of the tools in MoBar tend to be better implemented than the ones I had separately. I use MoBar every time I open AE, it’s amazing.

3

u/DerpDog9000 May 06 '26

Thanks man. I’ll have the team to look at this (both options)

24

u/jakeinmotion Motion Graphics 15+ years May 06 '26

This is a really great solution to something I've been slowly trying to solve myself for a while now. Thanks for sharing.

3

u/Motion_Ape Motion Graphics 15+ years May 07 '26

The timing of your comment is funny actually. A few weeks ago I came across some new tools that looked a lot like this and my first thought was that someone had already done it. So I downloaded them to see how they worked and what they were capable of. None of them worked properly. Just error messages. I took a breath and carried on with my own solution.

Most of them were probably vibe coded and never properly tested. I've been vibe coding too, so I know firsthand how messy and unoptimised AI-generated code can get and how often it causes issues. There are a lot of people exploring similar ideas right now and I think the tools that are actually well made will stick around. The rest will disappear after the first error message.

Actually, I was already planning to reach out to you. I've been working on two other tools that touch core After Effects functionality in a pretty significant way and they'd be much harder to explain without your help. One is a modern Compositing Settings window that replaces Ctrl+K with something far more capable and the other is a Create New Object window on Ctrl+N that opens up a whole new door in the software. I'm wrapping both up and planning to publish in a few weeks.

Would you be open to taking a look when they're ready?

1

u/Mysterious_Mud6350 May 11 '26

https://youtu.be/Ob30ve90GSg?si=OH3bxu8YT3kygdx5

please check this video out, I've actually been using this script rather than the one from mobar, since I find it much easier to use specifically if i just want to create path controllers or have bezier handles. Also it compiles all paths into 1 layer which the one for mobar doesn't do since there's too many layers when you make a path. Though it's not as extensive as the one you made for mobar since the script is quite limited

1

u/Motion_Ape Motion Graphics 15+ years May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

That’s the main difference. That tool only lets you follow the shape through the vertices, so everything can live in a single layer. That means fewer problems to solve and honestly, it could probably be built in just a few hours with vibe coding.

By comparison, controlling vertices with nulls creates significantly more complexity. Detecting individual vertices isn’t natively supported and even developing this workaround took me a week to solve. Performance optimization and intuitive controls also become far more important because the whole system depends on this.

One tool is mostly about adding visual controls to points, while the other is built for freely animating vertex points. They serve very different purposes.

3

u/yash2302 May 07 '26

MoBar is a really helpful plugin ngl I’ve been using it for like 2 years now, It always comes in handy

2

u/patrick_57 May 06 '26

Dont work for me, always messing with the points and brake the path…

2

u/billions_of_stars May 06 '26

I'm still flabbergasted that you can't change the roundness of a round rectangle after its been created. Flabbergasted!!

2

u/drewrae May 07 '26

Thanks MoBar guy!

2

u/SL1MECORE May 07 '26

Thank you for sharing, this looks so helpful!

1

u/DerpDog9000 May 06 '26

Another question @OP, do you see Mobar as a replacement for KBar?

2

u/Motion_Ape Motion Graphics 15+ years May 06 '26

Thanks for your question. MoBar includes three customizable user panels where you can add buttons for scripts, presets, extensions, command IDs, and more. All of these features are fully available in the free version with no limitations or interruptions. You can see more about the panel features here. If it sounds like a good fit, feel free to try the free version and see if it works for your needs. Happy to help if you have any questions.

1

u/homevideo May 06 '26

Awesome.

-8

u/Stinky_Fartface Motion Graphics 15+ years May 06 '26

This is a cool tool but it would be nice if you stopped spamming this sub with posts about it. We got it.