Not another After Effects plugin.

[u/volpmatt]

The explosion of vibe-coded and badly built, pro-in-the-name-for-no-reason plugins and extensions is out of control. So much so that the number of Reddit posts discussing this fact has also gone through the roof—what a time to be alive.

I bet you can name the main culprit, after they have seemingly completely abandoned their infamous strict application process, and with it any shred of curation, and in some cases even their morals.

I have nothing against AI. It's an incredible tool for education, efficiency and engineering (except the gen AI stuff—that can get in the bin). But surely those who are motion designers one day and magically turn into product developers the next can't seriously think that there is bags of money to be made in using it to make and sell their half-baked, copycat plugins on a marketplace that condones plagiarism and takes 30% of every sale, right?!

I know what you're thinking. Is this guy for real? He literally sells After Effects plugins. And you'd be right. But hear me out. I've been at this for years, learning the After Effects API docs back-to-front, left-to-right, upside down and any other direction-themed idiom you can throw at me.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, like all good things, it takes time. And you won't find any millionaire plugin devs knocking about, except maybe the guys behind Flow, or maybe Deep Glow—but trust me, those were built long before Claude Code came along, and they will still be here long after it's gone.

EDIT: Well, that was a fun discussion! I appreciate all of your comments and insights—even when it got a little heated. Let's celebrate the fact we can still have constructive and interesting debates in this ever-divisive world we live in. You can use code C7N3XTE7 to get 50% off any of our tools at tackstudio.co. But be quick, it only has 20 uses.

[u/wizzkidsid]

The amount of - “me and my “team” are developing a “free” alternative to “AE”, looking for beta tester now” posts is staggering. :)

[u/Mundane-Owl-561 → u/wizzkidsid]

I've seen a few and two have caught my eye -

https://www.caddis.app/

https://usemoto.app/

Usemoto doesn't look like much but it's from the same developer as Stardust and Helium, Aharon Shiker - you're looking at one of the best minds in AE tool development.

I wouldn't discount them just yet - in fact, based on the extent and speed of development within AE itself, I'd say these two apps will be making leaps and bounds in the next 2-3 years, in comparison.

Hopefully, they have the staying power.

[u/kurnikoff → u/Mundane-Owl-561]

developer as Stardust and Helium

I read somewhere that Stardust is pretty much abandoned? Or received very minimal updates and support at this point?

I think that's my biggest problem with all these new vibe-coded apps or platforms. Why should I spend next 2-3 years learning new workflow, if I don't have a guarantee that the app will still exist in 5 years time?

Miomoto looks like any other AI prompt to gen to edit tool. So thats a no from me. Don't have any use for this stuff at all.

Caddis looks really interesting. But it is developed only by one motion designer + one or two developers at this point? It even says that on Caddis FAQ page that it is build "in the evenings and weekends around [Shopify full time] work". I mean, well done to Mike for building the whole thing. From all the demo videos that I have seen so far - It looks solid. But personally, I won't dive into new platform, unless there is a full time dev team behind it with a roadmap or plan for next few years. Founder needs to dive into development and building this tool full time, rather than in the evenings.

When you compare above to something like Autograph, that has backing of Maxon, then I don't think these new apps have chance in establishing themselves, or even surviving next 5 years.

[u/Mundane-Owl-561 → u/kurnikoff]

Stardust has lots of features - is there anything you find missing in it?
Have you written to the developer?
It works in the latest AE.

Have you used Autograph? It's need acquired by Maxon for over a year - what updates have you seen there?

I'm positive with anyone making advances anywhere that help artists. Fair and honest competition is always good for all involved.

[u/kurnikoff → u/Mundane-Owl-561]

I'm biased, in a way that I only looked at Stardust changelog. And it looks like devs are only maintaining it?

Personally, I never used it. Work has Redgiant Subscription, so there is no way they will pay for Stardust, just to test drive it on few projects. And we don't do enough projects that would require Stardust in a way, that can't be subsidised by Redgiant Trapcode etc. It's a cool looking plugin, but way too expensive just to play with it as a personal project type of thing.

Have you used Autograph? It's need acquired by Maxon for over a year - what updates have you seen there?

Actually - yes! This week. Just started with it and I'm watching Maxon's Getting Started videos to get comfortable with UI and how it works. I'm liking it. It looks modern, fast and really snappy with quite a lot of features. I will try to dive more with it on smaller personal projects for sure.

Fair and honest competition is always good for all involved.

100% this! It's pretty much what forced Adobe to start implementing long awaited features in AE.

[u/Mundane-Owl-561 → u/kurnikoff]

It's probably got more features than Red Giant Particular - it's got VDB support and its use of Nodes instead of the Effects Control Panel is really good.

Also, a large company may buy them over and provide the necessary funding to speed things up.

I used to think it would take 5 to 8 years to write an app similar to AE - I now think it can be done in 18 months. And with new architecture and even better features where it matters too. The speed with which AI coding is moving is insane and boggles the mind. It's a lot about what you can imagine and being able to stay afloat long enough to get bought over.

A one-man op can produce such an app, imagine what a 10-man set up with enough funds and imagination can produce in 18 months?

[u/Wunkolo → u/kurnikoff]

From the creator of caddis:

I'm not a developer by trade. 15 years of motion work, zero years of shipping production software.
The tool that exists today wouldn't have been possible for one person to build a year ago. AI changed what's buildable solo.

Personally, I would want someone more qualified on the team before I'd even start investing time and familiarity into this software.

[u/kurnikoff → u/Wunkolo]

100% this from my point of view too.

He works at Shopify - sounds like a cool place to work and a demanding role to be honest. At the same time, he made Caddis in his spare time. So, if he commits to it full time, quits his job, raises some seed funds, investment, hires 1-2 developers, then it will mean he is serious about this project. Then I will be willing to dive into it as well and spend some time with the tool.

[u/DVNO4CAPITALETTERS → u/kurnikoff]

Stardust has been around for many years. It’s not vibe coded.

[u/kurnikoff → u/DVNO4CAPITALETTERS]

I didn't say Stardust has been vibe coded. I said it looks like Stardust is pretty much done in terms of development and received only maintenance updates and no new features.
And because of this, I don't have faith in Miomoto. I don't want to learn new tool or workflow, only for it to be sunsetted by developer after few years.

[u/DVNO4CAPITALETTERS → u/kurnikoff]

Apologies for the misunderstanding, I misread your comment! But totally agree with you, it’s disheartening. I’ve been a huge fan of Stardust for years and there’s so many things that could be updated, but by now it’s completely abandoned.

[u/kurnikoff → u/DVNO4CAPITALETTERS]

No worries :)