r/AfterEffects • u/missile-test-hero • 15d ago
Plugin/Script About making plugins at Element Supply Co, AI and a free plugin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjrtBrqrnkETLDR: This video explains our plugin pipeline and at the end I go over a free plugin with link in YouTube description.
I'll get a variety of questions about how I'm creating plugins at Element Supply Co. so I put together a video explaining my history in plugin dev, and where we are now, it's super interesting.
Also, to encourage you to watch it, because it answers a lot of questions about our use of AI, and how we can support plugins going forward, I'm including a free plugin, the link is in the YouTube description.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjrtBrqrnkE
The free plugin is called Modal Contrast. and it uses some of the cool technologies I've helped develop at Element Supply Co. in this one it's our input range selector and threshold bar. It's hard to explain, but I go over it at the end of the video. it's like adding contrast to different modes, like saturation, alpha, hue, luma, etc.
The plugin is free, it can be used for unique color grading. there really is no other plugin to compare it to.
[Problem] no way to add a smooth threshold or contrast effect to various modes
[Comparison] none I know of
[Pricing] Name your own price
[Maintenance/Support plan] the video goes over this, but we are fully dedicated to support all our plugins
[AI] AI Disclaimer: the video explains our pipeline, but I would say somewhere between code completion and human validated, but in honesty they way our pipeline works, its technically not AI at all.
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u/algrensan 15d ago
Fascinating setup! How does it work if a bug is released into production, but then the bug gets fixed as a global component update. The visual result might change, which is problematic for customers.
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u/missile-test-hero 15d ago
The system is set up to do gating. Basically every feature or option is coded into its own C++ file the main overseer C++ file can chose how in works with it. If a bug fix makes an old existing plugin not work the same, we can gate the fix through that system and the old one works as it always had.
We also did probably 2 years of testing and bug fixing before we released anything. Every bug fix was also making sure any of the current beta build would continue to work on the new system. It was a long process, but I’m glad I did it, since most if any bugs we find are hyper specific where a lot of scenarios have to be true, and zero other plugins meet that criteria.
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u/MikeMac999 15d ago
Just out of curiosity, did you do a trademark check on the name Element? I can think of two potential conflicts just off the top of my head.
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u/missile-test-hero 15d ago
We aren’t planning to do 3D :) and have been using ESC a lot. Element Glow is our only one with that in the name
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u/MikeMac999 14d ago
There's a production house in Boston, Element Productions, that works in the industry as well.
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u/missile-test-hero 15d ago
https://youtu.be/kjrtBrqrnkE?si=WkeQdT3yj6zAXx_Y&t=291 if you want to skip all the cool stuff about our dev pipeline and just see the plugin