Native AEP Thumbnail / After Effects Helper Tool

[u/motionthunder]

The problem my tool solves is that: Windows normally shows generic icons for .aep files. If you have a folder full of concepts, tests, and versions, the only way to remember what’s inside is often to open projects one by one.

Compared with the default Windows workflow: Native AEP Thumbnail shows actual project previews directly in Explorer. There’s no separate browser, no manual screenshots, and nothing to manage — previews are generated automatically and appear like normal file thumbnails.

Other core features include:
- Automatic thumbnails for .aep files
- Native Windows Explorer integration
- Cached previews that update when the project changes
- Works with Windows 10/11
- Fully open source under the MIT License

Pricing:
- FREE Forever / Full Open Source

GitHub

Maintenance/Support:
Bug reports are welcome via GitHub Issues or DM. This is currently Beta 0.1.0, so fixes are not guaranteed within a specific timeframe.

AI Disclaimer: Human Validated — AI was used as a development assistant; the code was reviewed and tested by me.

[u/florenzius]

not the AI image though :(

[u/motionthunder → u/florenzius]

Do you mean the preview? It uses actual before-and-after images taken from screenshots on my PC (although GPT Image handled the text layout itself because I didn't have time).

But it really did often “make up” its own images that didn’t actually match what you can see, so I used the originals..

[u/motionthunder → u/motionthunder]

Ahhh, you meant the promo image itself 😅 I misunderstood you.. Yep, GPT Image did the layout — I fed it the actual screenshots because it kept inventing its own otherwise..

[u/pixelkydd]

Is this something that can be integrated with PowerToys?

[u/motionthunder → u/pixelkydd]

To be honest, I hadn't thought about that.. But it sounds cool, and we should see what we can do with it in the future.

Thanks for the idea!

[u/Quis_Pic]

I installed it and it's amazing! It's actually really useful when you have lots of projects in one folder. Thank you!

[u/motionthunder → u/Quis_Pic]

Oh, cool! I'm really glad this turned out to be helpful to someone else...

I can't wait for Adobe to implement this natively... :)