86 comments found.
Can the plugin work with any version of After Effects that can be downloaded from the current Creative Cloud?
Hello 7dedisseny, it works for After Effects CS5, CS5.5, CS6, CC+. After Effects CS4 and earlier versions may not be supported. Most versions of AE that are downloaded from adobe cloud should be supported.
Hello. Can you send me the project file used in your tutorial? I’d like to see the settings you used for the draw types on the example with several animals.
Hello 3Dartist2, unfortunately I didn’t keep the project file for the tutorial, but I’m happy to help and suggest draw types for your project if needed(you may leave comment here or through the support email :315791599@qq.com). I was on a vocation so I just saw your comment. Sorry for the late reply.
Thank you very much. I really appreciated your tips on draw types for text, and others. Question: Which draw type did you use for the grass in the tutorial with several animals? I also would really appreciate if you can give some recommended examples for some draw types. Your product is GREAT. Thanks again.
You are very welcome. Good question and I will probably update this at the Q&A section. So a general tip for choosing drawing types would be: If the drawn shape is longer on one direction, then choose a draw-type that is opposite to this direction, For example, for the grass, I choose Chalk first, then used C3(or C7) because they are “vertical” drawing direction, which is the opposite of the grass direction(the grass is horizontally longer). So when you draw it, the hand will do small and fast vertical drawings and gradually move to the right side and it feels natural. Same rule applies to the text if you take a line of texts as one big shape that is horizontally longer. If the drawn shape is kinda balanced on each side, I might choose 45-degree drawing types(for most of the animals I used 45-degree drawing types). But eventually, there is no absolute answer, I would take whatever feels natural to me. Hope this helps and please to let me know if you have further questions.
Thank you very, very much. Your tips really helped. No further questions.
What would be the best way to draw the masks on an image that contains text, so that the hand draws on the text more realistically?
Hi philiplyons, I would recommend to draw a separate mask on the text, and choose a “vertical” drawing type. For example, the M3 drawing type. That way it feels like the hand is going from one word to another. You may also check the first tutorial at 09:10, it has an example of drawing text.
Hi, this works in After Effects CC 2017? Thanks.
Hello, yes it works in AE CC2017.
Hello, Is it possible to import ANY drawing or do I need to draw something in Photoshop? Thanks
Hello, yes you may use any existing drawing or other images. You don’t have to draw sth in PS.
As a motion graphic animator for over 10 years. This is one of my top favorite After effects plugin. Great job and Thank you. Hope you could add more feature in the future like multiple custom hands instead of only one custom hand, and a auto random hand option for each mask so that user dont need to select each time for each mask.
Thank you muhaha2015 for these kind words! That’s great to hear! Thank you for the suggestions as well, I will definitely consider them in future updates.
Excellent! Does not support AE Chinese version language?
Hi enfans, it doesn’t support Chinese version of AE for now. I was on vocation so sorry for late reply.
Thank you!
Hi, are there presets for hand move/drag in/out?
Hi valeriacora, there’s no preset for hand move/drag in/out. It is animated manually.
Hi, Can I see a portfolio of the hands out there?
Hi tolito, although I don’t have a portfolio of the hands right away, you may preview most of the hands at 00:36 in this free tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oZbW5DTiDg&feature=youtu.be The hand is customizable with skin colors and it has an option to upload your own hands.
yes,but if you don’t have a portfolio, in the example video I see that hands are selected by choosing a text and you can’t see which hand you’re choosing, how do you know? you have to try one by one? if so, it’s very hard work.
I see what you mean. It is actually two steps. Firstly you choose the hand type, which only has a few options, for example, you will choose if you want a hand with a pen or marker, that is no hard work, right? For example, if you choose the marker, the video I give you provided shows how a hand with marker looks like. Then you will choose a drawing type that is associated with the hand type. it is not like you choose from 60+ options, it is you choose from a category and then specify what type of drawing you need. Does that make sense?
No, that’s not what I meant. I know that choosing marker, pen or eraser is easy, because there are only those options, but when you choose pen or pencil, there are several types of hand, right? what I want is to know how is the hand I’m choosing, as a preview, you know?
There are only a few drawing types for each hand, too. And it is specified in the text options. And yes you don’t have previews for these because this is not an icon scaling type of preset, the final look is pretty much depends on your drawings and the combination of drawing types you choose. Making a preview for each drawings type might be a good thing, but it might involve some other potential issues so I’d rather keep it a light plugin for now.
Okay, maybe creating a preview takes a long time, but it would not be bad to have a portfolio of hands where it says that “x” hand, in the list has “x” name, to choose the hand you want.
Thank you for the feedback, I will consider it in future updates.
This looks amazing, but I was wondering about the hand shadow … is there an option to adjust the softness or even turn it off? If not, what would be involved in editing the shadow layer—is it just the shadow effect applied to the hand layer?
Hello timoteo, it is a shadow effect applied to the hand layer by default. You may make adjustments or turn the effect off manually.
Awesome, sounds great … thanks!
Awesome product!! It has saved me tens if not hundreds of hours of work!! Is there an option to not apply the shadow to the hand. Currently I go down the pre-comps, find the hand and turn off the shadow effect. Thanks, Steve
Hi Steve, thank you for these kind words. I’m glad you find it helpful! Regarding your question, there’s no other ways to turn off the shadow effects for now. I will keep collecting feedback to see if this function should be added in future updates. Thank you for your feedback!
I have multiple masks being drawn in order, and sometimes when a mask is finished, the hand will go to the bottom right corner of the screen and pretend to draw. Any ideas on what’s happening?
Hi JacksonSP, I can not really know what is happening based on your description as there are a lot parameters to check, but it seems like a composition size issue. What’s your composition size? Would it be solved when you make composition smaller? Also feel free to send me your collected project file or short video of screen capture if you these does not solve the issue. I would be happy to check it out for you. 315791599@qq.com
Alguien lo ha usado en una versión de programa en español?
Hi Villano26, Please use AutoWhiteboard with After Effects in the English version. Other languages may not be supported.
It would be great if it could draw vectors like videoscribe. I really need that! Videoscribe is so limited and frustrating so it would be so great to have the same capabilities in AE because AE gives us direct control on almost everything we can’t control in videoscribe. I think that your script would be a big competition for programs like videoscribe or doodly then…
Hi marqqq, thank you for the comment. I never really look into videoscribe or doodly before, I’m just a one person designer, and I share with other people whatever tool that saves my time. I never thought about competing with big studios. But I think you made a good point and I will check them out when I got a chance. Thank you for the suggestion!
In the video tutorial you mentioned adjusting the speed (at 4:20 mark) by way of opening the composition. I’m using a Mac, how do you open up the composition and adjust speed in after effects?
Hi slogue, just double click to open the composition.
Hello Lightdust! Thanks so much for creating this script. It’s fantastic. Works like magic! I do, however, have a question in regards to the eraser. I understand that you can use it to erase an image, but how do you use it to to erase the same image that the hand has already drawn on? I tried doing it but it just seems to overwrite the previously drawn on animation. Please advise! Thanks, Elisa
Hello Elisa, thank you for your kind words! I’m glad you like it.
Regarding your question, there are two workarounds I would suggest:
The first method is using the original image, whether it is a .jpg or .png format, put it on top of the drawing composition you have created, make sure they got the same size and position, and do the eraser animation.
The other one is just duplicate your drawing composition and click the create mask button. Now you have a composition that contains a mask layer A and a composition layer B. Before you draw the mask, drag the composition layer B to the left in your timeline to offset it enough distance. Then do the second and the third step as usual.
Please let me know if this makes sense. If not, you may shoot me your email address to 315791599@qq.com, and I can record a screenshot or video and send it to you.
Hello. I have CC 2019 and I don’t seem to find: «(After_Effects_Install_Path)/Support Files/Script/ Script UI Panels» Can you help me install it? Thank you!
Hi StefanAmat, can you find a path similar with this? “C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2019\Support Files\Scripts\ScriptUI Panels”
Mark as solved.
thank you!
Great script and helpful tutorials. The notes you added to the screen on the tutorials are great—they highlighted the errors I was making. But I watched the tutorials a couple times and I’m off and running now, thank you.
This is a useful script, well worth the price. It’s a script I think I will use a lot. For example, feeze the first frame of a video, add a toon effect to the frame, add this script to “hand-draw” the toon version of the first frame, then transition/fade/blend from the hand-drawn toon version to playing the video. Also good for toon versions of pictures, to add the action associated with hand-drawn portraits.
Hi j_r_j, I’m glad you find it helpful! And it is great to hear about the way you use it. Thank you for sharing!
Hi lightdust, apologies, I was a bit hasty in posting a review, but I’m really frustrated that I can’t get this to work. I have followed the instructions with respect to installation, managed to create a mask but when I click the apply button, nothing seems to happy. I can screen capture my process if it helps to diagnose the problem?
Hi JamezDee, here’s a couple things to check: 1: Are you using AE in English version? AW only supports English AE so far( check the product description). If not, try to switch to English version; 2. If your AE is English version, did you get the “installation successful” message when you install the presets? If not, it means your AW presets were not installed successfully. You many double check to make sure: a. you selected the “install presets” folder when you install it ; b, your install path is fully in English with no special letters. 3. If no of these works, did you make sure your AE has “allow scripts to write files” checked? Make sure it is checked. 4. If none of above works, feel free to send me a capture and/or your project files to 315791599@qq.com, I will check it out for you.
Hi JamezDee, have you got the issue solved?
Can not reach the buyer. mark as solved.
Hi,
I consider buying this but I’m not sure, if I’m getting the license-terms right. Am I allowed to use this automation for clients who pay me?
Regards
Hehe. Sorry. Got it now.
Hi Kreidemann, I’m glad you figured it out. You are welcomed to use it for any projects for your clients. Good luck with your projects.
