Most talk about AI in After Effects is about generating footage. In day-to-day motion design, the bigger time saver is smaller and less glamorous: getting the repetitive setup work done so you can spend your hours on timing and design. This post walks through a typical short project, a set of animated titles and lower thirds for a product video, and shows where our AI Assistant for After Effects speeds things up and where you still do the work by hand.
What the AI Assistant does inside After Effects
The AI Assistant is a panel that lives inside After Effects. You type what you want in plain language, in English or your own language, and it returns a JSX script, an expression or a keyframed animation that runs in your comp. It is powered by ChatGPT, and everything it creates is ordinary After Effects work: layers, keyframes and expressions you can open, edit and keep.
That last point matters. Nothing is locked inside a black box, so you can use AI for the first 80% of a setup and finish the rest with your normal skills.
The project: titles and lower thirds for a product video
Take a typical brief: a two-minute product video needs an opening title, six lower thirds with names and roles, a few callout boxes pointing at product features and a countdown for a launch date. None of it is difficult, but the setup is repetitive, and repetitive setup is where AI in After Effects pays off.
Step 1: Lay out the layers
After importing the brand assets, the first job is arranging them. Instead of nudging layers by eye, select them and prompt:
“Arrange all the selected layers in 3 by 3 matrix order.”
For the feature icons, a second prompt sets the anchor points and spaces them evenly:
“Place the anchor points of all layers at the center, then arrange all selected layers evenly across the width of the composition.”
This is the kind of job that takes a few minutes by hand and a few seconds with a script.
Step 2: Build the title animation
For the opening title, one sentence gives a usable starting point:
“Create a slide-in title from the left with bounce back effects.”
The result is a text layer with in and out keyframes. This is where you take over: open the Graph Editor, adjust the easing to match the brand’s pace, and change the timing to sit on the music. AI gets you to a working animation; the feel is still your decision.
Step 3: Make lower thirds that resize with the text
Lower thirds need a box behind the name that grows and shrinks with the text, so you can reuse one design for six different names. Building that with sourceRectAtTime is fiddly if you don’t write expressions every day. Instead:
“Create box with text over it. Connect box length to the text length.”
The assistant creates the shape and text layers and links them with an expression. Duplicate the pair, change the names, and every box fits automatically.
Step 4: Add life with expressions
- “Add a loopOut expression to the selected layer’s position and scale.” keeps the callout arrows gently pulsing for as long as each shot lasts.
- “Add small wiggle effect to the position of all selected layers.” gives floating icons a little movement, applied to the whole selection in one go.
- “Make the selected layer scale in with bounce.” pops the callout boxes on with squash and stretch.
Step 5: The countdown
The launch countdown is a classic expression task. The prompt “Create a 10-second countdown timer.” builds a text layer with the expression and styling in place. You then set the font and colour to match the brand.
Where AI in After Effects helps, and where it doesn’t
Across a project like this, the pattern is clear:
- Great for: layout, repetitive changes across many layers, expressions you don’t want to write from scratch, and first-draft animations.
- Still your job: easing and timing, typography, colour, and deciding what the animation should feel like.
- Check the result: AI can misread a prompt, so look at what each script did before moving on. Save your project before running a prompt that changes many layers at once.
The more specific the prompt, the better the result. “Make it bounce” is vague; “scale in from 0 to 100% with one overshoot to 110%” gives the assistant much more to work with.
Tips for writing better prompts
- Select the layers first, then refer to them as “the selected layers”.
- Name properties exactly as After Effects does: Position, Scale, Opacity, Anchor Point.
- Give numbers: durations in seconds, sizes in pixels, counts of items.
- Save prompts you use often as presets in the panel, so you can run them again with one click.
Pair it with presets for speed
AI is good at setup; presets are good at polish. Our free 2000+ Animation Presets pack gives you finished, eased animations for titles and transitions. A fast workflow is to let the AI Assistant build the structure, then apply a preset for the motion and fine-tune the curves.
If the video needs a handheld camera move through a 3D layout, our free Phone Camera Controller for After Effects lets you record a natural camera move with your phone instead of keyframing it.
Pricing and getting started
The AI Assistant for After Effects is free to start with 10 prompts a day. Unlimited use is $6.99 per month, managed through Adobe Exchange. Install the panel, open it from Window > Extensions in After Effects, and try one of the prompts above on a test comp.
FAQ
Can AI animate in After Effects?
Yes. The AI Assistant can create keyframed animations, expressions and scripts from a text prompt. The result is ordinary keyframes and layers that you can edit like any other animation.
Do I need to know expressions or scripting?
No. You describe what you want in plain language. Knowing a little about expressions helps you understand and adjust the result, but it isn’t required.
Is the AI Assistant free?
You get 10 prompts a day for free. Unlimited prompts cost $6.99 per month through Adobe Exchange.
Does it work in languages other than English?
Yes. You can write prompts in your own language, for example French.
Studio list
Get new tools and free drops first
One email when a new plugin, template or free pack is out. No spam, unsubscribe any time.