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M
MotionThunder
Inspiring
June 2, 2021
Answered

Plugin to improve After Effects and Premiere Pro interaction

  • June 2, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 3420 views

Hello!

My name is Sergey, I work as a motion designer and often create projects not only for After Effects, but also for Premiere Pro, including presets. It's very popular and in demand, people love it and actively use it. But there is one very unpleasant nuance in the creation of such projects is masks in Premiere Pro. Working with masks in PR is completely inconvenient, unlike After Effects. I have a lot of ideas that I can't implement just because masks in Premiere Pro are extremely inconvenient to work with.

And I have a question: there is a method for extending the functionality of Premiere Pro and it's the great and mighty C++, right? 🙂 But considering that Premiere Pro is largely based on After Effects and their SDK is so similar, is it possible in theory to write a plugin that would improve communication between After Effects and Premiere Pro by passing information from one software to another? It is known that Premiere Pro masks can be easily and natively exported to After Effects, but it doesn't work the other way around. After Effects masks definitely have values that Premiere Pro understands exactly, it's just that such functionality is not provided by default in the interaction between the two programs. But, for example, if you output a mask from After Effects to Mocha Pro, you can copy it from there to Premiere Pro and it understands those masks with all the settings and animations, but it creates an inconvenience.

I tried to find a freelancer who specializes in creating plug-ins for Adobe, to pay whatever money I can for such a tool, but I haven't found any, because if a person is programming in C++, it doesn't mean that he knows how to create plug-ins for Adobe software, so I turn to the experts in this forum with one question: am I wasting my time searching for such an expert and can such connection be implemented if Premiere Pro really understand After Effects masks in practice?

Thank you!


This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Bruce Bullis

So when we export a mask from AE to Mocha Pro, we get a different mask than the one in AE, so it can be exported to PR? If yes, then I suppose that in this case you should not only write a function to output mask, but also a function to preconvert it to the format that PR understands (like it is done in Mocha Pro).

And also AE has an API that allows to accept PR masks, but PR doesn't have an API that allows to accept AE masks?


> So when we export a mask from AE to Mocha Pro, we get a different mask than the one in AE, so it can be exported to PR?

I believe Mocha uses AE's AEGP APIs, to get mask information. 

>AE has an API that allows to accept PR masks, but PR doesn't have an API that allows to accept AE masks?

AE's AEGP API can add and manipulate masks, within AE. PPro has no API to apply mask data. 


1 reply

Bruce Bullis
Community Manager
Bruce BullisCommunity Manager
Community Manager
June 2, 2021

> There is a method for extending the functionality of Premiere Pro and it's the great and mighty C++, right?

PPro supports both C++ plug-ins, and (JavaScript/ExtendScript-based) CEP panels.


> But considering that Premiere Pro is largely based on After Effects

 

That's not at all the case; they're very different applications, each created independently.

> and their SDK is so similar,

AE and PPro offer a variety of APIs. PPro supports AE-style visual effect plug-ins.

> is it possible in theory to write a plugin that would improve communication between
> After Effects and Premiere Pro by passing information from one software to another?

Passing information is possible, but contributes to a fragile workflow. Specifically, what information are you hoping to get from each app? 

    M
    MotionThunderAuthor
    Inspiring
    June 2, 2021

    > Passing information is possible, but contributes to a fragile workflow. Specifically, what information are you hoping to get from each app? 

    There are quite a few things that would be convenient to export from After Effects to Premiere Pro, as it would greatly simplify the work.

    But now we are talking about exporting masks (without "track matte" or "dynamic link"). That is, about the native export of masks. I know that Premiere Pro understands the meaning of After Effects masks, but I can't program to write a plug-in that could transmit this information to Premiere Pro ("transmit information" means open AE, create a mask, animate a mask, open a plug-in, click button "Export Mask / Shape Data", press "Copy", go to PR, paste the mask Ctrl + V). This is how it works in Mocha Pro when transferring masks from AE to it.

    Of course, it would be great if such a tool were available by default, as is the case with the reverse export of PRtoAE, but this is not so, so I want to find a solution on how to create such a tool on my own.

     

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