What works without an AI subscription

Without a Claude Code or Codex subscription, full-featured agentic generation isn't available. This is the cool part where the agent reads the components you've set up and builds the result on your timeline. However, without a subscription, most of those components still work on their own, and you can apply transformations, bounce, physics and more directly to your comps and timeline.

Shape what you already have

These act on the layers or keyframes you've selected in After Effects.

Basic transforms

Keyframe position, scale, rotation, and opacity from the panel. Build the move in the transform rows, then apply it to your selection.

Needs an active comp and at least one selected layer.

Bounce

Add an inertial bounce with amplitude, frequency, and decay controls. The curve previews live as you turn the knobs, so you tune the feel before it touches the layer.

Needs an active comp and a selected layer.

Anticipation and overshoot

Add a wind-up before the move and a settle after it, with separate controls for anticipation amount, anticipation duration, overshoot, and settle.

Needs an active comp and a selected layer.

Squash and stretch

Add deformation on the move, with a maximum deviation, frequency, and decay. Preserve volume is a toggle.

Needs an active comp and a selected layer.

Keyframe velocity

Set easing in and out, plus influence, on the keyframes you've selected. Drag the handles on the graph or type exact numbers.

Needs an active comp and selected keyframes.

Color

Build a palette and click a swatch to push fill or stroke onto your selection. The panel remembers which layers each swatch touched, so editing that swatch later recolors every layer it was applied to. That turns a palette into a live link rather than a one-shot paint.

Needs an active comp, a selected layer, and fill or stroke chosen as the target.

Create new layers

These build real layers in your composition.

Motion path

Draw a bezier path in the panel, smooth it, then either apply it to a layer's Position (with your own duration and optional roving keyframes) or drop it into the comp as a shape layer.

Needs an active comp. Applying to Position also needs a selected layer.

Grids and distributions

Set up a grid or algorithmic distribution and generate the shape layers for it. Not a guide or a preview: it builds the dots or rectangles in your comp.

Needs an active comp.

Layouts

Pick a compositional layout pattern and create it as a locked guide layer you can work against.

Needs an active comp.

Physics

A full physics sandbox that runs inside the panel. Draw bodies, draw walls, import your selected After Effects layers as bodies, run the simulation, scrub it, then bake the result to keyframes on those layers.

Needs an active comp. The bake writes to layers that were imported from the comp; bodies drawn only in the panel have no layer to write to, so they're skipped.

If a component doesn't seem to do anything, check that you have a composition open and the right layers or keyframes selected. Most of these apply to your current selection rather than creating something from nothing.

Save any of it as a preset

Any configuration of the components above can be saved as a preset, then loaded, renamed, exported, or imported from a file. A bounce you've tuned or a grid you've set up becomes reusable, and shareable with anyone else running the panel.

What does need a subscription

These components either feed the AI assistant or produce nothing in After Effects on their own:

Text instructions is the AI prompt itself.
Sketch runs code the assistant writes.
Storyboard lets you draw, label, and trace layers, but the result is reference material for the assistant rather than something in your comp.
Import files stages attachments for the assistant.
Typography loads your real system fonts and builds style specs, but only to feed the prompt.

When you're ready to add an assistant, the setup guide walks through installing and signing into one. Claude Code needs a Claude Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise plan; Codex needs a paid ChatGPT plan.

What runs where

Everything on this page runs inside the panel and After Effects on your own machine. These components don't send your work to an AI provider, and they don't wait on a generation in the cloud. MotionAmigo itself still needs an internet connection to check your license, so this isn't an offline mode.

Questions

If something here doesn't behave the way it reads, tell us at support@motionamigo.com or through the support form.