🎬 After Effects MCP Server

Fork notice. This is a fork of Dakkshin/after-effects-mcp (MIT). The original project is the basis for everything here; this fork extends the ExtendScript bridge so a script can drive real animation — keyframe tracks, expressions, effects and footage swaps — rather than setting static properties one at a time. See What this fork adds.

✨ A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Adobe After Effects that enables AI assistants and other applications to control After Effects through a standardized protocol.

Table of Contents

• Features

  • Core Composition Features

  • Layer Management

  • Animation Capabilities

• Setup Instructions

  • Prerequisites

  • Installation

  • Update MCP Config

  • Running the Server

• Usage Guide

  • Creating Compositions

  • Working with Layers

  • Animation

• Available MCP Tools

• For Developers

  • Project Structure

  • Building the Project

  • Contributing

• License

Related MCP server: after-effects-mcp

📦 Features

🎥 Core Composition Features

• Create compositions with custom settings (size, frame rate, duration, background color)

• List all compositions in a project

• Get project information such as frame rate, dimensions, and duration

🧱 Layer Management

• Create text layers with customizable properties (font, size, color, position)

• Create shape layers (rectangle, ellipse, polygon, star) with colors and strokes

• Create solid/adjustment layers for backgrounds and effects

• Create camera layers with configurable zoom and position

• Create null objects for animation control

• Modify layer properties like position, scale, rotation, opacity, timing

• Toggle 2D/3D mode for layers

• Set blend modes (normal, multiply, screen, etc.)

• Track matte support (alpha, luma, inverted)

• Duplicate layers with optional rename

• Delete layers from composition

• Create/modify masks with feather, expansion, and opacity

🌀 Animation Capabilities

• Set keyframes for layer properties (Position, Scale, Rotation, Opacity, etc.)

• Apply expressions to layer properties for dynamic animations

• Batch set properties across multiple layers at once

⚙️ Setup Instructions

🛠 Prerequisites

• Adobe After Effects (2022 or later)

• Node.js (v14 or later)

• npm or yarn package manager

📥 Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/Dakkshin/after-effects-mcp.git
   cd after-effects-mcp

2. Install dependencies

   npm install
   # or
   yarn install

3. Build the project

   npm run build
   # or
   yarn build

4. Install the After Effects panel

   npm run install-bridge
   # or
   yarn install-bridge

   This will copy the necessary scripts to your After Effects installation.

🔧 Update MCP Config

Option 1: Using .mcp.json (Recommended for Claude Code)

The repository includes a .mcp.json file for easy configuration. Copy or reference it in your MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "AfterEffectsMCP": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["PATH/TO/after-effects-mcp/build/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Option 2: Manual Configuration

Go to your client (e.g., Claude or Cursor) and update your config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "AfterEffectsMCP": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:\\Users\\Dakkshin\\after-effects-mcp\\build\\index.js"]
    }
  }
}

▶️ Running the Server

1. Start the MCP server

   npm start
   # or
   yarn start

2. Open After Effects

3. Open the MCP Bridge Auto panel

   • In After Effects, go to Window > mcp-bridge-auto.jsx

   • The panel will automatically check for commands every few seconds

   • Make sure the "Auto-run commands" checkbox is enabled

🚀 Usage Guide

Once you have the server running and the MCP Bridge panel open in After Effects, you can control After Effects through the MCP protocol. This allows AI assistants or custom applications to send commands to After Effects.

📘 Creating Compositions

You can create new compositions with custom settings:

• Name

• Width and height (in pixels)

• Frame rate

• Duration

• Background color

Example MCP tool usage (for developers):

mcp_aftereffects_create_composition({
  name: "My Composition", 
  width: 1920, 
  height: 1080, 
  frameRate: 30,
  duration: 10
});

✍️ Working with Layers

You can create and modify different types of layers:

Text layers:

• Set text content, font, size, and color

• Position text anywhere in the composition

• Adjust timing and opacity

Shape layers:

• Create rectangles, ellipses, polygons, and stars

• Set fill and stroke colors

• Customize size and position

Solid layers:

• Create background colors

• Make adjustment layers for effects

🕹 Animation

You can animate layers with:

Keyframes:

• Set property values at specific times

• Create motion, scaling, rotation, and opacity changes

• Control the timing of animations

Expressions:

• Apply JavaScript expressions to properties

• Create dynamic, procedural animations

• Connect property values to each other

🛠 Available MCP Tools

👨‍💻 For Developers

🧩 Project Structure

• src/index.ts: MCP server implementation

• src/scripts/mcp-bridge-auto.jsx: Main After Effects panel script

• install-bridge.js: Script to install the panel in After Effects

📦 Building the Project

npm run build
# or
yarn build

Note: This project uses esbuild for fast builds, replacing the previous TypeScript compiler approach that could run out of memory on larger codebases.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Star History

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

What this fork adds

Upstream batchSetLayerProperties sets static transform properties. Driving an animation through it meant one round trip per keyframe, which is unusable over a file-based bridge. This fork makes a single batch call able to describe motion.

New keys on batchSetLayerProperties:

New commands:

• replaceFootage — repoint a layer at another file or at another composition (sourceId), which is how nested comps get assembled programmatically.

• saveProject — save in place, or Save As with path. Upstream could build an entire composition tree and never touch disk, and After Effects does not autosave a project that has never been saved, so the work lived only in RAM until someone pressed Cmd-S. overwrite: false refuses to clobber an existing file, which matters when the project was opened from a template.

Also: getLayerInfo reports far more per layer (keyframe counts, expressions, anchor point, source id), resolveCompFromArgs accepts compId and errors clearly on an ambiguous name instead of guessing, and .mcp.json no longer hardcodes one machine's absolute path.

Honest limits

Things this bridge still cannot do, which are worth knowing before you plan around it:

• No keyframe easing. Every key it writes is linear; there is no velocity or influence API. Shaped motion has to be baked as a dense run of samples.

• No layer parenting, no masks, no layer reordering over time.

• No render/export command. The only pixel output is one still at a time via getLayerInfo with saveFramePath. saveProject closes half of this gap: save the project, then drive aerender from a shell, which renders in its own process instead of freezing the panel.

• Silent failures. The bridge returns status: "success" even when a property was skipped, encoding it in changedProperties as positionSkippedKeyframed, keyPropNotFound, exprPropNotFound and similar. Scan that array — a successful response does not mean the property was written.

• A reused composition keeps the duration it was created with unless setCompositionProperties is called.