PhysicsEngine

About this plugin

Apply PhysicsEngine from Effect > ECScripts and click Edit Rig: the layer opens with a mesh traced around its visible pixels, and you click chains of pins on it, from where a part is attached to its tip, like a tail, a strand of hair, an antenna or a hanging sign. When the layer moves, rotates, scales or follows a parent, the chains lag behind, swing past and settle, and the layer bends smoothly between the pins; a single pin is an anchor that holds the shape still. Drag the layer in the editor to see it swing live, or play Slide, Wind, Underwater or Shake, and pick a material: Cloth, Hair, Wet Hair, Chains or Wire, each tuned with Inertia, Strength, Damping, Mass, Stretch, Tip Falloff, Max Bend and gravity. A Forces preset gives the chains a motion of their own, a wave that runs from the root to the tip: Wind, Gentle Breeze, Underwater or Chain, with wind and turbulence on top. Paint Weights holds parts still, such as the scalp under the hair, while the rest swings; Create Root Nulls adds a null on every chain's root so you can move each root in the comp; and Loop makes the physics repeat seamlessly with a walk cycle or an idle. It works on shape and text layers, with parents, expressions and 3D layers, and since every frame comes from the same simulation from the start of the comp, scrubbing, RAM preview and Multi-Frame Rendering all give the same result. The mesh renders on the GPU with CUDA or OpenCL on Windows, or on all CPU cores. For After Effects 2023 (23.4) or later, on Windows 10 or 11 and macOS 11 or later: copy the plug-in into a folder named ECScripts in After Effects' Plug-ins folder and restart After Effects.

What it does

• A native effect with its own rig editor: click chains of pins from the root to the tip
• Tails, hair, cloth and signs lag behind, swing past and settle as the layer moves
• A mesh traced around the layer's visible pixels, 100 to 8000 triangles, or one you edit or draw
• Anchors hold the shape still, so the body doesn't twist when a tail swings
• Five materials: Cloth, Hair, Wet Hair, Chains and Wire
• Inertia, Strength, Damping, Mass, Stretch, Tip Falloff, Max Bend and gravity
• Forces presets: Wind, Gentle Breeze, Underwater and Chain, with wind and turbulence on top
• Try it live in the editor: drag the layer, or play Slide, Wind, Underwater or Shake
• Paint Weights: hold parts still and let the rest swing
• Root Nulls: move each chain's root in the comp, up to 8 per layer
• Seamless loops that repeat with a walk cycle or an idle
• Physics Mix to fade the physics in and out, and Show Rig to see the mesh in the comp
• Works on shape and text layers, with parents, expressions and 3D layers
• The same frames in scrubbing, RAM preview and Multi-Frame Rendering
• GPU rendering with CUDA or OpenCL on Windows, or all CPU cores